The Twilight War: The enemy of my enemy...

(25-May-1999)

One In Game Month has passed. It is now the night of April 30th.

In the past three nights a string of 7 murders have occured in the greater Boston Area. On the first night (april 27th) there where 2 murders in Dorchester and Roxbury. The following night (the 28th) there where three murders in Alston, Brighton and Brookline. Finally last night (the 29th) there where two more murders in Sumerville and Cambridge. The only common demonanator was that they where all pretty young women. Some in the media where comparing this spree to Jack the ripper.

Onto the story: [ written by chad. this is the beginning of game tomorrow night. -rob ]

The smoky haze that lingers in the air and dances on the occasional draft, together with the soft shadows that you try to wrap around yourselves, Almost create provide the sense of privacy that know is impossible in this dark world. You know better than expect and hope for privacy and secrecy, especially as hide behind your steaming coffee mugs here in a corner while you watch every movement made in the Liberty, noticing things as only you, the creatures of the darkness, can.

You notice the tiredness of the help at this late hour, despite the smiles they try to wear. You notice a young couple, attempting to be discreet but failing none the less, as they make out on the shadowed couch by the wall. You notice the silent trio, sitting and watching in an other darker corner, and how they have yet to actually drink any of the coffee that has been sitting in front of them for the last several hours.

Even harder than noticing what is happening, you also observe what is not happening nor is present. You are aware of the lack of non-sugar sweeteners at your table and throughout the caf. Eric's absence, under the explanation of 'work that needs to be done at home' when the Prince Hazim was asked about it, is noted. The said prince's alcohol-induced lack of inhibitions would be noticed by a baffoon though, which is curiously what the girl he's flirting with resembles.

Through your astute powers of observation, you and everyone else in the caf notices the prince's baffoon woman pour her fresh mug of coffee into Hazim's lap and you can't help but hear as she screams that he's a pig as she storms out and up the stairs. The prince stumbles back to your table and he mumbles, slurs something about harems and donkeys as he pulls an unmarked dark-glass bottle from his backpack and tries to down a gulp. One of the staff wanders over and tosses and dry rag in Hazim's lap. With all the energy due to an unwanted task, he tells you, all of you as he glances towards the sloshed prince, that you need to leave. "We're closing up in fifteen minutes anyway," he justifies himself.

As the employee wanders away and you start to pack up, wondering if it's time to go home, Hazim seems to realize what happening and ask in a slur what's happening now. The lot of you start to banter that question around, but the answer seems to come as Hazim suggests in a suprisingly half-sober moment that you head back to his place.

Michael, the prince's fourteen-year-old driver, parks in front of the Commonwealth Ave. apartment and opens the doors for you. You help Michael carry the Prince who passed out long ago up to his bedroom and you catch some quick glances of his, and Eric's, apartment as you do; in your final assessment, you decide that, oh lament, you could live in this Arabian decadence, if you had to.

As the servant closes Hazim's door, he suggests that perhaps you would like to see Eric's quarters and wait for him there. Beyond your curiosity, you are able to take a hint and you follow Michael. You stifle your surprise though at being led not up an other story or to some other room on this second floor, but down, though the kitchen, to a narrow door in the pantry that opens on a steep narrow staircase. Descending the stairs, you move to open a final, sturdy door opposite from where you entered the basement.

Light shifts from behind to before you as the pantry door glides shut and this basement portal creaks away from the doorframe. Your eyes adjust quickly to the dim, warm light that floats through the fair-sized room that you enter. Your eyes are drawn first to the futon couch and small piles of pillows that sit along the wall almost opposite to the room's only door. A low, wooden coffee table, complete with a small stack of magazines, vainly tries to guard front of the couch. You look to your right, next to the door, expecting to see an offending television in its place of honor opposite the couch, but instead find two high-backed arm chairs, facing the couch but turned inwards enough to address each other.

Your eyes make their way back to the left, along the far wall filled with bookcases. Four narrower bookcases stand against the brick basement wall, leaving a few feet open near the middle where a peculiar coat rack has been placed, complete with a leather bomber jacket that Eric tends to wear. Your eyes fall away from the coatrack to the bookcases, lined from end to end with books, tomes, and endless volumes with such hard cover authors and titles as Asimov, McCathry, and Hielein and How to Dream, Places of Power, and Beyond the Shroud scattered amongst endless paperback trash. You pull your eyes back to the coat rack; a nice, though ordinary, jacket hangs from a plain varnished-wood coat rack open hooks for a couple more jackets and coats. You resign yourself to the mystery of this perfectly ordinary coatrack and allow your eyes to continue scanning the room.

Your eyes are pushed further counterclockwise, over the bookcases. You stop your view momentarily as it over the couch's left endtable; Eric's laptop sits on it, open, with cables leading down behind the couch. The other endtable, across from you and the door, is of the same matching stain as the first end table and the coffee table, with a few coasters resting on its top to protect it from a sweating glass of ice water. Eric's open attach case, resting on the floor against the table does not go unnoticed either before your eye moves on.

The last wall, to the left of the door, is lined with bedroom furniture. A fine, tall wardrobe stands closed in the corner, with a couple of small cardboard boxes peeking out from above. Next to the wardrobe is its smaller companion, a chest high dresser, top covered with bottles and containers and general trinkets, the front composed of drawers, all closed except for one just cracked open, showing a hint of a white cotton fabric. Finally, coming to just a few feet from the open door, rests a small, lower table on which a set of keys were tossed and a bowl of candy was placed, all beneath a large hanging mirror.

Out of the corner of your eye, you register the single light in the room, mounted in the ceiling. You also register the complete lack of windows in the room; open, or even bricked-over, windows take up no wall space but instead a vague attempt seems to have made to hide some of the brick with geometric and patterned art.

You sense, almost smell, a wave of power and quintessence that suddenly washes over you. Moments later you see a wash of power and light from out of the corner of eye, by the bookcases. You turn to look at the glowing doorway between the bookcases, silhouetting first the coatrack and then a figure standing behind the rack. As eyes adjust, the figure in Arabian robes moves the coat rack forward before he closes the door behind him. In the dimmed light of this room, you see Eric step to the side, replace the rack, and the door almost disappears as your eyes are first pulled to the rack, and then away from the whole gap between the bookcases, just as before. You force your eyes back, past the coatrack, and you can see the glyphed door now which you had completely ignored moments ago. Eric, now seated on the couch, clears his throat and your eyes far too easily fall to him to see the end of slight smile on his face. "Good night my friends. I hope that Allah has blessed this night for you."

[end chad's introduction to the session]

So our intrepid (read: damn fool) magelings find themselves gathering to investigate these murders.

A number of things have changed over the past month. Rachel has become less wary of technology, Euclid has been so caught up in his research that we have rarely seen him.Ryan has withdrawn since the most recent incident on I 93, and spends most of his time with Niccolo and Leigh. The three have been frequenting the firing range together.

Euclid does some digging and eventually gets the exact locations of the murders. He then calculates that the center of the circle that the murder sites form is going to be in Copely Square.
Leigh and Ryan inform the crew that Midnight will make this May 1st, Beltane. They worry that this is some sort of summoning right to bring into this world the master of the Dogbeast that Ryan fought on the Highway.
Rachel, Leigh, and Ryan go off to investigate one of the murder that took place in Seven Hills Park in Somerville; while Eric, Niccolo, and Euclid head off to Copely to see try to get a feeling of what's going to go down there. The plan is that Rachel will be able to commue with the spirits and get some details on the murder.

Leigh, Rachel, and Ryan go to the park and begin looking around. Ryan maintaining a watch while Leigh and Rachel do their thing. Leigh's scan for blood leads the team off track for a few minutes, until Rachel speaks with a spirit who shows her the proper location.
Rachel tries to get the spirit to talk more about what it saw, but doesn't get anything else out of it, so she tries to imerse herself in the spiritual energies there. Almost instantly she starts freaking out. Leigh tries to help her while Ryan get's ready to run 'damage control'. After rambeling about being cut open Rachel passes out. Ryan and Leigh carry her to the car, and have Michael (Eric's driver) take them to Leigh's Sanctum.
Meanwhile the gentlemen have headed over to Copely, and after Niccolo's consulting of the bones decide that whatever is going to go down is gonna happen Tonight and inthe Trinity church. The set up camp there; Niccolo standing in front of the altar waiting, Euclid pouring over data about the churches history, and Eric using his laptop to monitor activity on the Island in the Boston Harbour (where they surmised the Eighth murder was going to happen).
After droping Leigh and Rachel off at Leigh's sanctum Ryan has Michael drive him to Copely to meet with the others and tell them what's going on.

As Ryan drove over to Copley Rachel came to with what looked like a freshly healed wound on her chest, which Leigh healed, and the two then contacted Niccolo.
Eric had by this point witnessed the murder on one of the islands and alerted Niccolo and Euclid to it. He then called the police in a frantic 4 second phone call told them what was happening.
Euclid had discovered similar murders happening back in the 40's (sg I was in the bathroom so didn't hear the whole thing, maybe Someone else can fill this in.sg).
Ryan got to copely and met up with Euclid, Eric, and Niccolo; they where joined shortly by Rachel and Leigh. The crew went inside and shut the door to the church, taking up defensive positions around the interior.

Eric began screaming as he was dragged into the events on the island a little too much, and was eventually saved by Leigh shutting his laptop.
As they watched the fabric of space began to ripple above the alter, Niccolo produced a pile of weapons which he distributed. Ryan and Leigh both drew their guns, and Rachel readied a knife.
Euclid, Rachel and Ryan then began to try to ward and re-enforce realtiy over the alter and managed to keep the rift shut for a time. Eventually though the rip opened and blackness and fire started pouring into Trinity Church. After Getting blown back Niccolo stood up and opened fire into the rift, as flames lept from it igniting the apse.
As Niccolo continued firing Euclid redirected the power grid into the rift, send bolts of lightening into it. Ryan, reusing the effect he used out on 93, wove a barrier to keep the flames from spreading; as Rachel coaxed the spirits of the flames to leave. The fire calmed a little.
Ryan, allowing his concentration to relax fired a few shots into the void, and the flames lept past his weakend barrier to light more of the church on fire. Niccolo stood his ground fireing into the void. Leigh helped Eric out of the Church as Euclid blew the windows out so that fresh, non-superheated, air could get in.
The darkness engulfed Niccolo, and much gunfire was heard as Ryan reestablished the barrier around the few still in the church keeping them safe from the flames. Finally Niccolo backed out of the darkness and as Ryan, Niccolo, and Rachel backed out of the building Niccolo phoned the FBI building in Boston and asked to speak to Agent Smith.
Smith answered the phone, and Niccolo informed him that a terrorist action was taking place at Trinity church and that He should get down here. Smith said he would and as the crew gathered outside Black SUV's and sedans filled the area with men in blacksuits rushing to erect barrier around the church and cart the witnesses off. Euclid, Rachel, and Eric took off back to Eric's place. Leigh hung back in the ground while Devient 1 and Devient 2 (better known to our readers as Niccolo and Ryan or Dumb and Dumber) approached Agent Smith and had a breif conversation.
The Agent was glad to see Ryan doing 'better' and was very civil to them. When Niccolo asked if they had everything under control Agent Smith nodded and dispathed a large Man in Gray into the church to 'take care of things'. Agent Smith thanked the boys for their help and sugested that they leave. The two took the hint and disappeared into the crowd, meeting up with Leigh and heading into the night.

(End 25-May-1999 session)

Pizza by Pizza Ring!
"Super Bad" line of the night: Niccolo on the phone to Agent Smith: "...you know who I am..."
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Last update 26-May-99