Broccli_Head
Explorer
a friendly bump
Can't wait for the next post!
Can't wait for the next post!
Under The Eclipse: Updated May 19th!
Zubkavich
First Post
We've had a chance to play two sessions in the last 4 days! I haven't had a chance to type up the first session summary, but am about to work on that now. With a bit of luck, the first one will be up tonight and another one tomorrow or Monday.
Look forward to them as there's some pretty neat stuff that's happening...
Look forward to them as there's some pretty neat stuff that's happening...
Zubkavich
First Post
Session Fourteen: Mindless and Tired
Arriving back at Dog-Eared Pages, the entire group is exhausted and irritable. After unloading the boxes of drugs, Tupilak wraps Horvulok’s body in a blanket and carries it inside. Onan is frantic about having the corpse around.
“What the hell are we gonna do with this guy’s body? We can’t just keep it!”
“I’m still trying to get over the fact that you guys killed a man in cold blood.” says Sandra.
“I told you already, he’s not human... What do you want to do? Burn it? Drive him out to the woods and bury him? You know, I used to have people in the family that dealt with this sort of thing, but I can’t contact them anymore.” replies Karen.
The bickering continues for many minutes, with Onan sarcastically shooting down options while Sandra looks for proof of Horvulok’s otherworldly ancestry. Finally, Karen remembers one of her old letters from Miller. He had mentioned that the Shadow-Borne hated light. She thinks back and recalls that she never did see Horvulok in the daylight or any bright light at all. Wondering if he’s some sort of vampire, she recommends taking him out into the sun in the morning and seeing what happens. Onan isn’t so sure...
“Great, we’ll just show off a corpse in broad daylight, hoping that it bursts spontaneously into flames. I’ve got a better idea... let me summon some light.”
“Y- you can do that?” remarks Karen.
After Karen and Sandra carry the body up to the bathroom and put it into the bathtub, Onan digs around his various packs and items until he finds a jar of dead fireflies. Taking two of them in his hands and crushing them, he mutters mystical words and closes his eyes. Almost instantly, light begins to pour forth from his palms, engulfing the room in an intense glow. Before their eyes, the body of Horvulok turns to inky blackness, and then slowly fades away.
“Holy s**t, it worked! Okay Sandra, do you believe me now?” asks Karen.
“Yeah... but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to have a shower here ever again.”
With the corpse taken care of, there’s still more to do. Buzzard is still unconscious and Karen doesn’t know how to wake him up out of his unnatural slumber. Sandra offers to try and mentally probe him, but doesn’t have any guarantees that it’ll help. Figuring that they have nothing to lose by trying, Karen agrees and leaves Sandra to meditate with Buzzard.
Taking one of the boxes of drugs to Sedrick, Karen asks him if he can figure out what the pills are or how to get rid of them. Sedrick tells her that he will consult his mystical tomes and research it as best as he can. As they discuss Karen’s encounters with the creatures, she thinks of something odd: Why would the Shadows want our world when there’s daylight around more than half of the time? Sedrick isn’t sure either and Karen leaves him to ponder it while she makes herself a quick meal.
Breathing a sigh of relief that things seem to be progressing half decently, Karen sits down to write a letter to Miller. While doing so, she reflects on the fight at the pawn shop and the intensity of the emotions she’s been put through over the last few weeks.
Hi Miller,
We have those crystals you wrote about – we call it salt. I used it to send this Crimson Path stuff out of the bodies they/it was possessing. Where do they go when they leave the body? Do they die, go to hell, go back to your world or what?
Sunlight seems to hurt some of these other Shadow-Borne. Why do these things want to take over a world that they can’t move around in very much? I don’t know what your world is like, but half of our day is sunlit. Could this God of theirs blot out our sun?
If you want us to do all we can, then we need more information here. I need you to tell me as much as you can so we can be more effective. I appreciate all the help you’ve given us so far, but they are clearly gearing up for something and I don’t want to be too late in stopping it.
Karen
As Karen sends the letter off, Sandra enters the room looking quite shaken. Her probe of Buzzard was successful and he’s woken up, in a manner of speaking. Unfortunately, it seems that his mind has retreated deep into itself and that he’s not truly conscious, even though he’s awake. Not fully understanding, Karen dashes downstairs to see Buzzard. Although he’s sitting up and his eyes are open, Buzzard stares blankly into space, not noticing anything or anyone around him. Anger wells up inside of Karen as she shakes him violently, trying to get him to react.
“How did this happen?!” she yells.
“I don’t know! He’s sort of there, but I can’t seem to connect with his conscious mind.” Sandra replies.
Hearing the yelling, Onan enters and tries to calm the two women down. Looking over Buzzard while Sandra explains her inability to contact him properly, Onan’s face goes grim. After thinking the situation over for a few minutes, he gives Karen an odd task.
“Head over to the corner store with Tupilak and buy four or five bags of ice. I may be able to help your buddy, but it won’t be easy.”
“Why do you need...”
“Just go. I’ll explain later.” he says without emotion.
Grabbing Tupilak, Karen heads down the street, tired and frustrated. After a few minutes outside, she feels a throbbing pain from her arm. Pulling back her sleeve, she can see that it’s coming from the cut she received from Horvulok’s knife. The cut is deep and almost ebony in color. Tupilak looks at it and sneers.
“If that is taint from the Shadows, we may have to cut your arm off to save you.”
“You are not cutting off my arm!” she says with a growl.
Unsure of why the cut has suddenly become so painful, she tries to ignore it and walks into the store. Once she’s inside, she can feel the sting quickly subside. Confused, but pleased that it’s passed, she grabs the ice Onan wanted and some groceries for the rest of the crew. As they walk back to the bookstore, she can feel the pain start to swell again and she grits her teeth so that Tupilak won’t know that it’s sore again. Back in the bookstore, the pain subsides once more and Karen surmises that the magical cut is somehow feeding on the darkness outside. She reminds herself to get Onan to look at it later and then brings him the ice.
After dumping two of the bags of ice into the bathtub, Onan carefully places Buzzard in, mutters a few quick enchantments and starts to pour ice over top of him. Onan explains to Karen that if Buzzard’s mind is lost, he may be able to bring him back by forcing him on a spirit journey. Usually spirit journeys happen naturally when a person is trapped in a dire situation, but in this case, there’s no immediate danger. Onan hopes that if he submerges Buzzard in ice and performs the proper rituals, it may fool his body and kick start Buzzard on a trip back to the waking world.
“And what if it doesn’t?” Karen asks.
“We’ll take him to a hospital to live out his days as a vegetable.” Onan says, trying to make light of the situation.
Then, the young shaman asks Karen to leave and tells her not to expect any results for at least eight or nine hours. Walking out, Karen realizes that she has nothing else she can do and that she desperately needs some rest. Although her body is horribly tired, her mind is still awake. Needing a way to wind down, she heads to the fridge, cracks a can of beer and starts to chug it back. Soon after, Tupilak walks in and she offers him one. He opens it, sniffs at the contents and then takes a drink.
“What do you think?” she asks him.
“It tastes like airy sea foam. I do not like it.” he says as he finishes the can anyways.
After a few more, she’s good and tipsy. Offering beers to Setakawa and Evan, she laughs and tries her best to relax. Numb and a bit dizzy, she stumbles up to her room and finally falls into a fitful sleep.
Karen wakes up the next morning as Evan knocks on the door to her room. Groggily cracking her eyes open, she tells him to enter. He’s come to her because Sandra is helping Onan by psychically scanning Buzzard and he doesn’t know who else to talk to.
“The other two members of Department-7 are missing. I’ve been trying to call Tim and Jacob for a few days, but they haven’t gotten back to me.“ he says with a worried edge to his voice.
“Are you sure they’re not just busy?” she asks.
“They’ve never gone more than a few hours without returning a call. Given that we’re all investigating the strange events around New York, I doubt that it’s a coincidence.”
Karen agrees and after shaking off some vestiges of her grogginess, she gathers everyone together. Onan explains that he’s done all he can for Buzzard and that he needs to sleep, so he heads off to bed. Sandra is tired as well, but is obviously concerned about her team members and wants to find them. She asks Evan to call in some of their old favors from when Department-7 was with the government and see if some of their FBI friends can triangulate a location from the cel phone calls they sent. Sandra tells Karen and the others that they don’t have to come along, but Karen disagrees.
“Look, we’re all a part of this now. It’s better that we stick together and see this through rather than get picked off one by one. Besides, Tupilak’s probably itching for a fight and he’d be angry if he missed one.”
Sandra seems surprised at the sentiment, but agrees.
With a task to keep her mind occupied, Karen packs some things to take with her when they search for the rest of Department-7 and loads a fresh clip into her gun. Trying to stay positive in light of all the bad things from the night before, she’s unprepared for the note that she finds when she checks the Snapdragon Box:
Hello,
I have received a note and am a bit confused as to its contents. This box belonged to my master and I have received it since his demise. From his writings, it seems to be some sort of link to our battles with the Shadow. Is this correct?
If so, I hope we can communicate. Things here have grown dire and the power of Shadow holds our land in its grip.
Kalay
Arriving back at Dog-Eared Pages, the entire group is exhausted and irritable. After unloading the boxes of drugs, Tupilak wraps Horvulok’s body in a blanket and carries it inside. Onan is frantic about having the corpse around.
“What the hell are we gonna do with this guy’s body? We can’t just keep it!”
“I’m still trying to get over the fact that you guys killed a man in cold blood.” says Sandra.
“I told you already, he’s not human... What do you want to do? Burn it? Drive him out to the woods and bury him? You know, I used to have people in the family that dealt with this sort of thing, but I can’t contact them anymore.” replies Karen.
The bickering continues for many minutes, with Onan sarcastically shooting down options while Sandra looks for proof of Horvulok’s otherworldly ancestry. Finally, Karen remembers one of her old letters from Miller. He had mentioned that the Shadow-Borne hated light. She thinks back and recalls that she never did see Horvulok in the daylight or any bright light at all. Wondering if he’s some sort of vampire, she recommends taking him out into the sun in the morning and seeing what happens. Onan isn’t so sure...
“Great, we’ll just show off a corpse in broad daylight, hoping that it bursts spontaneously into flames. I’ve got a better idea... let me summon some light.”
“Y- you can do that?” remarks Karen.
After Karen and Sandra carry the body up to the bathroom and put it into the bathtub, Onan digs around his various packs and items until he finds a jar of dead fireflies. Taking two of them in his hands and crushing them, he mutters mystical words and closes his eyes. Almost instantly, light begins to pour forth from his palms, engulfing the room in an intense glow. Before their eyes, the body of Horvulok turns to inky blackness, and then slowly fades away.
“Holy s**t, it worked! Okay Sandra, do you believe me now?” asks Karen.
“Yeah... but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to have a shower here ever again.”
With the corpse taken care of, there’s still more to do. Buzzard is still unconscious and Karen doesn’t know how to wake him up out of his unnatural slumber. Sandra offers to try and mentally probe him, but doesn’t have any guarantees that it’ll help. Figuring that they have nothing to lose by trying, Karen agrees and leaves Sandra to meditate with Buzzard.
Taking one of the boxes of drugs to Sedrick, Karen asks him if he can figure out what the pills are or how to get rid of them. Sedrick tells her that he will consult his mystical tomes and research it as best as he can. As they discuss Karen’s encounters with the creatures, she thinks of something odd: Why would the Shadows want our world when there’s daylight around more than half of the time? Sedrick isn’t sure either and Karen leaves him to ponder it while she makes herself a quick meal.
Breathing a sigh of relief that things seem to be progressing half decently, Karen sits down to write a letter to Miller. While doing so, she reflects on the fight at the pawn shop and the intensity of the emotions she’s been put through over the last few weeks.
Hi Miller,
We have those crystals you wrote about – we call it salt. I used it to send this Crimson Path stuff out of the bodies they/it was possessing. Where do they go when they leave the body? Do they die, go to hell, go back to your world or what?
Sunlight seems to hurt some of these other Shadow-Borne. Why do these things want to take over a world that they can’t move around in very much? I don’t know what your world is like, but half of our day is sunlit. Could this God of theirs blot out our sun?
If you want us to do all we can, then we need more information here. I need you to tell me as much as you can so we can be more effective. I appreciate all the help you’ve given us so far, but they are clearly gearing up for something and I don’t want to be too late in stopping it.
Karen
As Karen sends the letter off, Sandra enters the room looking quite shaken. Her probe of Buzzard was successful and he’s woken up, in a manner of speaking. Unfortunately, it seems that his mind has retreated deep into itself and that he’s not truly conscious, even though he’s awake. Not fully understanding, Karen dashes downstairs to see Buzzard. Although he’s sitting up and his eyes are open, Buzzard stares blankly into space, not noticing anything or anyone around him. Anger wells up inside of Karen as she shakes him violently, trying to get him to react.
“How did this happen?!” she yells.
“I don’t know! He’s sort of there, but I can’t seem to connect with his conscious mind.” Sandra replies.
Hearing the yelling, Onan enters and tries to calm the two women down. Looking over Buzzard while Sandra explains her inability to contact him properly, Onan’s face goes grim. After thinking the situation over for a few minutes, he gives Karen an odd task.
“Head over to the corner store with Tupilak and buy four or five bags of ice. I may be able to help your buddy, but it won’t be easy.”
“Why do you need...”
“Just go. I’ll explain later.” he says without emotion.
Grabbing Tupilak, Karen heads down the street, tired and frustrated. After a few minutes outside, she feels a throbbing pain from her arm. Pulling back her sleeve, she can see that it’s coming from the cut she received from Horvulok’s knife. The cut is deep and almost ebony in color. Tupilak looks at it and sneers.
“If that is taint from the Shadows, we may have to cut your arm off to save you.”
“You are not cutting off my arm!” she says with a growl.
Unsure of why the cut has suddenly become so painful, she tries to ignore it and walks into the store. Once she’s inside, she can feel the sting quickly subside. Confused, but pleased that it’s passed, she grabs the ice Onan wanted and some groceries for the rest of the crew. As they walk back to the bookstore, she can feel the pain start to swell again and she grits her teeth so that Tupilak won’t know that it’s sore again. Back in the bookstore, the pain subsides once more and Karen surmises that the magical cut is somehow feeding on the darkness outside. She reminds herself to get Onan to look at it later and then brings him the ice.
After dumping two of the bags of ice into the bathtub, Onan carefully places Buzzard in, mutters a few quick enchantments and starts to pour ice over top of him. Onan explains to Karen that if Buzzard’s mind is lost, he may be able to bring him back by forcing him on a spirit journey. Usually spirit journeys happen naturally when a person is trapped in a dire situation, but in this case, there’s no immediate danger. Onan hopes that if he submerges Buzzard in ice and performs the proper rituals, it may fool his body and kick start Buzzard on a trip back to the waking world.
“And what if it doesn’t?” Karen asks.
“We’ll take him to a hospital to live out his days as a vegetable.” Onan says, trying to make light of the situation.
Then, the young shaman asks Karen to leave and tells her not to expect any results for at least eight or nine hours. Walking out, Karen realizes that she has nothing else she can do and that she desperately needs some rest. Although her body is horribly tired, her mind is still awake. Needing a way to wind down, she heads to the fridge, cracks a can of beer and starts to chug it back. Soon after, Tupilak walks in and she offers him one. He opens it, sniffs at the contents and then takes a drink.
“What do you think?” she asks him.
“It tastes like airy sea foam. I do not like it.” he says as he finishes the can anyways.
After a few more, she’s good and tipsy. Offering beers to Setakawa and Evan, she laughs and tries her best to relax. Numb and a bit dizzy, she stumbles up to her room and finally falls into a fitful sleep.
Karen wakes up the next morning as Evan knocks on the door to her room. Groggily cracking her eyes open, she tells him to enter. He’s come to her because Sandra is helping Onan by psychically scanning Buzzard and he doesn’t know who else to talk to.
“The other two members of Department-7 are missing. I’ve been trying to call Tim and Jacob for a few days, but they haven’t gotten back to me.“ he says with a worried edge to his voice.
“Are you sure they’re not just busy?” she asks.
“They’ve never gone more than a few hours without returning a call. Given that we’re all investigating the strange events around New York, I doubt that it’s a coincidence.”
Karen agrees and after shaking off some vestiges of her grogginess, she gathers everyone together. Onan explains that he’s done all he can for Buzzard and that he needs to sleep, so he heads off to bed. Sandra is tired as well, but is obviously concerned about her team members and wants to find them. She asks Evan to call in some of their old favors from when Department-7 was with the government and see if some of their FBI friends can triangulate a location from the cel phone calls they sent. Sandra tells Karen and the others that they don’t have to come along, but Karen disagrees.
“Look, we’re all a part of this now. It’s better that we stick together and see this through rather than get picked off one by one. Besides, Tupilak’s probably itching for a fight and he’d be angry if he missed one.”
Sandra seems surprised at the sentiment, but agrees.
With a task to keep her mind occupied, Karen packs some things to take with her when they search for the rest of Department-7 and loads a fresh clip into her gun. Trying to stay positive in light of all the bad things from the night before, she’s unprepared for the note that she finds when she checks the Snapdragon Box:
Hello,
I have received a note and am a bit confused as to its contents. This box belonged to my master and I have received it since his demise. From his writings, it seems to be some sort of link to our battles with the Shadow. Is this correct?
If so, I hope we can communicate. Things here have grown dire and the power of Shadow holds our land in its grip.
Kalay
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Broccli_Head
Explorer
I hope Karen remembers the injury on her arm...
Zubkavich
First Post
Session Fifteen: The Water Works
Taken aback by the letter from the Snapdragon Box, Karen hurriedly grabs the old letters from Miller and stuffs them into the box along with a hastily written note:
I’m sending you all of the letters that have gone between Miller and I. Hopefully they will give you some idea about things. I will answer any questions you may have if I can, but to be honest Miller was usually the one answering my questions.
Why did he die? How? How bad is the situation in your world? I am trying to prevent these Shadows from taking over mine.
Karen
Closing the lid, she’s stunned and angry at the same time. Without Miller’s valuable information, the group is virtually left out to dry in their quest to stop the encroaching Shadow-Borne.
Checking the Snapdragon Box an hour later, she sees that her new letter has vanished but that the old ones are still folded up and sitting in the box. Remembering that she can only send one page at a time, she decides to paraphrase a bunch of the information for Kalay into a quick letter and send that on instead. Not knowing how long it will take before she hears back, she decides to check in with the others.
Evan’s received the triangulation information for the signals sent to Tim and Jacob. As far as Evan and Sandra knew, they were in different parts of the city investigating things, but the coordinates he gets from the FBI says that their location is identical.
“Why would they have teamed up on this without telling us?” wonders Evan.
“They haven’t. They’ve probably been captured... or killed.” notes Karen.
Sandra notes that they must both still be alive; she’s worked closely with them for years and would have felt something on a psychic level if either had been killed. With that assurance, the group gathers their equipment and heads to the north end of Manhattan to track down the location they received.
After maneuvering through the heavy New York traffic, they come to the North River Wastewater Treatment Plant. The group quickly discusses how they plan to gain access to the plant and Sandra decides that she’ll try to use some of her old government ID to get past any security. It ends up being unnecessary; the front gate is closed and locked, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone around. The front security booth is empty and although they can hear the hum of machinery beyond, there’s no one to be seen.
Not wanting to waste time, Karen instructs Setakawa to use his birds and destroy the security cameras pointed at the gate. Then, she scales over to the other side and opens it up from the security booth. Rolling the van inside, Karen starts to feel a strange, almost queasy sensation. Something is unnatural here, and she can knows it. Like watching the air warp from heat waves, she can make out a strong sensation of magic coming from inside the treatment plant. She leads the group inside the main facility, concentrating the whole way. As the group moves quietly past the empty front reception desk, they draw their weapons, knowing that things aren’t the way they should be.
Following the flow of magical energies, the group carefully moves down several flights of stairs. The sounds of machines as well as the rush of water gets louder and they can make out walkways and huge pipes from the small windows that peer out to each floor as they pass by.
The supernatural energy seems to be growing stronger on one of the floors and Karen stealthily takes a closer look while the others wait back at the stairwell. There’s movement in the room beyond and Karen can see men moving boxes back and forth while a women dressed in a business suit directs them. The magical aura extends over several of the people, but is strongest around the women. Telling the others, they decide not to take any chances.
Bursting into the room with weapons drawn, the group rushes forward. Karen swiftly presses her gun up against the woman’s throat and smiles.
“Alright, how about I ask some questions and you tell me everything I want to know?”
The woman glares at her. Karen can see that her eyes are almost reptilian, glittering gold in the lights from the room.
“I assume this is some sort of arrest? Have you got some identification I can see?” she says, trailing the S’s in her speech.
Karen sarcastically parlays back and forth with her while telling the others to search the boxes. Evan opens up one of them and see bottles that look like they’re filled with chlorine.
The woman looks unimpressed.
“Unless you can prove yourselves or what this raid is all about, I’m afraid you don’t have any legal ground here.” she says with a scowl.
Karen is confused. Why would something supernatural be moving normal chemicals? Are they working at the treatment plant?
“Open it up, Evan. Take a sniff and make sure it’s chlorine.” says Karen, growing desperate.
Evan prepares to open one of the bottles, but doesn’t get a chance. The woman’s eyes flash and combat breaks out. The thugs charge forward while the woman pulls back suddenly. Karen pulls the trigger, but only grazes the woman as she dodges backwards so fiercely that it looks like she should have broken her own spine. Setakawa’s birds scatter everywhere, pecking, scratching and distracting the thugs. Sandra and Evan grab the men nearest to them and try to keep them from flanking Karen.
The woman sneers at Karen and a stream of acid shoots from her mouth, hitting Karen square in the chest. She screams out in surprise, but is able to minimize the amount touching her skin by throwing her arms up in time.
Getting pushed back by the workers around her, Karen can’t stay near the woman with all the chaos and she backs away, flashing a wicked grin in Karen’s direction as she heads down a nearby ladder on the walkway.
“You will not escape, demon!” yells Tupilak as he vaults over the men nearest him and runs towards the ladder. He doesn’t even use the rungs as he bellows a war cry and plummets down the hole after the woman.
Finally breaking free of the scuffle, Karen heads down the ladder after Tupilak and the reptilian woman. She jumps the last few feet down onto a catwalk, looking around for any sign of them. Below the catwalk is a torrent of water, being piped back out into the Hudson River. With the noise of the water, she strains her ears to hear the clashing of metal and Tupilak’s yells. Running down the catwalk, she can see them slamming each other against the railing. Tupilak has burns on his body, but he ignores them and fights on.
As Karen approaches, the woman curses in an unknown language and backs away. As Tupilak and Karen approach, her body suddenly undulates as she shrinks and warps before their eyes. In mere moments, the woman has become a snake and slithers quickly towards the edge of the catwalk. Karen dives to grab the snake, but it wriggles free of her grasp and plummets into the rushing water below.
Heading back up the ladder, Karen and the others dump salt on the thugs and discover that several of them were possessed by Crimson Path. Speaking to one of the ones who wasn’t, Karen asks him about his employer.
“I don’t want any more trouble.” He says, throwing his hands up in surrender. “We were hired by a guy to do some moving, not get shot up or nothin’!”
“Who’s this guy?” Sandra asks.
“I dunno his name. Some guy wit’ really red hair. Nice guy... up front wit’ da money and everythin’.”
He explains that they had a van of boxes they were to transport to the water treatment plant. That’s all he claims to know. After Tupilak knocks the thug out, Sandra leaves an anonymous tip for the police. Grabbing the boxes from the van, the group quickly heads back to their own vehicle and drives away.
Back at the bookstore, they’re not left with many leads. The woman had a purse that she left behind when she transformed, and inside they find Tim and Jacob’s cel phones. Sandra hopes that if they can track down some more of the Shadows, they may be able to find a lead on their whereabouts. The group agrees that they have to find the men quickly, before things get worse.
Tupilak tore several of Conroy’s leg muscles when he jumped down the ladder and limps around the bookstore until Karen berates him for not taking better care of his host body. Begrudgingly, he agrees to go to Onan for healing.
Sedrick does some quick tests on the “chlorine” and identifies it as some liquid form of Viperous. Based on his research, he believes that Viperous weakens the target’s mental defenses, leaving them feeling euphoric and giddy, but easy prey for mental or magical attacks.
“In other words, this stuff makes people perfect subjects for possession by Crimson Path?” she asks.
“Exactly. They want to ensure that their hosts do not reject them and waste their numbers.” he says grimly.
Considering that the group wanted to put this liquid into the water treatment plant, Sedrick commends them on their victory. He believes that they’ve set back the Shadow-Borne substantially. It’s a positive note in an otherwise difficult time.
As Karen goes to see if Onan is awake yet, Sandra stops her in the hallway. The Department-7 leader is pale faced and seems ill. She dizzily looks up at Karen with tears in her eyes.
“It... it’s happened!” Sandra whispers.
“What, what is it?” Karen asks.
“One of them just died... I felt it. They... they killed Tim.”
Taken aback by the letter from the Snapdragon Box, Karen hurriedly grabs the old letters from Miller and stuffs them into the box along with a hastily written note:
I’m sending you all of the letters that have gone between Miller and I. Hopefully they will give you some idea about things. I will answer any questions you may have if I can, but to be honest Miller was usually the one answering my questions.
Why did he die? How? How bad is the situation in your world? I am trying to prevent these Shadows from taking over mine.
Karen
Closing the lid, she’s stunned and angry at the same time. Without Miller’s valuable information, the group is virtually left out to dry in their quest to stop the encroaching Shadow-Borne.
Checking the Snapdragon Box an hour later, she sees that her new letter has vanished but that the old ones are still folded up and sitting in the box. Remembering that she can only send one page at a time, she decides to paraphrase a bunch of the information for Kalay into a quick letter and send that on instead. Not knowing how long it will take before she hears back, she decides to check in with the others.
Evan’s received the triangulation information for the signals sent to Tim and Jacob. As far as Evan and Sandra knew, they were in different parts of the city investigating things, but the coordinates he gets from the FBI says that their location is identical.
“Why would they have teamed up on this without telling us?” wonders Evan.
“They haven’t. They’ve probably been captured... or killed.” notes Karen.
Sandra notes that they must both still be alive; she’s worked closely with them for years and would have felt something on a psychic level if either had been killed. With that assurance, the group gathers their equipment and heads to the north end of Manhattan to track down the location they received.
After maneuvering through the heavy New York traffic, they come to the North River Wastewater Treatment Plant. The group quickly discusses how they plan to gain access to the plant and Sandra decides that she’ll try to use some of her old government ID to get past any security. It ends up being unnecessary; the front gate is closed and locked, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone around. The front security booth is empty and although they can hear the hum of machinery beyond, there’s no one to be seen.
Not wanting to waste time, Karen instructs Setakawa to use his birds and destroy the security cameras pointed at the gate. Then, she scales over to the other side and opens it up from the security booth. Rolling the van inside, Karen starts to feel a strange, almost queasy sensation. Something is unnatural here, and she can knows it. Like watching the air warp from heat waves, she can make out a strong sensation of magic coming from inside the treatment plant. She leads the group inside the main facility, concentrating the whole way. As the group moves quietly past the empty front reception desk, they draw their weapons, knowing that things aren’t the way they should be.
Following the flow of magical energies, the group carefully moves down several flights of stairs. The sounds of machines as well as the rush of water gets louder and they can make out walkways and huge pipes from the small windows that peer out to each floor as they pass by.
The supernatural energy seems to be growing stronger on one of the floors and Karen stealthily takes a closer look while the others wait back at the stairwell. There’s movement in the room beyond and Karen can see men moving boxes back and forth while a women dressed in a business suit directs them. The magical aura extends over several of the people, but is strongest around the women. Telling the others, they decide not to take any chances.
Bursting into the room with weapons drawn, the group rushes forward. Karen swiftly presses her gun up against the woman’s throat and smiles.
“Alright, how about I ask some questions and you tell me everything I want to know?”
The woman glares at her. Karen can see that her eyes are almost reptilian, glittering gold in the lights from the room.
“I assume this is some sort of arrest? Have you got some identification I can see?” she says, trailing the S’s in her speech.
Karen sarcastically parlays back and forth with her while telling the others to search the boxes. Evan opens up one of them and see bottles that look like they’re filled with chlorine.
The woman looks unimpressed.
“Unless you can prove yourselves or what this raid is all about, I’m afraid you don’t have any legal ground here.” she says with a scowl.
Karen is confused. Why would something supernatural be moving normal chemicals? Are they working at the treatment plant?
“Open it up, Evan. Take a sniff and make sure it’s chlorine.” says Karen, growing desperate.
Evan prepares to open one of the bottles, but doesn’t get a chance. The woman’s eyes flash and combat breaks out. The thugs charge forward while the woman pulls back suddenly. Karen pulls the trigger, but only grazes the woman as she dodges backwards so fiercely that it looks like she should have broken her own spine. Setakawa’s birds scatter everywhere, pecking, scratching and distracting the thugs. Sandra and Evan grab the men nearest to them and try to keep them from flanking Karen.
The woman sneers at Karen and a stream of acid shoots from her mouth, hitting Karen square in the chest. She screams out in surprise, but is able to minimize the amount touching her skin by throwing her arms up in time.
Getting pushed back by the workers around her, Karen can’t stay near the woman with all the chaos and she backs away, flashing a wicked grin in Karen’s direction as she heads down a nearby ladder on the walkway.
“You will not escape, demon!” yells Tupilak as he vaults over the men nearest him and runs towards the ladder. He doesn’t even use the rungs as he bellows a war cry and plummets down the hole after the woman.
Finally breaking free of the scuffle, Karen heads down the ladder after Tupilak and the reptilian woman. She jumps the last few feet down onto a catwalk, looking around for any sign of them. Below the catwalk is a torrent of water, being piped back out into the Hudson River. With the noise of the water, she strains her ears to hear the clashing of metal and Tupilak’s yells. Running down the catwalk, she can see them slamming each other against the railing. Tupilak has burns on his body, but he ignores them and fights on.
As Karen approaches, the woman curses in an unknown language and backs away. As Tupilak and Karen approach, her body suddenly undulates as she shrinks and warps before their eyes. In mere moments, the woman has become a snake and slithers quickly towards the edge of the catwalk. Karen dives to grab the snake, but it wriggles free of her grasp and plummets into the rushing water below.
Heading back up the ladder, Karen and the others dump salt on the thugs and discover that several of them were possessed by Crimson Path. Speaking to one of the ones who wasn’t, Karen asks him about his employer.
“I don’t want any more trouble.” He says, throwing his hands up in surrender. “We were hired by a guy to do some moving, not get shot up or nothin’!”
“Who’s this guy?” Sandra asks.
“I dunno his name. Some guy wit’ really red hair. Nice guy... up front wit’ da money and everythin’.”
He explains that they had a van of boxes they were to transport to the water treatment plant. That’s all he claims to know. After Tupilak knocks the thug out, Sandra leaves an anonymous tip for the police. Grabbing the boxes from the van, the group quickly heads back to their own vehicle and drives away.
Back at the bookstore, they’re not left with many leads. The woman had a purse that she left behind when she transformed, and inside they find Tim and Jacob’s cel phones. Sandra hopes that if they can track down some more of the Shadows, they may be able to find a lead on their whereabouts. The group agrees that they have to find the men quickly, before things get worse.
Tupilak tore several of Conroy’s leg muscles when he jumped down the ladder and limps around the bookstore until Karen berates him for not taking better care of his host body. Begrudgingly, he agrees to go to Onan for healing.
Sedrick does some quick tests on the “chlorine” and identifies it as some liquid form of Viperous. Based on his research, he believes that Viperous weakens the target’s mental defenses, leaving them feeling euphoric and giddy, but easy prey for mental or magical attacks.
“In other words, this stuff makes people perfect subjects for possession by Crimson Path?” she asks.
“Exactly. They want to ensure that their hosts do not reject them and waste their numbers.” he says grimly.
Considering that the group wanted to put this liquid into the water treatment plant, Sedrick commends them on their victory. He believes that they’ve set back the Shadow-Borne substantially. It’s a positive note in an otherwise difficult time.
As Karen goes to see if Onan is awake yet, Sandra stops her in the hallway. The Department-7 leader is pale faced and seems ill. She dizzily looks up at Karen with tears in her eyes.
“It... it’s happened!” Sandra whispers.
“What, what is it?” Karen asks.
“One of them just died... I felt it. They... they killed Tim.”
