# High Fantasy - Route 66 [update 12-16]



## RangerWickett (Mar 18, 2002)

For those of you just joining us, this thread was originally over a year old, and now the original DM has come in to write full storyhours, whereas I was just posting snippets.  I'm editing this so the first post in the storyhour is here.  Look for the second post of the actual story about 21 posts down, by Acquana, as she is the real DM.  You can _mostly_ ignore these first few posts.

P.S., Now Jessica is my ex-girlfriend, but we're still buddies.

My girlfriend Jessica is running a game at the Savannah College of Art & Design, set on modern earth (actually in 1996), only with fantasy involved.  This takes place in the same setting as the Savannah Knights storyhour (which is linked in my sig), only 4 years earlier.

*High Fantasy
Route 66*

July 2nd, 1996
Savannah, Georgia, USA

It is still months before the Presidential elections, still several weeks before the Olympics, and still two days before the 4th of July. It is Indepence Day, however. Or at least it’s out in theaters.

Twilight Lokya works in Savannah, Georgia at a local television station, and as the last job of her shift she’s one of the camera women filming outside the largest theater in town (though that’s not saying much). The crowds that have gathered for the premiere have garnered enough attention for a short spot on the evening news. Welcome to Savannah. Small news elsewhere is big news.

Others have decided to attend the showing, job or no. Trudi Schnieder—a tall, loudmouthed chick of 20 built like a truck—along with her two friends Colleen Gray and Lorrie Gilcrest, have decided to go see it as well. All three are students at the Savannah College of Art and Design, and Lorrie—Trudi’s roommate—was more or less convinced to come along, since she’s not as much of a nerd as Colleen (a sequential art major who has been chomping at the bit to see this since she saw the special on the Sci-fi Channel) or as nutty as Trudi. So it’s a girl’s night out.

Jared Bellmount, a somewhat unassuming man in his early twenties, got his ticket early, and is occupying himself with the newest games in the theater’s arcade. As a game designer himself, Jared is always willing to see, and play, what’s attracting attention.

Alone this night as well is Watanabe, a young, brown-haired woman who all her life has looked younger than she really is. With the build and soft face of a sixteen-year old, few would guess she's actually nearly 25. She waits in line for her ticket, occasionally glancing at the extremely short woman further back in the line.

That particular short woman is aware that she attracts attention.  She is also aware that if she were not magically disguised, then she’d attact even more. Delria is part brownie, part true Fey, and thus a set of bright wings sprout from her shoulders, and her hair is a gentle blue. Thankfully, the mundanes—as the magic races refer to humans with no knowledge of magic—can’t see any of this, and to them she appears simply as a rather short woman.  Confident in her disguise, she's here to enjoy a night off from her job at the Bureau for the Management of Magic. She is only a lowly intern now, serving coffee and making deliveries throughout the offices inbetween the hours slaving over copiers; but her hope is to someday join the Knights.  The Knights are the Bureau’s police-force, and Delria has had her eyes on such a honored position for quite some time. Well, honored in her own opinion, anyway.

Magic means nothing to Twilight, and she and her coworkers finish the news spot boredly. As they pack up, Twilight glances up long enough to see a bat. Normally she wouldn’t be too unnerved by it, but since this is the tenth time she’s managed to catch a glimpse of it—it almost looks like a fruit bat, which aren’t supposed to live anywhere near the eastern coast of the U.S—she grows somewhat nervous. Before she can devote any more attention to the bat, several of her coworkers who managed to get their hands on some tickets invite her to go with them to see the movie.

Jared finally runs out of quarters at the arcade and begins to 
make his way into the theater. As he walks toward a seat in the back, a couple passes by him and his nose wrinkles in disgust at their stench. Living in Savannah, he’s used to the smell of papermill lingering around the historic district, but he didn’t think it usually traveled to the south side of town. Or indoors.

Trudi, Colleen, and Lorrie take their seats in the dead center of the slowly filling theater. Trudi holds tightly to the massive bucket of popcorn she bought, and smiles. Nearby, Delria slips between the mundanes twice her size to find a seat near the front. Watanabe takes a seat on the left, and Twilight and her corworkers, being among the last inside, get stuck near the very back row.

Lights turn off, the projector turns on. 

The movie goes on without a hitch, save for a group of highschoolers near the front of the theater who are being overly loud. One of them turns around and looks at the nearest few rows behind him, sniffing and nearly wretching. He complains to his friends, and within a few moments they’ve pinpointed the source of the stench: a couple sitting next to the aisle two rows back. The husband of the couple is grimacing and glancing around nervously. Finally, one of the highschoolers shouts, “Man, why don’t you just get up and get yo’ stanky ass outta the theater?”

Sitting a few rows behind the smelly couple, Trudi shouts back, “Shut up, I’m watching the movie!”

A brief shouting squabble breaks out between Trudi and the highschoolers, and Jared, losing his patience, gets up from his seat and heads for the kids in front to tell them to calm down. Before he can get there, though, the husband from the couple stands up and starts shouting back, demanding they leave him and his wife in peace. Groaning, Jared stops next to the man and reaches out a hand to try to calm him down.

Then he sees the wife, and shouts, “Oh crap! Is your wife okay?”

The man sneers and moves to shield his wife’s pale, mottled face. He shouts, “Leave my wife alone! Everyone just leave us alone!”

Delria, trying to ignore the argument and just watch as the alien spacecraft begin to emit a blue glow, winces as she senses a magical aura in the room. At the same moment, the shouting husband becomes quiet, looking around in worry. From across the theater, he and Delria spot each other. Fey-blooded, Delria can easily spot the magical aura around him, identifying him as a mage. Unfortunately for her, he can just as easily see through her magical disguise.

Pulling his limp wife to her feet, he shouts, “The Bureau! Keep away!”

Delria jumps up onto her seat to shout a warning, but before she gets a chance, the man’s wife reaches out with clawing fingers toward Jared, moaning dully. Her face lifts to stare at Jared, and he gets a clear look at her decomposing features a second before the zombie wife lunges for him. He screams and tries to pull away, and Delria shouts for the them to stop. 

Panicking, the man pulls his undead wife back to him and begins to chant an incantation. Nearly every head in the theater turns to him as a chill aura pierces the room, and as his voice reaches a snarling crescendo, he thrusts out his hand at Delria and fires his spell. On the screen, a laser beam from the alien spacecraft demolishes New York city, just as a lashing line of black energy shoots toward Delria.

Many in the audience screams and begins to scramble out of their seats. But around the theater, a few brave individuals start toward the necromancer, looking for some way to protect the innocent. Delria jumps across the tops of seats, seeing her chance to prove her worth to the Bureau. Watanabe tries to keep the fleeing crowd organized as they surge out the exits. Twilight feels a strange chill run down her neck as she hears a faint voice warning her from her purse. Jared scrambles to his feet and looks for something to fend off the zombie.

And Trudi, ignorant of why her friends are fleeing in panic, keeps her eyes peeled at the on-screen explosive, and screams. “Cool!”


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## thatdarncat (Mar 18, 2002)

Nice 

I assume this is set in the same universe as Savannah Knights? Will we see a storyhour for this one too?


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## RangerWickett (Mar 18, 2002)

Sorry, no storyhour.  Those take too much time.  I just thought I'd post the funnier bits, since it's a lot more light-hearted than Savannah Knights.

Like the Knights of the Round (a group devoted to killing non-human magical creatures), who had modeled their powers after characters from Japanese animation.  The PCs were trying to track them down, and followed them to an anime convention, where the badguys were all in costume.  The opposition consisted of Shinji from _Evangelion_ (a weakling, but who goes berserk), Tenchi from _Tenchi Muyo_ (a swordsman), Sailor Mars from _Sailor Moon_ (a fire-using sorceress), Lime from an anime I forget (bouncy giddy martial arts chick), Zelgadiss from _Slayers_ (a swordsman/sorcerer with rock skin), and Inu Yasha from _Inu Yasha_ (a dog-man samurai).

I'm not actually playing in this game, I'm just hearing the amusing anecdotes from Jessie, and helping her out here and there in the planning.


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## thatdarncat (Mar 18, 2002)

sounds cool  I like the Kinghts of Round

Keep posting them funny bits


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## RangerWickett (Mar 18, 2002)

Here are the PCs.

_Trudi_, a human fighter.  She's a bit on the dim side, and doughty-looking, but very tough.  She partially bonded with a ghost, though something went wrong.  Now the ghost is stuck with Trudi, but Trudi can't actually do any magic, nor can she see her ghost.  The ghost can only levitate things to communicate with her, and it has recently become fond of using a pad and pen to write, "Idiot!" whenever Trudi fails to realize that the rest of the party is in trouble.  Like when the anime-themed Knights of the Round started casting spells, Trudi didn't realize that they were using real magic.  She just thought they were devoted fans.

_Delria_, a brownie with blood of the high fey.  She basically looks like a halfling with butterfly wings, though she's equipped with an illusion-making item to conceal her as a ten-year old.  She used to just be a secretary at the Bureau, but when she led the rest of the group in stopping the movie-theater necromancer, the Bureau promoted her to a low-level position as an agent.

_Jared Bellmont_, a psychic warrior who is thoroughly creeped out by his boss (and who wouldn't be creeped out by a Mind Flayer).  When the group is assigned to track down some road-happy criminals who seem to style themselves as 1920's-style bank robbers (they call themselves "The Untouchables"), Jared distinguished himself by impusively leaping into the back of The Untouchables' van, only to find himself surrounded by four people, including a Minotaur.

_Twilight_, I honestly don't remember anything about, meaning she's probably not as funny as everyone else.  

_Watanabe_, much like Twilight, doesn't stick out in my mind, though one of them is a druid, and one of them has a bat familiar (which is actually possessed by her ghost, who was in life a Russian secret agent).

There are two more PCs, but they didn't show up until later.  As you may notice, there's only one guy, and five women (including the DM).  They would've had another guy, but he claimed he was "weirded out" by playing with all women.


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## Lela (Mar 19, 2002)

RangerWickett said:
			
		

> *
> 
> There are two more PCs, but they didn't show up until later.  As you may notice, there's only one guy, and five women (including the DM).  They would've had another guy, but he claimed he was "weirded out" by playing with all women. *




I'm failing to see the problem with playing with a group of women.


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## RangerWickett (Mar 19, 2002)

Ditto.  They're all fun people, though one is a horrible munchkin.  One of the later players convinced Jessie to let her play a centaur fighter in a group of 3rd level characters.  Sure, she has an item that lets her polymorph into human form so she can go around discreetly, but when they get into combat, she goes into horse shape and beats things up way too easily.

Oh, and Jessie informed me that though the player is a she, the character is a he.  The picture is just very bishounen (a Japanese style that makes men look effeminate).


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## Horacio (Mar 19, 2002)

It's not fair, RangerWicket!!!!! 

When I read the subject I think _Another High Fantasy story Hour!!!! Cool!!!! Thanks, RW!!!!_ and not, it's not going to be a full story hour  

Well, I know a story hour is a tough work, and takes too much time (hey, I tried it until my campaign sank) but I would love another High Fantasy story... 

Thanks a lot for all the snippets you have given, and please, post as many details as you can


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## RangerWickett (Jun 22, 2002)

Well, Jessie's game is on hiatus since she and her players are out of college for the summer.  I'll try to get her to post.

Just as a teaser . . . you know how New Orleans is famous for being a hotspot of 'vampires,' or at least goths who like vampires?  Well, just consider how often a poor bum must be wandering the streets of New Orleans, confused, wondering why two chicks just bit him on the neck in that nightclub.  Most of them don't make it past their first sunrise.


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## Darklone (Jun 23, 2002)

Looks very funny, RW!

I can only agree with Lela, where is the problem with playing with women? Ok, it can be a shock how some of them start to powergame more than the worst of us could have thought possible.... 

But it's still an experience I don't wanna miss!

RW, pleeeeeeeze make sure that SH is posted till Horacio is back!


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## Lela (Jun 24, 2002)

Darklone said:
			
		

> *Looks very funny, RW!
> 
> I can only agree with Lela, where is the problem with playing with women? Ok, it can be a shock how some of them start to powergame more than the worst of us could have thought possible....
> 
> ...




Especally if I'm the only guy.


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## cthuluftaghn (Jun 25, 2002)

I kinda like the idea of a thread of "snippets" as a break between reading long posts.  But, I would like more details of the story behind them.  I've got four women that play in my campaign at various times, and they are SO into their characters.  They love trying to out-do the guys.  I've never had any experience w/ a female DM.... I'd like to hear about what happens.


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## Lela (Jun 25, 2002)

I've also noticed that the female player in my group, besides having a great body (okay, I admit it, I'm dating her), is also one of the best RPers.  She usually seems to take over if the entire party is together and in a social situation.  The guys are just there for cutting baddies down.

Though, if I can get the group to spread out and do their own thing, they can really have the time of their lives RPing.


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## cthuluftaghn (Jun 26, 2002)

In retrospect... a large part of the roleplaying during our last session revolved around fashion sense.  That's not a sexist remark... that's the honest truth.  A new female PC was being introduced to the party..... the other two women players went all out to make her feel welcome.  They commented on her hair, her skin tone, her clothing... asked about her upbringing, relationship to her father.... I think that single introduction took up a whole "between smoke breaks" segment of the session!


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## RangerWickett (Jun 26, 2002)

You can expect the first real update this Saturday.

Just as a reminder:

High Fantasy
Route 66

Start Date: July 2nd, 1996
Start Location: Savannah, GA

Sample NPCs:  A group of Knights of the Round, using their magical skills to have impressively convincing costumes at an anime convention.


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## Lela (Jun 26, 2002)

RangerWickett said:
			
		

> *
> Sample NPCs:  A group of Knights of the Round, using their magical skills to have impressively convincing costumes at an anime convention. *




You say that like it's a bad thing.


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## cthuluftaghn (Jun 27, 2002)

Lol... this game has a strange setting.  But, I like it.  I like it because... frighteningly enough... I can relate to it.


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## RangerWickett (Jun 30, 2002)

July 2nd, 1996
Savannah, Georgia, USA

Still months before the Presidential elections, still several weeks before the Olympics, and two days before the 4th of July.   It is Indepence Day, however.  Or at least it’s out in theaters.
Twilight Lokya works in Savannah, Georgia at a local television station, and as the last job of her shift she’s one of the camera women filming outside the largest theater in town (though that’s not saying much).  The crowds that have gathered for the premiere have garnered enough attention for a short spot on the evening news.  Welcome to Savannah.  Small news elsewhere is big news.

Others have decided to attend the showing, job or no.  Trudi Schnieder—a tall, loudmouthed chick of 20 built like a truck—along with her two friends Colleen Gray and Lorrie Gilcrest, have decided to go see it as well.  All three are students at the Savannah College of Art and Design, and Lorrie—Trudi’s roommate—was more or less convinced to come along, since she’s not as much of a nerd as Colleen (a sequential art major who has been chomping at the bit to see this since she saw the special on the Sci-fi Channel) or as nutty as Trudi.  So it’s a girl’s night out.

Jared Bellmount, a somewhat unassuming man in his early twenties got his ticket early, and is occupying himself with the newest games in the theater’s arcade.  As a game designer himself, Jared is always willing to see, and play, what’s attracting attention.

Alone this night as well is Watanabe, a young, brown-haired woman who all her life has looked younger than she really is.  With the build and soft face of a sixteen-year old, she hardly looks her real age of nearly 25. She waits in line for her ticket, turning her head away so the extremely short woman back in the line won’t notice that she’s staring at her.

That particular short woman is aware that she attracts attention.  She is also aware that if she were not magically disguised then she’d attact even more.  Delria is part halfling, part true Fey, and thus a set of bright wings sprout from her shoulders, and her hair is a gentle blue.  Thankfully, the mundanes—as the magic races refer to humans with no knowledge of magic—can’t see any of this, so she can simply enjoy a night off from her job at the Bureau for the Management of Magicks.  She is only a lowly intern now, serving coffee and making deliveries throughout the offices inbetween the hours slaving over copiers; but her hopes is to someday join the Knights.  The Knights are the Bureau’s police-force, and Delria has had her eyes on such a honored position for quite some time.  Well, honored in her own opinion, anway.

Magic means nothing to Twilight as she and her coworkers finish the news spot.  As they pack up, Twilight glances up long enough to see a bat.  Normally she wouldn’t be too unnerved by it, but since this is no less than the tenth time that she’s managed to catch a glimpse of it—it almost looks like a fruit bat, which aren’t supposed to live anywhere near the eastern coast of the U.S—she grows somewhat nervous.  Before she can devote any more attention to the bat, several of her coworkers who managed to get their hands on some tickets invite her to go with them to see the movie.

Jared finally runs out of quarters at the arcade and begins to 
make his way into the theater.  As he walks toward a seat in the back, a couple passes by him and his nose wrinkles in disgust at their stench.  Living in Savannah, he’s used to the smell of papermill lingering around the historic district, but he didn’t think it usually traveled to the south side of town.  Or indoors.

Trudi, Colleen, and Lorrie take their seats in the dead center of the slowly filling theater.  Trudi holds tightly to the massive bucket of popcorn she bought and smiles.  Nearby, Delria slips between the mundanes twice her size to find a seat near the front.  Watanabe takes a seat on the left, and Twilight and her corworkers, being among the last inside, get stuck near the very back row.

Lights turn off, projector turns on.  

The movie goes on without a hitch, save for a group of highschoolers near the front of the theater who are being overly loud.  One of them turns around and looks at the nearest few rows behind him, sniffing and nearly wretching.  He complains to his friends, and within a few moments they’ve pinpointed the source of the stench: a couple sitting next to the aisle two rows back.  The husband of the couple is grimacing and glancing around nervously.  Finally, one of the highschoolers shouts, “Man, why don’t you just get up and get yo’ stanky ass outta the theater?”

Sitting a few rows behind the smelly couple, Trudi shouts back, “Shut up, I’m watching the movie!”

A brief shouting squabble breaks out between Trudi and the highschoolers, and Jared, losing his patience, gets up from his seat and heads for the kids in front to tell them to calm down.  Before he can get there, though, the husband from the couple stands up and starts shouting back, demanding they leave him and his wife in peace.  Groaning, Jared stops next to the man and reaches out a hand to try to calm him down.

Then he sees the wife, and shouts, “Oh crap!  Is your wife okay?”

The man sneers and moves to shield his wife’s pale, mottled face.  He shouts, “Leave my wife alone!  Everyone just leave us alone!”

Delria, trying to ignore the argument and just watch as the alien spacecraft begin to emit a blue glow, winces as she senses a magical aura in the room.  At the same moment, the shouting husband becomes quiet, looking around in worry.  From across the theater, he and Delria spot each other.  Fey-blooded, Delria can easily spot the magical aura around him, identifying him as a mage.  Unfortunately for her, he can just as easily see through her magical disguise.

Pulling his limp wife to her feet, he shouts, “The Bureau!  Keep away!”

Delria jumps up onto her seat to shout a warning, but before she gets a chance, the man’s wife reaches out with clawing fingers toward Jared, moaning dully.  Her face lifts to stare at Jared, and he gets a clear look at her decomposing features a second before the zombie wife lunges for him.  He screams and tries to pull away, and Delria shouts for the them to stop.  

Panicking, the man pulls his undead wife back to him and begins to chant an incantation.  Nearly every head in the theater turns to him as a chill aura pierces the room, and as his voice reaches a snarling crescendo, he thrusts out his hand at Delria and fires his spell.  On the screen, a laser beam from the alien spacecraft demolishes New York city, just as a lashing line of black energy shoots toward Delria.

Many in the audience screams and begins to scramble out of their seats.  But around the theater, a few brave individuals start toward the necromancer, looking for some way to protect the innocent.  Delria jumps across the tops of seats, seeing her chance to prove her worth to the Bureau.  Watanabe tries to keep the fleeing crowd organized as they surge out the exits.  Twilight feels a strange chill run down her neck as she hears a faint voice warning her from her purse.  Jared scrambles to his feet and looks for something to fend off the zombie.

And Trudi, ignorant of why her friends are fleeing in panic, keeps her eyes peeled at the on-screen explosive, and screams.  “Cool!”


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## cthuluftaghn (Jul 2, 2002)

I agree with Trudi..... Cool!


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## Lela (Jul 4, 2002)

cthuluftaghn said:
			
		

> *I agree with Trudi..... Cool! *




Way cool.  Great image.  I could really see the exploding background and the _real_ action up front going on together.

Cinimatography at it's finest.


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## Horacio (Jul 20, 2002)

Hey, why did nobody bumped it in the last two weeks?
And why Ranger Wicket didn't continue?

(I'm back, by the way  )


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## Acquana (Aug 7, 2003)

**gasp!*  The DM speaks!*

Hi everyone.   I'm JL Jones.  For your pleasure I have decided to actually try my hand at this story hour thing and write up the games I've been running for nearly three years now!

I'm going to continue where RangerWickett left off, and hopefully I'll find a schedule that suits me.  Click on links for images drawn by the Route 66 players I now have in a special gallery.  ^_^


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## Acquana (Aug 7, 2003)

*Independence Day, Part II*

And so a brawl begins in the middle of a movie theater.  Most of the other movie-goers close to Jared panic at the sight of the horrific, decaying woman.  In the midst of people running everywhere, no one notices how . . . collected Jared Belmont is.  He’s highly unnerved, but not incapable of defending himself.  As the zombie attempts to lunge for him, a silvery second shadow appears beside Jared.   Tall, muscled, and stoic, this second image raises a fist, and follows Jared’s mental command.  Jared’s psychic manifestation strikes the zombie, throwing her off her feet onto the cold floor.  

“No!  Sandra, you’re fine!  No one is going to take you away from me!”  The wizard lifts a hand, and as it glows Jared tries to explain he was only defending himself.

Delria finally makes it close enough to the wizard to grab a discarded soda and chuck it at him.  His lightning bolt spell is thrown completely off and it arcs straight over the aisles and into the back exit.  

Watanabe ducks as rubble from the ceiling collapses directly in the path of the door.  She grits her teeth angrily, glaring past the screaming crowds around her at the fight in the middle of the room.  

Twilight, among those trying to get out through the entrance back into the lobby, has now been blocked.  For a moment she is about to follow the crowds as they change direction for the emergency exit, until she again hears a small voice.  No, she doesn’t actually hear it . . . she is simply “aware” that a male, distinctly Russian voice is speaking to her.  She opens her purse and cries out in shock as she looks down a fruit bat.  How she knows this is what was speaking her she doesn’t know.  Her first, instinctive reaction is the fling the purse as far away from herself as possible, which she does.

Meanwhile others are reacting to the lightning bolt.  Jared is nearly thrown off his feet in surprise, and quickly pulls out a concealed handgun.  “I know you’re not a psion, so I don’t know how you just did that!  Just don’t do it again!”

A resounding cry of “He’s got a gun!” sweep through the panicking crowds running by Jared.

“We were just going to a movie!” the man snaps as the zombie very slowly pulls herself back to her feet. 

Delria tries her best to calm the necromancer and the young mundane with a gun.  She tries to explain to the magic-user that her presence there was purely coincidental.  However, before she gets much farther Delria ducks a purse that has flown from nowhere and lands nearby her.  

Trudi has noticed all the commotion by now and angrily storms up to the fight, leaving a trail of popcorn that flutters from the hefty bucket still in her arms.  “Hey!  I was trying to watch the movie too!  Now the back of the theater is messed up and there’s people screaming and stuff!”

Jared tries to stop Trudi from getting any closer, but it’s too late.  The zombie pushes past her husband and swings at the young woman.  Trudi manages to avoid her, but the zombie knocks the popcorn bucket out of Trudi’s arms.  Trudi stares at the popcorn now her feet with the look of a hurt child.  

“You . . . YOU SPILLED MY POPCORN!”

With that Trudi takes a massive swing and punches the shambling woman directly in the face.  The zombie falls into the mage, who had been shooting spells at Delria.  Trudi then pulls out a set of nunchucks she rarely leaves the dorm without, and frowns hard at the two.

Jared is left speechless, but decides to take this opportunity to leap over the seats and get around to the mage’s other side.  At the same time Delria has been having to avoid spells from the mage and is currently kneeling behind the seats.  She takes a moment to see what is struggling in the purse that is near her.  Inside a small fox-faced bat looks up at her.  She lowers an eyebrow, unsure of why it’s there, but simply shrugs and gives it a gentle lift to give it an easier time of taking off.  

The bat flies straight for Twilight, still trapped in crowds.  She hears the voice again and looks up at the bat.  A moment passes as the two of them stare eye to eye, and she suddenly realizes that she had nothing to fear from this creature.  She realizes more and more the longer she stares at the bat.  Twilight readjusts the strap to her camera, and thinks of her older sister.

Jared has moved to the other side of the mage, and diverts the attention of the mage away from the very short woman a row away.  He warns the man to stay still or he’ll shoot, the man responds by grabbing Jared’s wrist.  A horrible, searing cold whips through Jared’s arm and as he flinches the gun goes off.  The mage cries out and grabs his wounded shoulder.  Then Jared strikes the man with the butt of the pistol.  He didn’t realize quite how hard he’d done it.  The man is thrown to the floor, bleeding heavily from the top of his head.  Jared pales in horror at what he’s just done.

Trudi is having a hard time with the zombie, not understanding how someone who looks so sick is so strong.  The smell of blood makes the zombie turn and face Jared.  Jared looks dumbfounded and tries to pull the body of the mage away from the growling corpse.

The zombie starts to lunge at the two, when a magic missile flies through the air and strikes the zombie.  Jared, Delria, and Trudi turn to the woman with blonde hair standing nearby now.  Twilight smiles and pulls out her camera.

“Okay, now beat it up!  I wanna get this on film!” she calls as the bat on her shoulder seems to grin.

Watanabe has taken to the emergency exit and is trying to direct the waning crowds.  She notices the large number of cars pulling up around the parking lot, but makes no more note of it than that.

Jared smiles to Twilight and once again his metallic shadow appears.  As Trudi swings her nunchucks, Jared and his imprint both raise their hands; from the copy’s hand a psionic bullet drills into the zombie as it shudders from Trudi’s attacks.

Satisfied that the crowds are getting out safely, Watanabe faces the conflict again.  Soon all of the PCs are trying to knock down the zombie, including a black dog that Twilight summoned.  Jared finally gets the proper shot, which blows more than half of the corpse’s head off.  As she zombie falls to its knees and then to the floor, Jared takes deep breaths and mourns the fact that all the zombie movies he’s seen didn’t show this sort of thing being nearly difficult enough.

The four mundanes stand in silence, all watching as Delria kneels beside the necromancer and heals his wounds.  The mage groans, but doesn’t awaken.  However he does begin muttering “Sandra . . . Sandra . . . Nothing will keep us apart . . .”

Delria shutters, Jared blanches again.  Trudi looks down at Sandra’s body as though for the first time.  “Woah!  Is she okay?!”

Delria looks up at Trudi and sighs.  “She’s been dead for weeks.”  Delria is forced to explain that the man at her feet is a mage capable of reanimating the dead.  As she speaks, Watanabe shakes her head.

“Look, I don’t believe a word of this.  I’m going to make sure no one was buried under the rubble near the lobby.”

Twilight only smiles and focuses her still recording camera in on Delria’s face.  “I believe you.”

“Hey, that thing you did!” Trudi says to Jared, “That was cool!”

“Uh . . . thanks.  It sorta . . . runs in my family,” Jared replies sheepishly.

Delria follows Watanabe to the blocked exit.  Watanabe begins sifting through it, trying to heave large chunks despite her size.  She calls to anyone who might be there, telling them to remain calm.  However as she tries to shove aside one bit that would have taken two men twice her size, the rubble begins to rumble.  As though it has a mind of its own, the rubble moves aside.  Watanabe sees no one trapped there, but instead is met with a warm smile.

A strange-looking man with olive skin stands at the now clear door to the lobby.  Beside him are five men, holding their hands up in the same sort of gesture that the mage had been using.  Jared’s jaw drops as he studies them.  He knows enough about the paranormal to recognize a Man In Black when he sees one.  He tries to turn and bolt out of the other door, now even more confused than before, but stops in mid-stride when he sees even more men in black suits entering from the other exit.

Delria lets out a sigh of relief.  “What took you all so long?”

“If you’d actually made a call we would’ve known sooner,” the olive-skinned man replies.  “Y’alright, Del?”

“Yeah.”

Jared steps back as a man in a suit with platinum blonde hair steps up to him.  “Well then.  You’re a psion, aren’t you?”

Jared can’t bring himself to do anything else but nod.

Distantly the man nods as well.  “I’ll have to let J’qwuan know about this.”

The Bureau agent speaking to Delria allows his fellow clean-up crewmen to move past him.  He holds out a bag.  “Ya like Raisinettes?”

“Not really,” Delria shrugs.

“So hey everybody,” the man says, seeing the demanding look on their faces.  “I’m Alex, and we’re gonna have to escort the lot of you outside.  Kay?”

“Tell them everything then,” the blonde man beside Jared snaps.

“They already know, Terrence.  By the way, I’d suggest you do your job before some other mundane kicks the living  out you.”

The agent named Terrence glares knives at Alex, then turns and stalks off.  Some of the agents clearing rubble snicker at Alex’s comment.  Alex shifts his weight and continues eating movie snacks.

A third agent steps up the PCs.  “Delria, will you please help me escort the mundanes outside?”

“I wouldn’t call them mundanes,” Delria says with a smile to the group.

“Then that’ll make this even more interesting.”


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## Acquana (Aug 7, 2003)

*Before we move on . . .*

Before I move on story-wise, I first want to thank everyone who’s read the thread thus far.  Since there ain’t much, I’m shocked to see how many views we got.  But anyway, thank you.

Also I’d like to provide a bit of metagame to help understand the folks playing, along with artwork of the characters, all by their actual players.  Since we all go to art school, most of us draw in one form or another.  Just keep in mind that most of these are like two or three years old now.

Jared Belmont-- Highly inspired by JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures, named after Simon Belmont of Castlevania.  Jared’s a 26 year-old game designer who works at *ahem* Black Dog Publishing.  He’s a psion who has a knack of running into fights head-on, and whose powers manifest as an extremely tall, mystical figure Jared calls “Platinum.”  His family has had experience with psionics for three generations now, and Jared has grown up with a strong belief in the paranormal.  Magic on the other hand, is completely new to him . . .

Jared’s player is Marlon.  He’s a sequential art major much like me and several of the other players.  Makes the most fantastic “Holy crap!” faces, and anime drawings of the characters.  His art style has changed so much since then . . .

Trudi Schnieder-- Big, cute, and mad.  Trudi is full of child-like innocence and undoubtedly has some form of learning disorder.  However, she’s managed to make up for this in art school with her wild, sixties-inspired clothing designs.  She loves to make costumes for everyone she grows close to and thinks of money as very little since her family has so much.  She does however have a mean temper, but generally all of it is focused on anyone who’s mean to her friends, and hackers.  Her account was hacked while she was in high school and she’s never gotten over it.

Trudi’s player is another comic artist named Sooz.  Sooz loves playing Trudi, even though the poor dear was made for a more combat-oriented campaign than mine turned out to be.  ^_^;  She’s done costume designs for all the other PCs (as done by Trudi), and everyone loves her portrayal of Trudi.

Delria-- The oldest of the group.  Del’s experience on normal Earth (known as Terra) is extremely limited.  She matured while in a druid’s grove on Gaia (the fairy realm) and keeps much of her past a secret.  Her half-Unseen heritage gains her more respect than the average brownie, and has helped out the PCs many times.

Del’s player is Wendy.  Wendy is well-known as the foulest mouth in the group, and yet is the cutest player we’ve got.  Her specialty is cartoon comics, and loves drawing animals--and the most horrific monsters.  It’s amazing.  She draws cute really well, and disturbing really well.  It’s everything in-between that gives her trouble.

Twilight Lokya-- Twilight is best known for her camera.  She’s never parted with her camcorder, and her habit of taping nearly every last thing the PCs do has given them a lot of help in their investigations.  Quiet and calm, she only speaks when it’s really necessary, but when she does it’s usually a gem.  She’s the group’s sorcerer, with a bat familiar.

Millicent is Twilight’s player, and is considered very much like her character.  Her words are few, but is invaluable as a teammate.  Her memory is sharp, and has provided a lush backstory for her character--most of it inspired by cartoons.  She’s a video and film major with a love for monster movies and puppetry.

Watanabe-- Stoic many times, but not wholly unemotional.  This half-Elven ranger’s real moral instinct lies in protecting animal life.  Her opinions on morality are harsh and rigid.  She believes that humans who do wrong deserve whatever they get since anything above animal intelligence can chose between right and wrong.  Those who chose to do wrong suffer her wrath.  She gains a love for shotguns later in the campaign.  However, Watanabe isn’t unfeeling or in any way hateful.  Once she loosens up she actually is rather perky and very devoted to those she loves.

Liz is just about as opinionated as Watanabe, but a million times cheerier.  She’s full of laughter and loves eating.  Which is amazing since she’s such a tiny little thing.  Liz was a newbie roleplayer, but caught on quickly.  During the first half of the campaign, however, she becomes well known for falling asleep during games.  While she was a fashion major at first (she didn't draw that pic of Watanabe, I did), she’s left SCAD to be with her husband and hopes to return to school and instead major in sequential someday.

So with that brief overview, on we go . . .


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## RangerWickett (Aug 8, 2003)

*bump*


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## Knight Otu (Aug 8, 2003)

*subscribe*


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## Acquana (Aug 10, 2003)

*Chapter 2: Japanese Cartoons are Weird, Man ...*

A handful of agents and Delria lead Trudi Schneider, Jared Belmont, Twilight Lokya, and Watanabe out of the back exit of the movie theater.  They are moved through the ordered chaos of the Bureau clean-up crew’s work.  Trudi tries to wave to her friends among those being made to forget precisely what they saw that night. 

One of the men in black with a small, metal-capped crystal in hand stops behind the agent’s black vans.  “When you step through the door, hold your breath.  It makes it easier.”  With this cryptic statement, he places the crystal in mid-air, it sinks into what looks like an invisible lock.  A short click follows and a door of light appears in front of the PCs.  Delria is the first to step in, adding a reassuring look to the others before she does.  One by one the PCs glance at each other, hold their breath, and step into the portal into a different world.

The PCs find themselves in what looks like an office building.  Delria awaits them on the other side, and the agents follow behind them.

“Welcome to the Bureau for the Management of Magicks.  Might as well get comfortable.”  Delria smiles, and for the first time allows them to all see what she really looks like.  She no longer looks like a young, human girl, but instead a three-foot tall woman with light blue hair.  Specks of silver line the edges of her face, orange and black wings sprout from her back.  

“WHOA!  Cool!” Trudi shouts.

While Jared takes a short jump away from Delria in surprise, Watanabe’s eyes only grow slightly wider, and Twilight seems unsurprised.  One of the agents asks for Twilight to turn off her camera at least until the PCs are escorted into an office room, and reluctantly she agrees.

Delria chats amiably with the PCs to calm them, especially Jared--who looks about ready to faint at any moment--as she and the agents escort through the main lobby of the office building.  Jared knows enough about fantasy to recognize the inhuman looks of most of those they pass by as walk: orcs, Elves, things that look like Kender, even a dwarf; though most of the office people look like everyday joes at work.  

Delria stops short in her casual conversation with the agents and PCs only once:  As they pass by a large group near a set of desks a sharp chill goes over the magic-users in the group.  Watanabe, Twilight, and Del look to the strong aura to see a woman.  A tall, powerful-looking woman talking coarsely with a group of agents, beside her a small girl with short, blonde hair.  The twelve-year old looks at Del and waves with a smile.  Del waves back in awe.  She’s never seen polymorphed dragons before.

“Erina’arad,” one of the agents whispers.  “She’s been here with her daughter four times in the last two weeks.”

“Why?” Del asks.

“She says the Bureau keeps calling her in.  No one has.”

“Huh.”

Eventually all the agents save one break off from the group, and he leads the PCs to an office room.  The room is empty and uninspiring; all it really has room for is a large table.  The PCs are told by the agent to wait, his commander is very interested in speaking with them.  Del remains in the room to ease the other PCs.  The five talk, save for Twilight who simply listens intently and occasionally fidgets with her camera.  Watanabe has taken to the fruit bat, whom Twilight has named “Sokar.”   Watanabe loves animals, yet rarely has a chance to play with exotic ones.

After a few minutes, a middle-aged man in all black enters the room.  He looks tired, the lines in his face seem carved from many hardships.  He introduces himself as Marshall Whitman, a commander in the police force of the BMM.  “This whole thing is more than likely put a bit of a shock on your system,” he says.

Making himself comfortable at the head of the table and laying open a folder, he continues.  “The man you fought tonight, as you already know, was a mage; a former employee, I’m afraid.  He didn’t take his wife’s death well at all.  I’m sorry that you were forced to see him in this state, or at all, truthfully.  But now that you have and you lived with minor injuries, this only means that the Bureau may have a use for you.  I apologize if I have to be vague.”

It is as he finishes saying this that a hard, concerned expression appears on his face.  Before Delria can ask, a strange chill falls over those in his room.  The lights dim, and in steps a horrific figure.  A mind flayer, though the only PC who would know this is Delria.  Jared nearly falls out of his chair.

“Well then,” Whitman grumbles.   “I thought that you didn’t like dealing with humanity in large groups, J’qwuan.”

The tentacled creature turns to Jared.  The voice that follows is a cold, piercing one--it echoes through the PCs’s heads rather than through the air.  “I was told there was something here that needed my attention.  And you ought to know by now that any snide comments you wish to make to me don’t need to be said.”

With that the mind flayer introduces himself properly as Yondo J’qwuan.  He then proceeds to explain to the more mundane listeners the secrecy of the world of magic.  The fact that two worlds exist side by side, Terra and Gaia.  Mundane matters occur on Terra, yet many magi--magic races such as Elves, Orcs, and dwarves--prefer to live out their lives on Terra.  Thus the Bureau was founded to ensure that magic and mundane may never go to war as they once did millennia ago.  To maintain peace, to regulate the usage of sorcery around mundanes--those who don’t know about magic--and occasionally to police the misusage of such magicks … Such as the necromancer the PCs had run into that night.  

As the mind flayer finishes, Whitman clears his throat.  “So there you have it.”  He then proceeds to make an offer.  He opens the files and begins filling out a bit of paperwork as he speaks.  Whitman says he wants to give the group the chance to continue doing what they did that night:  Protect innocent mundanes and stop those who make themselves a threat to the already all-too-fragile peace.  If they prefer not to, then J’qwuan would simply have to make them forget what had happened that night.

Del is thrilled, she’s been wanting a position as an actual Bureau field agent for months.  Trudi is also thrilled, though she does seem unnerved at the thought of being brainwashed by the squid-face-man.  Twilight agrees, so long as she can videotape everything, to which Whitman replies that there is indeed a department which would be interested in letting her.  Jared is uneasy and begins to refuse, until he hears a voice in his head:

_I’m afraid you have no choice in this matter, Mr. Belmont._

Jared faces J’qwuan with wide eyes.  Somehow he guesses that no one else could hear that.  

_I am the head telepath here.  Commander Whitman would not be your leader, I would.  It is sad that right now is not the best time to explain why I cannot allow psions to be unmonitored by the Bureau.  You are quite powerful, and your talents not being used properly would be a waste._

As Trudi waves a hand in front of Jared’s face to guess why he’s staring off into space, Whitman turns to Watanabe.  “Are you uninterested?” the commander asks her.  

Watanabe only stares at the table silently.

“I believe you’re half-Elven,” he says softly, studying her face.  “How old are you?  Twenty?  Thirty?   Have you never wondered why you always look younger than your peers?”

Watanabe’s eyes show acknowledgement of this.  

“You deserve to know something about your blood, don’t you?”  When Watanabe doesn’t respond, Whitman pulls a set of papers out of the folder.  “As soon as the clean-up crew ran into you our agents decided to find some information on you.”  He tosses a set of papers in front of her.

Twilight and Trudi lean to see it, but Watanabe shows extreme emotion for the first time when she gasps and snatches the papers off the table.  She clutches it to her chest and glares at Whitman.  “How could anyone find out about me so fast?”

“Become an agent and your past will be all but erased,” Whitman replies.  “If there’s no other benefit I can offer you, maybe shredding those files will tempt you?”

Watanabe agrees. 

__________________

The PCs are now part of the BMM, some more reluctant than others.  Jared’s new boss exits with nothing else to say to the PCs, Twilight has been referred to a department which specializes in perpetuating the idea that magic is fantasy (they have their hands in much of the media), and Trudi, Watanabe, and Delria fill out paperwork to begin their initiation in the Knights.  Whitman is in charge of the process and says he hopes to become their new commander.

While all this is happening, Del runs into an acquaintance: Alexander P’tarr.  The clean-up crew agent she had spoken to in the theater is happy to see her again.  “Hey, Del!  Great news, I’m gettin' a promotion!”

“Great, congratulations.  What’s goin’ on?”

“Not sure.  I was told to talk to Whitman after you guys are done.”

“Well, hey, good luck!”

Trudi watches him intently, then as he leaves, leans closer to Delria.  “So uh ... What is he?”

“Half-Elven.  Well, half-Elven, quarter orc, and quarter human.”

“Cool!”

Del grins.  “You’re the only person I’ve heard of to consider that ‘cool.’  Most folks don’t know what to think.”

“It’s not his fault ... I think he looks fine.”

“There’s a first for everything.”

The PCs eventually regather in the meeting room, Jared tells the others how relieved he was to not have to speak to the head psion again.  He instead had been interviewed by an Elven woman named Autumn Yieotanna.  Twilight is again rather silent, but now beaming: she’s been given permission to videotape again.  Sokar the bat flies to Watanabe again, and Watanabe shows a genuine smile as she pets him.

The PCs are now given the last of the meetings they are to have that night.  They are taken deep into the Bureau, and quickly the former mundanes understand how little they know about Gaia (the magic realm).  The further they go, the more the architecture in the office building shifts.  It changes from a very familiar office space, to a strange material; roots seem to grow through the walls.  Whitman informs the mundanes that half of the Savannah, Georgia BMM office is built into an Elven tree; a huge, magically grown tree that can be seen towering over the tree-tops from Gaia’s side of Savannah.

Finally the PCs are led into a room that’s dark and organic.  Plant life grows all around, and the only lights glow from dozens of pools around the room.  An ancient Elf in fantasy-like robes stands over one pool, then walks over to shake Whitman’s hand.   He introduces himself as Kenji’rogardi, a spirit speaker.  When the PCs ask what this means, he motions for Sokar.  The bat obeys and lands in the Elf’s hands.  Kenji’rogardi then walks to what appears to be a mirror, but upon closer observation is a tall pool of water suspended against the wall.  When Kenji’rogardi places Sokar down in front of the reflecting pool, all see another reflection take shape.

A man nearing forty stands beside Sokar, tall and dark.  He wears a stern expression, and Trudi recognizes that the suit he wears looks like it was made in the sixties.  Kenji’rogardi takes out a pouch and tosses a fine silvery powder onto the pool, which somehow allows all those in the room to hear this new figure speak.

“Twilight Lokya,” he says in a deep voice, dipped in a fine, Russian accent.  “I have bonded to you.  My name is Dimitri Sashenka.”

Kenji’rogardi informs them of the details regarding human magic: those of full-human blood cannot cast magic.  However, a spirit may bond with a human, and with this added spiritual power a human may learn.

Twilight again seems unsurprised.  “I know.  Thanks for letting me cast earlier.”

Twilight and Dimitri have a terse conversation, Dimitri doing the majority of the talking there is.  

Watanabe seems stunned.  “Wait, wait.  You’re human?”

“I have possessed this animal,” Dimitri replies.

“I held you to my chest!” Watanabe cries.

Dimitri grins.  “I’m grateful.  It’s been a while since I’ve had a body.”

While Watanabe turns red, Twilight asks why Dimitri chose her.  “You look like the woman who murdered me,” he replies in a low tone.  

As Sokar is returned to Twilight, Watanabe seems disappointed the figure in the mirror is gone.  She remembers how much Russian guys turn her on.

Kenji’rogardi then motions for Trudi.  “I’m ... not exactly sure if I’m correct ... Can you cast?” he asks her.

Trudi looks confused.  “No?”

“Something is odd ...”  He takes Trudi’s shoulder and leads her to the mirror.   Everyone has to look very closely, but indeed there is another form in the mirror beside Trudi.  His features are difficult to make out, but they get the general idea that a middle-aged man wearing casual dress is beside her.

“WHOA!”

Again Kenji’rogardi tosses the silvery powder, again a voice begins to speak.

“I ... You know I’m here?” a man’s voice begins.

“Yes,” Kenji’rogardi urges the ghost.  “Who are you?”

“Trudi ... YOU IDIOT!”  The ghost’s confidence in speaking grows exponentially, and he proceeds to rip Trudi a new one.  He shouts in years and years of pent-up frustration about how much he’d loved her mother as her professor, and how much of a disappointment Trudi was.  Oh, the indignity of trying to bond with her to help her and never bonding correctly.  From all this the PCs end up gathering the ghost’s name is Charles, and that something in Trudi had prevented Charles from bonding with her.  Trudi does a fine job of totally ignoring any of the insults her ghost has thrown at her, more interested in the fact that she _has_ a ghost.

“I’ve heard of this sort of thing happening,” Kenji’rogardi whispers, “but in all my years I never thought I’d see it.  Amazing.”

“And as soon as this spell ends I’ll never to be able to speak again!” Charles snaps angrily.

“Have you ever tried to touch anything?” Whitman offers.  He explains that while the spell is in effect, perhaps it’d be easier for Charles to try holding something.  To demonstrate, Whitman takes out a pad and pen.

Gingerly Charles reaches for them and everyone is silent as he places his incorporeal fingers around them.  When Whitman lets go, an awed gasp escapes Charles: he is still holding the pad and pen.  The spell ends and Charles proceeds to nag Trudi via pen, writing bitter and snide comments, but Trudi is thrilled.     

_________________________________________

Within the next few days, the PCs make several trips back to the BMM.  They grow used to the idea of working there; Watanabe, Jared, Trudi, and Twilight grow used to the idea of telling no one about their new jobs.  They are all officially Bureau Knights, and their team leader is Alex P’tarr.  The Elf/orc/human has been a member of the Bureau for nearly twenty years, but has never had a position of leadership.  He’s been in the clean-up crew for about six years.

During training over the next few weeks the PCs get to know each other well enough, and especially Alex.  He wears his heart on his sleeve, but is fairly mellow.  Or at least he’s rather ... relaxed.  While he does wear the BMM standard uniform (the MIB suit), he always manages to make it look like it’s spent a week on the floor.  He keeps his tie loose, the jacket open, the shirt untucked.  Trudi is happy to be a “secret agent,” and during training spends all her breaks designing costumes for the group.

*July 26, 1996*
Training comes to a close, rather fast Alex notes, and the PCs are given their first field mission.  Supposedly its a  rather routine mission.  The PCs are to go to Atlanta, where the BMM has had it’s hands full with monitoring the Atlanta Olympic Games.  With so many people coming in from all over the world--mundane and magi alike--the Bureau has been forced to devote all of its efforts in and around Atlanta to the Olympics.  So the PCs will be helping other agents from Savannah perform a few routine tasks, namely ridding the sewers of a large number of pest-like lizard creatures known commonly as “sewer demons.”  They have animal-like intelligence, vicious appetites and deadly claws--and have been gathering around downtown Atlanta because of the growing concentration of magi.  Delria and Watanabe are both iffy on an extermination run of things close to animals, but are given the okay to capture the sewer demons if they can.   

The group heads to Atlanta and is directed by the management there to head into the sewers off of Dr. Martin Luther King Dr.  They begin their search of where the nest is supposedly located, but are greeted with a much more gruesome sight than they expected.  Blood stains the water, and dozens upon dozens of sewer demons bodies litter the tunnels.  Not a single one has been left alive, signs of combat stain the walls.  

Watanabe notes that traces white fur can be found on some of the sewer demon bodies, ones with wide claw marks left in them.  After a search of the nests, the PCs are unsure what’s happened.  Alex is distant, thinking.  He finally pulls out his cel and calls in to the Atlanta temporary headquarters.  He informs HQ of the situation, and the fact that he suspects that the Knights of the Round got to the sewer demons before the PCs did.  Delria is aware of what that means, though the other PCs only glance at one another.

While Alex continues to speak on the phone, Del explains.  The Knights of the Round have existed since the last and greatest war between mundane and magi.  The magi lost that war and were ordered to leave to Gaia.  Most did, some didn’t.  As a reaction to this, a group of humans who called themselves Knights of the Round, in honor of their dead king Arthur, formed.  In the millennia since then, the KotR are known more as a terrorist group.  They have no organization, they are instead just thousands of small groups of humans and part-humans who happen to carry the same title.  They claim to wish only to protect humanity, yet are well-known for their zeal and often violent ways of defending mundanes.  Murdering magi is not below them, and many KotR groups have no qualms with violently killing magi to maintain their idea of peace.

Alex allows Del to finish, then informs the PCs that they’ve been ordered to find out if his suspicions are true.  They are to discover whether the KotR are indeed responsible, and if so, arrest them.

---
The PCs find a trail of drips of blood, and track it to a set of apartment complexes just outside of downtown.  Watanabe claims whoever was wearing the white fur should live there.  They end up breaking into a single-bedroom apartment, although it’s empty.  Jared is amused as he searches the apartment, seeing rows and rows of Japanese animated tapes in the resident’s collection.  The PCs also find a large amount of blood staining the sink in the bathroom.  Confident that they have the right apartment, the PCs begin to look for clues as to who this is.  Trudi finds costumes in the closet, and proceeds to make copies of the patterns instead of helping.  Alex finds there are three messages on the answering machine:

*“Hey, Roy.  You’re coming to the con, right?  Call me back, it’s Shin.”

*“Zel here.  We got sewer demons.  Call my cel.”

*“Hello?  Oh, please have made it home, Roy.  Please, please pick up.”
“Yes, I’m here.”
“You’re okay!  Thank you!  Are you gonna be able to make it?”
“I’m not missing the con, no way.  I’m not that hurt.”
“Alright!  We’ll meet you there!” 
“Yeah, bye.”

Jared snaps his fingers, he knows where they must have been going.  There is a minor Japanese animation convention happening in a hotel downtown.   Trudi finds clues as to what this “Roy” may look like when the PCs get there: among the costuming are bits of an orange wig, and black make-up lying on the bed.

So the PCs know at least a few things.  This Roy is a KotR with at least three others: a young man named Shin, another slightly older man named Zel, and a very young woman with a perky voice.  Watanabe also assumes that Roy must be a “furry.”

----- 
The PCs arrive at the hotel and get tickets to enter the con.  They split up and begin their search.  For a while nothing seems suspicious, and Trudi is excited by all the “cosplayers” (fans dressed as anime characters).  She sees a particularly well-made costume on a Sailor Mars, from “Sailor Moon,” and talks to her.  The Asian woman is a good deal older than most of the other cosplayers, at least thirty, but is happy to talk with Trudi about fashion.  Watanabe is frustrated by the diversion and is about to walk off when she sees someone staring at her, someone who looks aware of her half-Elven heritage.  He’s a man in his mid-thirties, brown hair hanging limply over the left side of his face in an attempt to hide the scars that cover it.  The sword at his side looks real.

At the same time, Jared and Del are walking around, with Jared looking more at a set of game booths nearby than the crowds.  Del senses magi near, and looks up.  Her eyes grow wide when she gets a good look at the massive man all in orange.  When she points him out, Jared says the guy is dressed as Tora from “Ushio to Tora.”  Del says that’s not what she meant: much of his costume is not costume.

Not too far away, Watanabe tries not to look like she’s watching the man with sword, even as a younger man, an Asian who looks no older than nineteen, walks up to him and they whisper between each other.  The two split up and the younger man comes up to Sailor Mars and tells her and Trudi to wrap it up.  She obliges and says goodbye to Trudi, she and the young man walk off whispering.

Twilight and Alex meet up with Watanabe and Trudi, and decide to find a discreet way of following them.  Alex tells Trudi to find Delria and Jared, and finds this is a mistake as the young woman walks off:  “DELRIA! HEY, DEL!  WHERE’D YOU GO?!”

Eventually Del hears Trudi calling and tells Jared to follow “Tora.”  Jared agrees.  While the rest of the PCs regather, Jared notes that a heavily scarred man with brown hair speaks to Tora for a moment, then leaves quickly.  Tora then walks down the hall at a hurried pace.  Jared hopes he hasn’t been spotted, and follows Tora anyway.  Tora leaves the main part of the con, going into the stairwell and eventually heading into an “Employees Only” area.  Jared does his best to remain out of sight, slinking behind Tora as he heads through a series of supply rooms.  

Tora stops abruptly and turns.  In a throaty, guttural voice he growls, “You’re Bureau, aren’t you?” 

Jared stops in place, turning pale.  “Uh ...”

“Bad enough we have to do your job for you, but you think you have the right to follow us around.”

A second voice, the young female one from the answering machine, calls from behind Jared, “Not for much longer.”

Jared spins to face the young girl--eighteen?  Nineteen?--next to an Asian man of the same age.  He thinks he’s surrounded for only a moment, but the door behind them opens and the rest of the PCs step in.

“We don’t want a fight,” Del begins.

“But we are going to have to arrest you,” Alex cuts in.

Tora says nothing more, and instead leaps at the Bureau Knights.  Combat begins, the young man pulling out a sword hilt--a glowing blade forms.  Three more KotR come in, Sailor Mars, the scarred man, and a third man wielding a long, two-pronged lance.  Tora shows the PCs how little on him is actually a costume as he throws off his wig and turns into the hybrid form of a were-tiger.  

Watanabe gets out of the fight to guard the door to the main hall and ensure that no one else can get in [her player fell asleep].  Jared calls upon his psychic manifestation Platinum to ram Tora into a shelf; Alex pulls out a double-bladed sword and for the first time the PCs get to see their commander in action.  Twilight summons a dog to help fight the were-tiger.

The fight continues,  Trudi knocks down the young Asian guy.  In response the teenage girl screams in fury: “No!  Masaki!  How dare you hurt him, I love him!”  As she starts swinging at Trudi with a set of brass knuckles, the scarred man is thrown into the wall by Platinum.  

Amazingly, the were-tiger is slowing down from Jared, Alex, Del, and Twilight’s attacks.  Tora manages to kill the dog Twilight summoned, only for Alex to nearly sever his leg just above the knee.  Howling and screaming, the were-tiger hits the floor.  

Sailor Mars (a fire mage) is having trouble hitting Del with her spells, and in frustration calls for the man with the lance to run and get help somehow.  As soon as she says this, the man with the lance stops, his face tensing.

“Run away?  No ... I mustn’t run away ... I mustn’t run away ... I _mustn’t run away!”_   He lets out a cry of rage and bull rushes Jared.   Jared manages to defend himself and stop the berserker’s advances, while Trudi finally beats down the girl.  

Seeing she’s the only one left standing, the fire mage turns and runs for the adjoining supply rooms.  With a burst of speed, Jared follows behind, hoping that Sailor Mars will give herself up when trapped between himself and Watanabe.  As he gets into the next room, however, he makes it in time to watch Sailor Mars hit the floor.  A dark figure stands over her body, a long slash gutting the body from neck to belly.   The woman-shaped form clothed in darkness smiles at Jared, and slowly places a finger to her lips.  While Jared stands in horror, the woman slinks magically into the shadows and disappears.

---

The surviving KotR are taken into custody by Atlanta BMM Knights.  The PCs are congratulated for a job well done; and Jared finally tells the others what happened to Sailor Mars once the clean-up crews are fully engrossed in their work.  The group listens to him describe the “dark lady,” and are concerned, but unable to do more at that time.

Alex tries to cheer everyone up by offering the new Knight team a dinner at the Cheesecake Factory the next night.  Everyone agrees, and with the day’s events heavy on their minds, they take the rest of the day off.


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## Acquana (Aug 13, 2003)

*Mind Flayer in a suit!*

Minor update today.  Drew J'qwuan and stuck him in the gallery.  He's linked at his first appearence.

...

And what the heck, here too.

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/news...ame=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php


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## RangerWickett (Aug 16, 2003)

Well, it's a little disappointing that no one is showing up to comment.  There was a lot more interest last summer, and I guess it's a shame I didn't find the time to write back then.  We could've gotten a lot more interest.

If you are lurking here, drop us a line real quick and tell us what you like or dislike.


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## Elder-Basilisk (Aug 16, 2003)

I'm reading I just don't generally have a lot of specific commentary. I like what I've read so far though.


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## Acquana (Aug 20, 2003)

Yay!  A comment!  (I'm easy to please.)

Fear not, faithful readers.  An update should be coming up by the end of the week.  ^_^


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## Esiminar (Aug 20, 2003)

I'm reading also. Everything so far is great.


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## Henry (Aug 20, 2003)

I've jumped in, too. I used to LOVE the Savannah Knights Story, and seeing some of the same characters turn up again (the mind flayer, for one) is really fun to read. It'll take me a while to get familiar with the characters, so I'll bear with ya.


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## Acquana (Sep 8, 2003)

Yay!  I am now able to get back on the boards again.  Oh the frustration ...

Well, anyhoo, I don't have a major update, but I do have one.  It's now time for Rumors Around the Bureau!

During the time the PCs are in training, they become accustomed to BMM life, and hear what the other agents talk about in their spare time.  While most try to remain professional about cases, everything else is fair game.  The big buzz is about Terrance Marks, who you may or may not remember from the first time the PCs were confronted by BMM agents. He's a fairly recognizable member of the psions, having a far larger share of nervous conditions than he should.  Aside from being a severe asthmatic, he has a habit of constantly washing his hands and breathing heavily whenever in small rooms or enclosed spaces.

Pretty much everyone had heard of his rather embarrassing encounter with a mundane.  Marks had been forced to block the memories of a forest ranger on multiple occasions, but he accidentally ran into the forest ranger again while on mission.  The encounter sparked something in the mundane and the guy somehow recognized that Marks had mindwiped him.  And thus while Terrance was trying to help other agents quell a dispute some backwoods Elves were having (in Dublin, Georgia), the forest ranger snuck up on Terrance and demanded his memories back.  Terrance put up a good fight, but the mentally resilient mundane managed to squeeze the breath out of him and make him pass out.  While the mundane was restrained by the other agents, Terrance's lacking performance has been a light topic of conversation since then (this had happened only a few days prior to the PCs joining the BMM).

However, while the PCs are in training this has mostly been forgotten.  Jared hears from the other psions that something worse has happened.  Less than two weeks before the Olympics, Terrance disappeared.  J'Qwuan had received no warning or even two weeks notice, instead finding a written resignation on his desk. This is big news, but the psion half of the Bureau has kept it under wraps, preferring the rest of the BMM not know they have a rogue agent on their hands.  It's one of the very, very few times a psion has done anything like this, and finding him has been high on J'Qwuan's priority list.

Jared has informed the other PCs, but mostly in passing conversation.  Of course why Terrance left the Bureau is a mystery.  No one is sure quite why, perhaps for the stain on his reputation, perhaps out of fear of J'Qwuan for something more sinister ... It's anyone's guess right now.

So that's the Big Buzz around the agent's dining hall.  Another actual update will be coming up soon.


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## RangerWickett (Sep 18, 2003)

Jessica's college is being difficult, refusing to let anyone online until every PC is inspected for viruses.  So she can't update, at least not until the weekend, probably.


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## Acquana (Oct 2, 2003)

*Whoo hoo!  Update!*

Chapter Three: Bridges and Bombs

*July 27, 1996
Atlanta, Georgia*

The PCs have spent the last day in Atlanta, chillin.’  Trudi insisted on going to the Coke Museum with Jared, Alex, and Twilight; Del and Watanabe both went off by themselves, possibly to commune with nature around various parks.  In the evening, they all meet at the Cheesecake Factory downtown.

They’re all rather relaxed--even Jared so long as he doesn’t think about the afternoon before.  Del is using her disguise that makes her look like a very short woman as opposed to a child, so she orders alcohol.  Twilight does as well, though as soon as it’s brought to her she simply places it in front of Sokar, who eagerly begins to down it.  The sight of the bat and brownie slowly getting drunk is enough to amuse everyone.  The group does talk a bit about the Dark Lady and the Knights of the Round, though Alex insists no one should worry about it while not on duty.  

While finishing up desert, Alex receives a call.  He answers, speaks into it for a few moments, then in frustration hangs up.  “Sorry, guys ... I really hate to do this, but we’re needed.  We’ve been called in.”

The group piles into their van, and Alex explains the situation to them:  “Whenever there are large gatherings, really large ones, then that naturally attracts monsters who can sense it.  Like the sewer demons yesterday.”

“Heck,” Del says, still tipsy, “Even I feel more comfortable around Atlanta right now.”

Alex shrugs.  “So yeah.  We’ve got a bridge troll downtown.  And we’re available.”

As soon as they cross the fine line between the downtown highlife into derelict inner city they see their target.  A lumbering, massive form lurks beneath the shadows of an overpass.  The troll steps fully into the beams of the headlights as the van nears it; the PCs get their first glimpse of moss-covered flesh and trunklike limbs.

Watanabe lets out a disgusted growl.  She’s the first to notice the blood on its long fingers and the pile of freshly stripped bones under the overpass, barely peering out into the light.

As the van stops and the Knights begin to step out cautiously, the troll grins broadly.  

“Toll,” it demands in a low, sloppy voice.

“Sorry,” Alex says.  “Bureau for the Management of Magicks.”

Impatiently the troll folds its arms.

“Maybe we shouldn’t fight this one,” Del whispers to Alex.

Alex begins to say something official, but is left somewhat speechless as the troll raises itself to its full height.

“WOAH!  You’re big!  WANNA SPAR?!” Trudi blurts out.

The troll snorts.  “Toll.  Wasting my time.”

“You mean the time you were using to kill mundanes?” Watanabe offers, pointing to the hole in the overpass wall.

“Didn’t pay toll.”

A blaring honk from a car follows which makes the Knights jump.  None of them had noticed a sedan pulling up on the other side of the overpass.  With the large group standing in the car’s way, the only natural response for the driver is to honk like mad.  The troll ignores the Knights and instead turns to face the new car.  The mundane, after getting a good look at it, tries to get the car in reverse quickly, but is interrupted as the troll slams a hand on the front of the car and holds it in place.

“Toll,” it growls.

The Knights run forward, all pretense of negotiation forgotten.  The troll is forced to turn his attentions away from the car (the driver has run out of the vehicle screaming), and to the Knights attacking him.  Twilight stays back and summons a dog (whom she has lovingly named Tripod), Del also stays back, finding that she’s been deemed “healing bitch.”  Her services are needed fairly quickly when Jared the psion runs directly into combat and gets his shoulder broken.  Alex, Trudi, and Watanabe (and Tripod) fight the troll in close combat, Watanabe and Trudi grow more and more frustrated as whatever they inflict on the thing seems to heal all too quickly.  Tripod the dog gets too close and is crushed rather brutally, which sends the summon away.

After getting back on his feet, Jared tries the first thing he can think of other than running back into the fray.  His silvery shadow, Platinum, appears and at Jared’s command flies forward, passing over the troll with a powerful mind thrust.  The troll is thrown off its feet, stunned instantly.  As it lets out a gurgle, Alex jumps back from it and shouts frantically at Twilight: “Burning hands!  Burning hands _now!”_

Twilight obeys, and the newbie Knights are startled at the fast pace the troll burns.  Alex catches his breath and explains that fire and acid are the weak points of the plantlike trolls.  

The Knights face the grisly task of checking the troll’s lair, that is until Alex’s cel rings.  He answers, and the others hear one half of a rushed, shocked conversation.  Alex hangs up the phone quickly.  “Everyone in the car!  Now!”

Everyone piles in and Alex orders Jared not to waste even a second.  As they rush away from the scene, Alex quickly forces out that the Olympics was attacked less than fifteen minutes before.  While mundane police are handling their end, the BMM believes they may have a suspect of their own.  For they past few months the BMM has been after a group of thieves who call themselves the Untouchables.  They’ve been mostly considered a minor threat, any causalities linked to them were extremely minor.  Lead by a minotaur by the name Dirk Bavarus, his small team of small-timers hasn’t had any terrorist motives--until several days before when the Savannah office received a threatening note about the Olympics.

So the Bureau has finally upped the priority level on catching the Untouchables.  A hasty divination spell has located them in Atlanta, speeding toward an area called Druid Hills.  The Knights will be sent updates.

The PCs are given their last lead as their van rushes into Emory University.  The office gives them a license plate number, but their divination trail has gone cold.  The PCs are the first Knights to get this far along the trail, and start making circles around the college.  Jared is the first to guess that the only reason the Untouchables would’ve head to a college in the first place was to perhaps get another car from the parking garages, and so he turns the van into the first one he sees.  

Near the back of the ground floor of the garage, next to a large van, is a small group huddled next to another car--they’re removing the license plate of a smaller car.  Those who can see through minor magical disguises can see the extremely tall, wide man who turns to face them is actually a minotaur.  Beside him a dwarven woman scowls through the headlights, and next to her a human in his mid-thirties turns paler.

The Knight’s van stops and the Knights step out, most of them trying their best to look intimidating. 

“Untouchables,” Alex assumes.

The minotaur stands in front of the dwarven woman and shakes his head.  “Ya got us, but we didn’t do it.  The bomb thing the radio’s talkin about?  We didn’t do it.”

“We still have to take you in,” Alex says firmly.  “You’re charged with theft, even if you aren’t terrorists.”

“We were framed!” the minotaur, Dirk Bavarus, snaps.

“If that’s true then you can prove it back at the Bureau,” Jared offers.

A shot rings out and the party jumps.  The dwarven woman is now standing, a cigarette hanging from her mouth and a hard expression on her face; she holds a gun in her right hand.  “You don’t believe us, fine.  But believe me, you don’t want a fight.”

The minotaur growls something in dwarven at her, and instinctively the PCs draw their weapons.  

“Put the gun down!” Watanabe demands.

“WANNA SPAR?!” Trudi cries to Dirk.

“Not really, but I guess there’s no choice if you’re not gonna let us go peacefully,” Dirk shrugs.

In one fluid motion Dirk completely rips off the license plate of the Untouchable’s van and throws it at Watanabe.  She jumps back and fires blindly.  While the first gunshots go off, the human standing with Dirk and the dwarf runs for the back of the van and leaps through the open doors.  

Jared figures, ‘Well, it worked once tonight, why not twice?’ and is about to try to use his abilities on the minotaur, when a familiar sensation falls over him.

_Don’t even think about it,_ a voice speaks to him psionically.

“Wha--?”

While the PCs take cover from the dwarf’s shots, Jared looks around to see where the psion must be.  His eyes land on a figure which steps out of the van, one he knows.  

“That’s Marks!  Terrance Marks!  Rogue agent!” he cries.

Terrance’s eyes go wide at the sound of his name and he and Jared meet gazes.  He stumbles backwards back into the van.

While this is happening Trudi has run up to Dirk and is fighting him hand to hand.  His size and width prove to be too much of an advantage as he finally manages to grab her and shove her into Alex.  The dwarven woman and Watanabe exchange gunshots, however when Trudi and Alex are knocked down Watanabe curses under her breath.  She instead aims for the minotaur and shoots him in the shin.  He lets out a roar of pain, which parallels the sound of the Untouchable’s van starting suddenly.  

A human woman leans out of the driver side window and shouts for everyone to get inside.  The dwarven woman takes a few more pop shots before complying; stumbling and growling, the minotaur steps backwards into the van.  “Don’t follow us!” he warns.  “And tell the rest of the Bureau the same!”

Seeing they’re about to lose their chance, Jared rushes.  With a psionic burst added to his speed, he runs past Alex and Trudi and leaps.  Jared slams into the minotaur and the two fall into the van.  The doors slam after them and the other Knights stare in horror.

“That ... _idiot!”_ Alex shouts.

Watanabe is forced to be driver (Alex declines Trudi’s offer to drive), and the Knight’s van peels out of the garage.  A high speed chase through downtown Atlanta follows, even at nearly eleven at night the streets are packed (especially with the congestion from the attack at the Olympics).  The Untouchables detour all over downtown, swerving to avoid being caught in traffic jams.  The Knights follow and are finally about to hit I-75, when Watanabe sees the dwarf woman lean out of the passenger side window.  She tries to avoid the shot, but the dwarf shoots out one of the front tires.  The Knight’s van skids off the road, slamming into a gas station.  

When everyone gets their bearings straight, Alex passes out cure spells, Delria picks herself off the dash and groans about how she should’ve been wearing a seatbelt, Watanabe beats the steering wheel furiously and curses about she’ll have to get a shotgun.
_________

Hours later after cleanup is done, Alex’s cel rings.  Tired and frustrated, he debates taking it, but finally answers after it persistently rings.  “Yeah, yeah.  P’tarr here.”  A pause.  “Jared?!  Where are you!”

Jared Belmont stands outside of a gas station in the middle of nowhere outside of Atlanta.  Agents pick him up, and when he’s reunited with his teammates he’s bombarded by questions of how he got where he was, what happened in the van, why he’s still alive ... He manages to silence them long enough to explain what happened.

After falling with Dirk Bavarus into the van, he realized he hadn’t planned this out very well.  As soon as he looked up he was staring into a pistol being held by the human man the Knight’s had seen only briefly.  Beside him was Terrance Marks, the rogue psion.  Terrance was rocking back and forth, holding his arms around himself and staring all around the back of the van--the nervous shifting of his eyes dotted with hacking coughs.  The human with the gun warned Jared not to try anything.

Jared could only raise his hands and try to remain calm.  He was taken aback when he heard the minotaur laughing.  Dirk slapped Jared’s shoulder, laughing loudly.

“Holy sh*t!  That was hardcore!  I can’t believe you did that,” he laughs.

The dwarven woman, sitting shotgun, glares over her shoulder.  “Stop congratulating him.  The h*ll are we gonna do with him?”

The driver, a woman with blonde hair and a nervous voice, said “Please don’t kill anyone.”

“Haven’t had any reason to yet,” the dwarf replied.  

The minotaur only chuckled at Jared’s expression.  

Jared lowered an eyebrow at Terrance Marks.  “Um ... Are you okay?”

“No, I’m not okay!” the psion snapped.  “I hate being in the back ... hate it.  No windows.”

_“You’re_ the one who got in the back, Marks,” the dwarf said.

“Should I lower the gun?” the human holding Jared at gunpoint asked.

“No, not yet, Harry,” the minotaur shook his head.  Placing a huge hand on Jared’s shoulder, the minotaur stares hard into the young Knight’s eyes.  “Listen.  We’re not gonna kill you.  So that you can go back to the Bureau and tell them.  Tell them we did not bomb the Olympics.  We were just passing through.”

“I-I’d really like to believe you.  But it’s not up to me ...”

“Sh.  Listen.  Someone’s after us.  Yes, we’re thieves.  Yes, we’re criminals.  But we’ve never killed anyone.”

“And that was one h*ll of a sloppy bomb in that park,” the dwarf throws in.  “If it was mine it would’ve been better.”

Jared took a deep breath.  “Can I ask a question?”

“Sure, why not?”

“Terrance ...” Jared began.  “What are you _doing_ here?”

Terrance looks up at Jared, wiping sweat off his brow.  “Why’d they send you?” he whispers hoarsely, adding a cough to end of his sentence.

“Huh?  The BMM doesn’t know where you are, you think they sent me to get you back?”

“Get me back?” Marks repeats sourly, beginning to rub the tops of his hands furiously.  A bitter grin crosses his face.  “No, no, I guess you weren’t.”

“Why did you go rogue?”

“I had to get away.  He was always there ... in my head.  And the office ...”  Taking shaky, asthmatic breaths, Terrance finally recollected himself.  “I hated my office.”

Jared stared at him blankly.  “What?”

“Things were being moved around.  A lot of computers and things were being moved into my office.  There was no room anymore.  I couldn’t take it anymore.”

“... You left because of claustrophobia?”

_“Yes,_ alright!” he snapped defensively.  “There is more ... But that’s the main reason.”  When Jared could only stare slack jawed, Marks continued.  “I came across the Untouchable’s files by luck.  It just appealed to me.  They’re always moving.  I found them and caught a ride.”

“He’s our new good luck charm,” Dirk adds with a grin.  “D*mn it’s great to have someone around who knows how the Bureau works.   But sorry, we’re gonna have to cut this short.”

Before Jared could say anything more, Dirk swung his huge fist and the world fell black ...

As Jared finishes his story, his teammates all exchange glances.  

Delria rolls her eyes and begins to walk out of the Atlanta office.  “I’m gonna go get drunk again,” she grumbles.


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## Acquana (Oct 11, 2003)

*Yet Another Route 66 Gallery ...*

Not a storyhour update, but still cool.

I recently asked my friends to hand over the Route 66 art they've been doing, and I was shocked to find *just* how much artwork Delria's player has done.  Wendy Witherow has such an amazing work ethic, and is constantly drawing.  

Delria's Gallery, Portraits of a Druid

Admittedly there's not much at the moment, but a lot of it doesn't quite apply to the storyhours yet.  Just wait, the best is yet to come.


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## Acquana (Nov 25, 2003)

*Just a bump*

Well, a bump and an apology.  Lotsa work this quarter, but for SCAD school is out for winter break!  So in between EN Publishing work (I hope) and getting more sleep I'll be updating Route 66.

Big news!  The campaign is almost over!  Some really big stuff went down this quarter in game, so I'll all rearin to get the rest of you caught up on it!  I hope to update soon!


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## Acquana (Feb 3, 2004)

*Holy Crap Omg Omg It's An Update*

OMG Can this be an update?!  You betcha it is!  It's an update!  Whoo hoo!

What do I have for all of you? Why, more story, a new player character, and more art!  Yay!  For the new art check the links, and in Trudi's Sketchbook. 

This is gonna be fun.
_________________________
*Chapter Four
Interstate 10*

_July 28, 1996_

The morning after their wreck, the newbie Knights all gather in a spare office the Atlanta headquarters can offer.  Marshall Whitman, their commander from Savannah, and Autumn Yieotanna, one of the high ranking psions from Savannah, both arrive in Atlanta.  The Knights are told they’re about to be given new orders.

Whitman arrives first, Autumn close behind.  Marshall sits down at the head of the small meeting table, Autumn stands by him rather than sitting.  This is the first time the PCs other than Jared have met the psion, and none of them get a very fond impression of her.  Mostly because of Autumn’s very smug expression, that and when she speaks half of what she says hints of her doubts on their performance and competence.  Well, alright, that and she dresses and holds a manner of herself to make it seem like she probably just slept her way to the top.  Del is horribly hungover, and has little patience for Autumn’s attitude.

Whitman finally clears his throat and pulls out a set of files.  “Please don’t take Agent Yieotanna’s criticism harshly.  You all did rather well under the circumstances.”

“Thanks!” Trudi blurts out.

Whitman is taken back momentarily, but smiles and continues.  “Considering that you’re the only agents we’ve got who’ve faced the Untouchables head-on before ...” he says with a grin to Jared.  “... You’ll be the ones on this case until further notice.”

Alex lowers an eyebrow.  “Um.  Aren’t we a little new at this?  Shouldn’t an investigative team be on this case?”

“Don’t worry.  You’ll have help.  You both can come in,” he calls to the door.

The door opens and a large man with a mess of brown hair steps in.  He’s wearing a Black Dog t-shirt over his gut, jeans that are too tight.  A huge grin is plastered over his face.  “Agent Greenman, at your service,” he announces himself.

Del’s headache gets worse as soon as he walks in and she grumbles under her breath.

“I’m your tech man,” Brian says, shaking Alex’s hand.  “Or tech god is more like.  I can make pretty much any computer sit up and dance for me.”

Jared smiles brightly at Brian’s t-shirt.  “Hey, you play Black Dog!”

“You kiddin?  I play everything!” Brian says, eagerly turning to the fellow gamer. 

“I work there!”

“Hey, no sh*t!  Awesome!”

Marshall Whitman clears his throat.  “Agents.”

“Oh, sorry,” Brian says with a sheepish grin.  He squeezes himself between Del and Jared, Del scoots away from him and stares deeper into her coffee.

“Greenman will your tech support.  He’ll be handling most of the file searching and information gathering from Savannah,” Whitman continues, adding a glance to the door.  “The rest of you will be on the road as soon as possible.  We have a van for you, it’ll be up to you to fill in the gaps between what we can do from here.”

“How’s the divination going?” Watanabe asks.

“Not as well as it should,” Whitman sighs.  “The Untouchables obviously have something they’re using to throw us off.  It’s not very strong, we have found a trail here and there.  Enough to tell that they’re at I-10 by now.  We’ll get you on the road, just I’m going to inform you a little more in detail of what you’re going up against.”

With that he opens the files and sets out a series of photographs.  The PCs recognize the members of the Untouchables they encountered the night before, and Whitman gives them names to put to faces.  The minotaur, as they knew, is Dirk Bavarus, their leader.  He’s been in and out of Gaian prisons for nearly twenty years, but for nothing major, only petty theft and the like.  His main partner is the dwarf, a woman named Colma “Dyna” Anders, the Dyna is short for dynamite.  She’s their demolitions expert.  She’s the one with the biggest criminal record of the lot: Dyna was briefly an illegal weapons dealer, has been charged theft of components for explosives, and arson.  The human the Knights saw was Harrison Felton, the first of two mundanes in the Untouchables.  The BMM is unsure how Harry met Dirk, but all that matters is that Harry is now their hacker.

At the sound of the word “hacker,” Trudi tenses and everyone hears her repeat it in a furious growl.

Unfazed, Whitman continues.  Harry’s younger sister is Sadie Felton, and is the Untouchables’s driver.  She’s the enigma.  While even her brother has had a criminal record (for hacking into corporate systems), Sadie is completely clean.  She is one of a group of mundanes who own a completely legitimate, normal auto repair garage in Dallas, Texas.  The Bureau’s sources can only assume that Sadie has been dragged into this by her brother.

The most disturbing news of the night had been the new addition to the Untouchables: Terrance Marks, missing Bureau psion.

While Whitman is speaking, Jared hears her voice speaking only to him:  _Good morning, Belmont._

_Morning, Agent Yieotanna,_ he replies.

_I’m giving you your orders on behalf of J’Qwuan._

_I have different orders than the rest of my team?

Yes.  Your only target is Marks.  And when you meet him, kill him._

Jared accidentally knocks over his drink and fumbles to try to clean it up.  When he looks back up at Autumn, she wears a dark grin over her face that lets him know he didn’t misunderstand her.

Whitman recollects himself after the brief distraction of Jared cleaning up the spill.  He is about to say something more, until the door opens again.  A stack of books lumbers in.  Everyone who faces the stack can see it’s being held by someone, but the thin-armed someone is having great difficulty getting in.  

“Will you be needing help?” Whitman offers, standing slightly.

“Oh.  Oh no, I’m fine,” a soft, male voice from behind the books says.  “I’ve go--”  Before he can finish his sentence, the young man lets out a soft cry as the books begin to tumble from his hands.   As the books pile at his feet, the Knights get a good look at the young man who has just entered.  He looks no older than seventeen, soft-faced and smooth featured.  He stares at the books at his feet with a look of disappointment more then frustration and begins straightening them.

“I hope you’re not planning on bringing all those ...” Whitman says softly.

The young man raises his face suddenly, his steel blue eyes widen and the long, platinum hair that hangs down his back flutters with the movement.  “I can’t?”

“Who’s this?” Alex asks.

“Hey!” Trudi says, standing.  “You need help with those?”

Before the young man can answer, Trudi rushes beside him and begins grabbing books off the floor.  He turns red in the cheeks slightly as he stares up at her.  “You’re tall ...”

“This,” Marshall Whitman begins, “Is your new member.  His work with the Bureau has been brief so far, but he’ll be a big help.  He knows at least something about everything.  This is Pr--”

The young man coughs loudly.

Whitman stops and the two stare at one another briefly.  The newcomer’s eyes thin slightly and his lips tighten.  Finally sighing deeply, Whitman tries again.  “This is North.”

“A pleasure,” North says with a gentle smile, offering his hand to Trudi.  

“Hi!  I’m Trudi!” she shouts, eagerly shaking North’s hand.  He grunts as his hand is squeezed rather tightly.

“North, I briefed you beforehand.  These are your teammates: Jared Belmont, Trudi Schneider, Twilight Lokya, Rebecca Watanabe--”

The other agents all face Watanabe.  She rolls her eyes.

“--Delria, and your commander Alexander P’tarr.  Brian Greenman will be tech.  I wouldn’t worry about that,” Whitman adds when North seems lost as to what he means exactly by “tech.”

“That’s enough,” Whitman finishes, recollecting the files.  “You’d all better hurry.”

_________________________

The Knights receive a new van for the journey, and Delria has a bit of evidence to start off the mission.  Before leaving, she places an inhaler in Brian Greenman’s hands.

“I found it at the scene when the Untouchables fled.  I’m pretty sure it must belong to someone in their group.”

“I betcha you’re right.  The name’s been scratched off of this prescription sticker.”

Delria stares at him, not really up to speed on Terran medical practices.

“But hey, the insurance info is there …  This is definitely good.  I’ll get back with ya.”  He pats the top of her head, something Delria absolutely can’t stand from tall folk, but she manages to control herself.

Trudi has packed the van to the brim with emergency supplies for the trip, most of it being snacks from a convenience store.  While Alex tries to tell Trudi it’s not necessary, North slams a pile of books next to him.  Looking between North and Trudi, Alex sighs in frustration.

“No,” he snaps to North.  “What are all these?”

“For research.”

“That’s what Brian is for!” 

North frowns.  

“You were supposed to be on this mission for whatever knowledge you’ve got in your head.  There is room for you, not all this crap.”

An expression much like his entire lineage has been insulted, North growls out something in a language no one in the party can understand.

Alex is taken aback by the thus-far soft-spoken youth’s outburst, then shakes his head.  “Look if you understand nothing else, understand I am ordering you to leave the books and to get in the van.”

North notices the van as if for the first time.  He looks it over, staring questioningly at the tires.

Delria has walked beside Alex and flies up close to his ear.  “Did you hear what he was mumbling in?”

“Yeah … Not sure I understood it though.”

“Sounded Orcish to me.”

“No, no.  Too much … I dunno, Greek thrown in to be Orcish.”

“Is there any other way to get there?” North suddenly asks, looking slightly ill.

Alex stares at him, dumbfounded.  “What?  No!  Just get in the car.”

“You’re ordering me?”

“… Yes!  Everyone just get in and stop wasting time!”

As everyone piles in Jared is once again driver, Watanabe takes shotgun, and the others try to find a comfortable seating situation.  Predictably North is the last inside.  As he crawls into the far back he is again muttering in his strange tongue.

“There it is again,” Delria whispers to Alex.

“Yeah, yeah … Funny, I feel like I’ve heard it before.”

_________________________

The trip down I-10 is fairly uneventful.  The group receives calls from the Bureau every hours or so as the attempts to follow the Untouchables’s whereabouts grow increasingly more difficult.  The group stops for lunch at a Denny’s (North chooses to stay outside of the van alone, and Trudi entertains most of those inside with much shouting at the claw machine and playing with Delria), and then head back on the road (Alex again has to order North back in the van before he’d do it).

Shortly after this a call finally arrives from Brian.  The asthma medicine turns out to be Terrance Marks’s!   Through the insurance he has managed to track that a refill prescription was put through only hours before, at a Walgreen’s in Tallahassee, Florida.  (Most of the team more familiar with technology can guess that in order to get the information this quickly Brian isn’t using wholly legal methods, but no one lets on to the still oblivious Trudi that their new partner is a “hacker.”)

A real lead, and only day one.  The team now has a direction to go, and Jared raises the volume of his skaa tapes in excitement.

They arrive at Tallahassee and begin a search.  They all realize they probably won’t be lucky enough to run into the Untouchables at the Walgreen’s, but it seems a fairly good place to start looking.  Jared parks the van and the group begins to get out.  As soon as Alex, Trudi, and Twilight are out, however, they stop.  Exiting the Walgreen’s is Sadie Felton and Terrance Marks.  The pair look horrified and Terrance grabs Sadie’s arm to run.  

“Everyone out, now!” Alex snaps.

The BMM team gets out, but are unable to beat Terrance and Sadie to their van.  Watanabe tries to shoot out their tires, but the van speeds backwards straight out of the parking lot nearly as soon as it’s started.  Quickly the team rushes back to their vehicle and Jared slams on the gas.

The two vans give chase through the middle of Tallahassee, swerving by other cars and taking sharp turns.  Jared grits his teeth and tries to follow Sadie’s movements, but she’s a d*mn good driver.  The other agents all keep their weapons ready; and also keep trying to tell Jared how to follow her.  In frustration Jared snaps at the rest of the group so they’ll all stop shouting at once.

It’s at that point that a cold rush goes through the van.  Jared’s breath nearly stops.  How could he have forgotten what Terrance could pull off?  Everyone in the van winces in pain as a sharpness pierces their heads.  Jared is the only one left conscious, but even then as soon as he lifts his head he realizes he’d briefly not been watching the road.  He lets out a horrified cry as he swerves out of the way of an eighteen wheeler.  The car skids and screeches off the road, landing in a ditch.  

When everyone regains their senses they see that the van has been wrecked twice in two days.  While no one is hurt, North has disappeared.

More investigation follows.  With the help of the BMM clean-up crew that arrives to aid them the Knights are able to find the hotel the Untouchables were staying at.  Were.  They had checked out in a hurry, naturally.

Frustrated and bruised, missing a team member, the Knights take up the offer of one of the clean-up crew to stay at one of the local motels.  To their surprise, North is already there, waiting for them.  Alex and North get into a short argument when North refuses to say what exactly happened, but Alex finally gives up and retires to a room.

Delria follows Alex briefly.  “So, hey.  Figured out what his language is yet?”

Alex shrugs.  “Funny thing … It kinda sounded like Centaur.”


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## Horacio (Feb 4, 2004)

An update!
An Update!
An Update!
GREAT!

I hope you will give us another update soon, please, please, pretty please!!!


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## Acquana (Feb 5, 2004)

*Yay!  A fan!*

Horacio!  Yay!  

Aww, how can I not when you ask so nicely?  ^_^  Another update for you!  Lots more art, yet another PC, and much plot thickener to go around!

_________________________
Chapter Five
Moundville

*July 29, 1996*

The Knights finish up their stay in Tallahassee while BMM members fix their van.   It’s not even six in the morning when Alex pulls himself out of bed and forces Jared and North up.  Getting the girls up proves to be far more of a hassle: while Del is a light sleeper, Watanabe is abnormally grumpy after first getting up, and Trudi sleeps like a rock.  Twilight tapes the frustration that Del and Watanabe have trying to get the sleeping behemoth out of bed.

But finally the agents get back on the road.  They call their commander, and Whitman answers dutifully.  He assures the knights not to get discouraged, other agents in Savannah are going to try a more precise divination spell.  It could take a while.

“In the meantime, I’m sending all of you back on the road.  You’ll be meeting another agent in Alabama, near a town called Centerville.  A Bureau administrator has asked for assistance.  By the way, Nores—North,” Whitman corrects himself quickly.  “It’s William Spacey.  He says he’s eager to meet you again.”

After the conversation ends, all eyes turn to North, who only shrugs.  “I know Mr. Spacey, yes.  It’s been a while.”
_________________________

The agents drive onto Mr. Spacey’s property shortly before lunchtime. As the van cruises down the long driveway Jared lets out a long whistle.  In agreement Watanabe nods: the place is beautiful. .  It's a glorious house, a plantation style mansion with a wide lawn and beautiful gardens full of summer flowers.  Two story, wide patios on the second floor, columns in the front.  Very picturesque.

At the front of the driveway they’re greeted by two individuals: one, a middle aged man with receding brown hair, a decently made suit and a wide smile; the second is a straight-faced, extremely thin woman with red hair cut around her neck. 

“Norestar!” the man cries as soon as the agents step out of the van.  

North turns slightly red and the human walks up to greet him.  “William,” he replies awkwardly under his teammates’ stares.

“It’s been too long, friend,” Mr. Spacey says warmly with a pat to the younger man’s back.  “And you must be the agents I sent for.”

“Agent P’tarr,” Alex says with a nod.

He nods back and motions to the woman who hasn’t moved.  “This is the agent that arrived to meet you earlier this morning.”

“Agent Raine Weaver,” she announces, holding out a hand to Alex.

“Those clothes are great!” Trudi shouts, bounding in front of Alex and shaking Raine’s hand for him.  “That’s Chinese, right!”

“Y-yes …”

“I base all my designs on Asian stuff!”

Alex quickly passes introductions around to fill the pause that follows; then Spacey gestures for his guests to enter the house.  The agents follow him in and listen as he talks amiably with “Norestar,” about Bureau business and showing him what revisions have been made to the house.  From the sound of the conversation, the agents who have previously known North are now very aware that he’s been keeping more secrets than they guessed.  Well, all save Trudi, who still has Raine trapped in conversation about Asian fashion.

For those who notice, they find that Mr. Spacey may live on Terra, but hasn’t been there his whole life.  He was born on Gaia, and has been living alone since his children went off to college and magic school, and his wife divorced him.  It’s fairly obvious he only knows how to keep up appearances as a Terran homeowner, considering how much magic covers the house.  There's no conventional plumbing, some of the rooms have chandeliers that have no bulbs or candles, but tiny, glittering lights that hang suspended above.

The agents are lead to the parlor, the observant Knights notice the spell books and Gaian texts that fill one of the walls.  Mr. Spacey also has a set of magical talismans and ancient ceremonial Elven weaponry in a glass case.  Just inside the parlor a brownie stands waiting. 

“Ah, Brambleheel, get some drinks for the guests,” Mr. Spacey instructs him.  The brownie bows with a bright smile and waves to Delria before he leaves.

“You know him?” Watanabe asks.

Delria shakes her head.  “Full-blooded brownies all act like they know each other.  Just the way it is with them.”

As they all settle down, Alex finally clears his throat.  “This is great and all … Thanks for the hospitality, Mr. Sp--”

“Please, call me Bill.”

“…Bill … But we were called in for a reason, right?”

Uncomfortably Bill loosens the collar of his shirt.  “Uh, yes.  There is a bit of a problem at a nearby gravesite.”

Mr. Spacey then informs the agents of an Native American monument outside of Centerville, called Moundville.  As soon as the words leave his mouth, North’s eyes light up and he begins spouting out everything he knows about the site, which is a surprisingly large amount.  Bill politely waits as North talks about the several hundred year old site, until Watanabe almost audibly rolls her eyes. 

“Oo-kay,” she sighs out.  “We get the idea.”

North stops mid-sentence and stares at his feet.

Bill clears his throat and continues.  A group of goblins have made camp around the Moundville archeological site, and tourists are being put in danger.  They've been attacking people, and the park rangers believe that a dangerous animal may be loose.  Spacey knows better.  He also mentions that there is a specter who haunts the site.

The agents exchange glances.  Bill begins to go on about the goblins until Watanabe interrupts him.  “What about this ghost?” she asks.

Bill nods.  “He … is a rather uneasy spirit lingering around the site.  In one of the tombs, specifically.  I’ve run into him before and--"  He cuts himself and sighs deeply.  “He’s very dangerous.”

“Well … How so?” Jared presses further.

Bill ponders his words carefully, rubbing his chin.  He then takes a deep breath and walks to a desk on the far side of the room.  “I must be honest with all of you, there’s something else besides these goblins that needs to be handled.  It’s one of the reasons Weaver is here.”

Alex turns to Raine and she nods.  “I’m an undead hunter,” she answers his questioning glance.  “Vir and Genya sent me to help Mr. Spacey before all of you were contacted.”

“Who?” Jared asks.

“Genya Toril and Yukamaya Vir,” Alex relies.  “The two head Knights at the office in New Orleans.”

“It’s about this ghost …” Bill finally continues.  “He’s dangerous.  I hate to do this, but I think that the only way to make sure no one gets hurt is to exorcise him.”

Watanabe scowls, then leans close to Jared.  “Something’s not right here,” she whispers to him.

“What has he done?” Jared asks for her.

Looking slightly more nervous, Spacey clears his throat.  “He attacked me.”  He then pulls up his coat sleeve to show an arcane mark on his arm.  “And he sealed away my magic.  I could’ve handled him myself until this … That’s why I need help.  I don’t think this is going to go away on its own.  And so long as he continues to attack humans then the tourists that go through Moundville are in just as much danger from this specter as they are from grave-robbing goblins.”

“So, take care of these goblins, then handle the ghost as necessary,” Alex sums up.

“Maybe getting rid of the goblins will be enough to satisfy the ghost,” Jared offers.

“I don’t know …” Spacey says, shifting his weight.  “Just … please don’t take any chances.”

“Are any of you equipped to handle this?” Weaver asks the team.

Trudi is the first to note that none of them have weapons capable of not just “swishing” through a ghost thing.  Spacey assures them that he does have a way to handle that, but he’ll give it to them before dark, when the goblins and ghost are more likely to come out.
_________________________

The agents are allowed to wander the house and grounds as they please.  Jared stays around the library and begins perusing Bill’s collection, Alex asks Raine about business in New Orleans, Trudi goes off to finish some sewing she was working on, and Watanabe, Twilight, and Del wander the gardens to commune with nature.  North is unsurprisingly nowhere to be seen.  

In the library Jared stumbles on a book about the world beneath the surface, the Below as it’s known.  As he figures, there is a chapter about Mind Flayers, and thinking of his boss J’Qwuan he reads.  Hopefully he’ll be able to figure out just what his rather freakish boss’s deal is.  After only a few pages of reading he begins to feel queasy and calls for Brambleheel to bring him a drink.  Quickly.

Trudi finishes a new suit for Alex and excitedly runs to tell him.  She’s starting to get a crush on him, but she’d never be able to tell him.  So making a present for him is a close second.  Alex is a bit taken aback by Trudi’s presentation of a martial artist type outfit and politely accepts it.  Then Trudi is promptly distracted by the fact that, oh! Raine is a new team member and thus needs an outfit too.  Raine simply stares blankly at Trudi’s enthusiasm.

Del, Watanabe, and Twilight make their own discovery.  While wandering the gardens behind the house they find a very beautiful lake.  Eagerly the ranger and druid run to get a better look, with Twilight close behind like an observant shadow.  They spend the better part of several hours walking around the lake until they run across a hidden area of tall reeds.  There they can just barely make out North’s form in the water.  Suddenly becoming giggly the girls find a spot to watch.  His features look different, his eyes are larger and bluer, his ears now long and pointed, hair flat-out silver, and a strange star-like birthmark rests on his forehead.    While Del and Watanabe gossip about what this might mean, Twilight films their responses and the oblivious North surrounded by arcane sparkles over the water. 

“HEY GUYS!  WHAT’S HAPPENING?!” Jared’s voice calls over the lawns.  The girls jump in surprise, as does North.  Jared is now sloppy drunk--it took many drinks to drown out the new information on J’Qwuan’s people he’d just learned.  Delria and Watanabe quickly run to meet Jared halfway in the hopes that maybe North won’t know they were watching.  Instead of turning to face the direction of Jared’s voice, Twilight focuses her camera on North further to record him dashing out of the water.  It’s difficult to ever tell if Twilight can actually be surprised … But one way or another a fairly unexpected form is caught on film: from the waist down North’s torso is propped upon the body of a horse.  The centaur quickly snatches his small necklace from off the grass, and as soon as he places it on he is once again the rather small North, fully clothed.
_________________________

Twilight has an odd delight in starting things.  Thus as most of the agents regather in the house, she sneaks beside Del and Watanabe and shows them what she caught on film.  The two let out shocked cries, distracting Alex from where he sat beside Jared trying to sober the guy up.  The rest of the agents gather around to see what Del and Watanabe were surprised about, and a moment of silence passes as they are treated to a replay of the tape.

Alex is visibly  not pleased.  Delria reminds him that he’d thought that weird language North spoke was Centaur, and he was right.  

“That doesn’t explain nearly enough,” Alex grumbles.
_________________________

Dinner is awkward at best.  Jared is force-fed large amounts of food and coffee, while he feebly tries to assure Raine he’s okay.  Trudi is the only one unaware of the tension around most of the table.  Alex has been glaring at North through most of the meal, North has been staring at his plate silently, and the others all await the inevitable.  Even Bill Spacey senses the stiffness in the air.

Twilight being Twilight, she decides to fiddle with the tape meaningfully, which finally attracts North’s attention.  He asks to see what’s she’s so intent on, and without much more than a calm smile she shows him.  Immediately he turns a bright red and his eyes go wide.  

“Y-you …”  He looks up at everyone’s expressions and sees the only person who looks unaware of what’s on the tape is Spacey.  “You dare!” North snaps, rising to his feet.  “Perhaps now I should find a way to videotape _you_ in the shower!”

“Well, come on,” Delria quickly juts in.  “You were out in the open!”

North bristles visibly, and then points at Twilight’s still rolling camera.  A simple cantrip is all it takes to pop out a vital joint in the tape, which while the camera is still recording makes the tape unspool and make horrid sounds.  Twilight quickly gasps and shuts it off, but to her dismay the tape is tangled and ruined.

“Oh, that was cute,” Alex finally snarls.  

“I didn’t ask anyone to watch me bathing,” North replies.  “And certainly not to rec--"

“Quiet.  Listen very carefully.  I don’t care what you are.  And no one else here does either.  Centaur, Orc, human, nobody cares.  Just this secretive bullsh*t is not gonna work.”

“It wasn’t your business to know anything about me.”

“Except that I’m your commander and the lot of us are supposed to be a team.  You know what that means?  That means not disappearing at your convenience and acting aloof as though you’re something more special than everyone else.”

Spacey places down his silverware.  “Agent, please speak to royalty more civilly than that.”

Alex lowers an eyebrow.  “Royal …?”  Everyone faces Bill and North lets out a deep sigh.

This only makes Alex more infuriated and spins on the centaur, demanding the secrets to end right there that second.  An extremely heated argument follows as North doesn’t take well to Alex’s demands for information or respect.  Trudi begins stabbing the table with her fork viciously, thinking that somehow North is hurting Alex’s feelings.

Finally North relents and tells everyone the truth.  His real name is Norestar, he’s a member of the royalty of the largest tribe of centaur that still roam Gaia’s side of Greece.  He has lived much longer than most centaur (since most live only as long as humans), for over two hundred years in fact.  This abnormally long life and rather … fair manner has made life difficult for him.  Most centaur are warriors and fairly even with most people’s view of orcs.  Thus the overly dignified, gentle Norestar hasn’t fit in very well with his people.  For the last ten years he’s worked with the Bureau, mostly to get away from his tribe for long enough to gain skills that would make him of use to the centaur again.  He assures the team the only reason he kept it to himself was that he found the knowledge wasn’t something everyone really needed to know.  

(The only secret that Norestar keeps this time is that he’s also left to find a suitable bride.  Since no centaur woman wants a man so unmasculine as himself, he’s managed to remain unwed and unmated his entire life.  He hopes that perhaps he will finally find a human that he can turn into a centaur who will understand him.)  

Silence follows.  Delria pieces together that Norestar must have some pure Fey blood in him to have lived so long, or to be adept in magic.  She knows most centaur are not known for having magical prowess.  And that certainly explains his disappearences: 'Faerie walking,' being able to slip between Gaia and Terra, is quite a basic skill among Fey.  

Alex senses this as well and shakes his head.  He turns to leave the dinner room, grumbling under his breath “F***ing faeries.”

Del hears this, and helps Alex cool off with a create water spell directly over his head.  In surprise Alex jumps and stares at Del.  He seems more befuddled than offended.  Trudi didn’t figure out where the water came from, only that Alex’s suit is now sopping, which means now is the perfect time for him to wear her gift!
_________________________

Bill Spacey’s solution for defending themselves against the hostile ghost is a set of charms that can be attached to a weapon, enabling them to hurt spirits.  Norestar, Trudi, Alex, and Delria each receive one.  Watanabe refuses to even touch them, Jared and Raine each use ranged weapons that the talismans won’t work on.

They drive out to the park when Jared is sufficiently sober.  The park is technically closed by that time of evening, so Delria manages to charm the agents’ way past the gate.  Literally.  

The agents then begin their search of the area.  A nature trail leads off into the woods, Trudi and Watanabe are told to stand guard and make sure no park rangers come through.  They’re told that either Sokar or Corinthian (Twilight’s bat familiar and Del’s rook companion, respectively) will be sent to signal them if things go awry.  

As the group enters the woods they head for the largest of the burial mounds, which is where Spacey said the goblins would be lurking.  As soon as they’re nearing the mound, they hear a faint, frightened cry.  A small child is running through the woods off the side, crying that someone is after him.  Norestar and Jared are the first to speed after him and catch up to him.  Norestar quickly scoops up the kid and asks what’s wrong, seeing a little too late the child has greenish skin.  Jared is shot with an arrow in the shoulder, the goblin in Norestar’s arms stabs his side.  The woods around the Knights are suddenly full of arrows and shouts in goblin.

Quickly Corinthian makes for the skies to call for the other teammates, and the others pull out their weapons.  Automatically Raine leaps into a tree and begins sniping goblins from there; Jared pulls out his pistol and fires in the direction the arrow came from.  Twilight sends out magic missiles, and Alex taunts the goblins in their tongue to see if he can follow any of their responses as he whips out his double bladed sword.  Norestar on the other hand, tosses the goblin in his arms with a feral cry and suddenly a new figure stands where he was.  Fully centaur and clad in armor, a fachard at his side, he stares down at the now very small, cowering goblin at his hooves. 

“I have no doubt those human clothes were off a dead, human child.  You will pay for that,” the centaur sneers.

Trudi is distracted from a rolley-polley she’s found as Corinthian flies up to her and Watanabe. The two quickly run to catch up with the other teammates.

In the meanwhile the other Knights are handling themselves well, sending the goblins on the run.  Jared get a particularly good shot, which ends up stopping him dead in his tracks.  He was close to the goblin, too close.  The goblin’s head splatters from the shot and Jared is peppered with gore.  Sudden flashes to his research earlier make him drop his gun and fall against a tree in horror of what he’s done.  Del and Alex are horrified by something not entirely different: the normally peaceful, quiet Norestar is now slaughtering goblins left and right; running them through rather viciously with his pole-arm and then flinging them about, letting out Centaur war cries and bloodying his armor without regret.

Watanabe and Trudi arrive and join the fray at last.  Trudi pulls out her nunchucks and attacks while Watanabe grabs her gun.  Not far away from the outskirts of the fight Twilight summons her celestial dog, Tripod.  

As the last few of the goblins are being subdued, Alex knocks one down to the ground and demands to know what the group of goblins were doing there.  Norestar doesn’t give the goblin time to answer, galloping up to Alex and thoroughly trampling the creature to the ground.  

“Jesus Christ!” Alex shouts.  “What the h*ll is wrong with you!” 

“They stabbed me,” he replies calmly.

_“That one_ was down!  Surrendering!” the commander blasts back.  “You don’t murder captives!”

“Why not?” Norestar asks.

Delria has heard this exchange and lets out a furious scream, then flies off into the woods.  Norestar turns human again and apologizes; he’s been a centaur warrior far longer than a Bureau agent.  

The other agents regather, Jared looking particularly pale.  Trudi lumbers back with a limp goblin in her hands, a rather large head wound on it.  

“I’m sorry!” Trudi sniffles.  “Where's Delria?  Alex!  Heal him!  I just hit him ‘til he stopped moving!  I didn’t mean to!”

Norestar decides to regain some trust of the group and leans close, healing the goblin.  The goblin coughs and gurgles a bit, then realizes the severity of his situation.  Looking at the group of Knights he begins gibbering in goblin at high speed, struggling in Trudi’s tight hold.

“He’s okay!” Trudi cries in delight, hugging him.  “We should keep him!”

The others stare at her blankly in reply.  

“See?” she says, holding him up.  “He’s cute!  I’ll name him ‘Geeba’ since he says that a lot!”

Alex decides not to argue with her for the moment and asks the goblin what he and his group were doing there attacking tourists.  They learn that Mr. William Spacey had hired them to collect grave dust from the burial mound after the ghost sealed away his magic.  But they’d heard there was some kind of treasure in there and stuck around until it was found.  

Norestar threatens to kill him for lying about his friend, but Watanabe grumbles out “I knew there was something wrong here.”
_________________________

Delria manages to calm herself somewhere off the trail, and vows that next time Norestar tries something like that she’ll tranq him.  Before she leaves however, she suddenly feels very lost.  Being a druid, this is a new feeling.  She’s used to maneuvering through woods, but suddenly she doesn’t recognize the way she’d just been down.  

How this could have happened becomes clear as an icy feeling falls over her.  She almost feels an aura of dark faerie, unseelie, around her.   Then she hears a voice, a soft, slithering voice that speaks to her from all around: 

"Beautiful one, blood of Terra and Gaia . . . There will be danger soon, and if others must suffer, I won't allow it to be you.  Run.  Run while you can.  Leave the Bureau if you must.  Change is coming, and I can't guarantee your safety if you don't heed this warning now."

Delria stiffens at this and listens all around.  She hears nothing more.


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## Acquana (Feb 5, 2004)

*And now a Meta Moment!*

Ah ... That feels much better.  We're up to Chapter Six now and things are kicking up a notch.  Del has started what would be a habit for the rest of the campaign: create water.  She was doing it so often just to douse people who annoy her that I allowed a very weak version of the spell for her to cast at will.  And hints of the love triangles which will form are just surfacing!

So let's take a brief break to review, shall we?

The new PCs are Norestar and Raine, which brought the group to a whopping seven players.  It was getting pretty cramped in my room.  ^_^;;

Norestar-- Norestar is silver-haired and fair, which makes him nearly the complete opposite of every other centaur.  Norestar's people is known for warfare, they were once the mortal army of the High Seelie Courts.  When the Fey disappeared, however, the centaur were left behind with little purpose other than making war with orc and troll tribes near them.  Norestar is techincally a bard, but can handle himself rather impressively in a fight.  While he may have been trained as a warrior (as is expected in royal centaur families), his real love is reading and song.

Norestar's player was Jen Brown.  Admittedly, I shouldn't have let her play such an overpowered monster race ... But hey, she insisted and it's hard for me to utterly refuse my player's wishes.  Jen was a senior at SCAD by the time she started playing, finishing up her last year in sequential art.  She has a thing for pretty guys (some of you may know the proper term for this is "bishounen"), and managed to make Norestar look more an more fruity every time she drew him.  She's also a furry (if you don't know, please, please don't ask), which explains her taste for playing half-animal creatures. 

Raine Weaver-- Raine is exceedingly thin, with a love for Asian dress.  She has been an undead hunter for the relatively short time she's spent with the Bureau for the Management of Magicks, working in New Orleans.  She's fairly quiet and professional, very unused to the way the PCs act around each other.  Her forte is ranged weapons, specifically long bows and crossbows.

Raine's player for the brief time she was with the group was Sam.  *sigh*  I miss Samantha so much.  She didn't make it through her sophmore year at SCAD, family problems leading her to quit and eventually move out of Savannah on her own.  SHE CAN DRAW LIKE A GODDESS.  I am serious.  She sadly didn't do her best work in the paltry drawings of Raine she did ... I wish I could show all of you her work!  But anyway, a little flaky, very sweet, and very absent minded (she was well-known for leaving at least one thing in my room every time she even walked in), and is dearly missed.  I must call her some time.

Wellp, so that's all for today, folks!  Now on with the story.


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## Horacio (Feb 5, 2004)

Thanks for the update!!


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## Acquana (Feb 16, 2004)

*?!*

875 views?!   When did this happen!

Just wanted to give a shout-out to all my readers!  I didn't know I had so many.  The view number has just jumped up so quickly ...

So hey, thanks guys.  I didn't really know how well this storyhour was doing.  Believe me, you'll be getting an update soon, but right now I'm having a bit of trouble.  My computer is at the computer doctor right now, and experts are baffled as to what exactly is wrong with it.  -_-;;  

In the meantime, who all is reading, anyway? I see Horacio clearly, but then again Horacio is hard to be ignored.  ^_^  How about some of the rest of you?  Whatcha liking?


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## Horacio (Feb 17, 2004)

Acquana said:
			
		

> I see Horacio clearly, but then again Horacio is hard to be ignored.  ^_^




I'll take that as a compliment 

Best wishes for your poor computer, hope it will get better soon


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## Acquana (Feb 25, 2004)

Horacio said:
			
		

> Best wishes for your poor computer, hope it will get better soon




And lo and behold!  It is!  ^_^  Which means that I want to get a new update up, I'm aiming for this weekend.


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## RangerWickett (Feb 25, 2004)

That means you're here!  Online!  And you can _frikkin' *call me!!!*_


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## RangerWickett (Feb 25, 2004)

P.S., glad to hear the computer's alive.    I'm just in a bit of a down mood, and would like to hear from ya.


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## Horacio (Mar 9, 2004)

Acquana said:
			
		

> And lo and behold!  It is!  ^_^  Which means that I want to get a new update up, I'm aiming for this weekend.



_2 weekends have passed_

_Horacio asks while keeping an innocent look_

And our update... ?


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## Acquana (Mar 31, 2004)

Horacio said:
			
		

> _2 weekends have passed_
> 
> _Horacio asks while keeping an innocent look_
> 
> And our update... ?





-_-;;

Curses.  I knew I wouldn't get away with it.  

Anway ... The last few weeks of last quarter were pretty hectic.  I just moved into a new apartment (out of the dorms now!  Yay!), and I'm stickin' around Savannah for a while.

So right now I'ma lookin for jobs, and workin on a comic too!  I'm working with one of my players (the best boyfriend EVER) on a comic for his senior project.  He's Jared's player, by the way.  ^_^

Lesse ... Sorry about the lack of email.  But the computer is still being a bastard and freezing up at random intervals.  >_<  Plus getting settled into "the real life" is taking up loads of time.  But hey!  You know I'm good on my word!  Be patient with me, and I'll keep you updated on the work for the comic with Marlon--and the HIgh Fantasy one I'm working on with Rangerwickett.


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## Acquana (Apr 19, 2004)

*A New Chapter!*

Yes indeedy, an update.  Over a month late, but an update notheless.  Do enjoy, all.
_________________________
Chapter Six
Grave Dust

*July 29-30, 1996*

Del catches up with the rest of the team as they’re hunting around the mound for the entrance to the tomb.  She is introduced to “Geeba,” and she takes Jared aside. 

“Remember that woman you said killed that Knight of the Round?”

Shuddering once, Jared replies “I can’t really forget.”

“I think I may have run into her a few minutes ago.”

The two keep this information to themselves, greatly disturbed by the idea.  

An entrance is found at last, hidden among shrubs off the trail.  Jared marks the spot with a d20 he had on hand, in case they should ever need to find it again.  The group enters the tomb, and it’s fairly simple.  The first hall has three rooms, at the end of it a stair leading up.  They pass the rooms and are about to go up the stairs when Watanabe stops mid-stride.

Alex notices this and turns.  “Uh … Watanabe?”

“You’re not going up there, are you?” she asks her team with a hard expression.

They all glance at each other.  “Well, why not?” Jared asks.

“Because that’s a tomb,” she snaps.  “I’m not moving from this spot.  Period.  Do you plan to desecrate graves?”

“We’re not going to desecrate anything,” Del says firmly.

Alex sighs.  “Look … I don’t know much, but I do know that ghost may be dangerous.  It had its reasons, but it did attack Spacey.”

Trudi is confused by the moral debate.  “Weren’t we supposed to get dirt or something?”

With a half-shrug Alex nods.  “Eyeah … Those are our orders.”

Watanabe, however, is determined not to move from the foot of the stairs.  So the others leave her behind.  They head up the short flight dug out of the ground into an upstairs room with a low, slightly crumbling ceiling.  Around the room are mounds which undoubtedly are graves; crude markers stick up out of the dirt.  The Knights notice an open vial on the ground, surrounded by disturbed dirt; this was obviously where Spacey and the mound’s ghost met.  As the group looks for signs of where the ghost is, Alex and Del argue in low voices about whether or not they should retrieve the dust.  Alex is determined to at least follow orders, to follow protocol and contact the BMM afterwards, while Delria is determined not to trust Spacey at all.

Meanwhile Watanabe sits at the foot of the stairs, whistling softly to herself.  She suddenly feels the air grow cold, and she notices a small dust devil form in the last room before the stair.  She quickly stands and prepares herself for what she knows is about to happen: a form begins to take shape, translucent, tall, and human.  A Native American man in his early twenties appears, a longspear at his side and his transparent body covered in tattoos.  He looks at Watanabe with empty eyes and frowns.  

He speaks in an ancient tongue for a moment, but at the sight of Watanabe simply gawking at him rather than becoming hostile, he seems to relax.

“Who are you?” he asks in a smooth, whispering voice.

Watanabe’s thoughts jumble together and she stutters a bit—this is the first time she’s seen an apparition beyond Dimitri’s reflection, she’s unsure of what to do.  “Um—Look, it’s fine!  I have nothing to do with anything upstairs—I didn’t want to desecrate any graves in the first place…”

She trails off, realizing she’s done something abhorrently stupid as an expression of sheer hatred crosses the spirit’s face.   

“Say nothing more,” he says simply.  Without letting her correct herself the warrior turns and flows up the stairs past her.

Del and Alex end up wrapping up their argument when Alex simply picks up the vial.  Even though he doesn’t like the idea of stealing from a graveyard any more than the rest of them, this will be the best way to find out what Spacey is after, in his opinion.  Raine feels a chill down her spine and quickly shouts for everyone to be quiet, pulling out a holy symbol and her crossbow.  Everyone turns to see the ghost reach the top room and manifest, holding his spear in ready.  Despite trying to show the spirit they mean no harm, the ghost flies into rage.  He shouts that he is the mound’s guardian and will not allow anything, human, goblin, or no, to harm this sacred ground.

He rushes at the party, they have no choice but to defend themselves.  He very quickly knocks Jared away, unaffected by the psion’s staff, and throws himself viciously at Alex.  The spirit is taken aback that Alex’s double-bladed sword can actually affect him, but doesn’t allow this to slow him down.  Seeing Alex in danger, Trudi quickly leaps into combat, trying to force the ghost to get away from her crush.  He doesn’t, however.  The guardian spirit shudders from attacks from Norestar and Trudi, but the ghost is determined.  He doesn’t even pause until he stabs Alex through with his weapon and forces the mixed-blood into the wall.  Alex slides to the floor, bleeding, and drops the vial, holding a hand to his wound.  This sends Trudi into hysterics, striking the ghost with everything she has.  He is nearly destroyed completely until Delria threatens to tranq her.  

“He HURT ALEX!” Trudi screams at her, seething.

“I’m fine,” Alex says, standing, the last of Norestar’s healing spell taking effect.

“We’re not going to fight you anymore!” Delria snaps at the ghost.

“You were here to take that, weren’t you?” he says, pointing at the vial.

Watanabe is standing at the top of the stair.  “We’re only here to find you and talk to you.  The man you defended this place from is still trying to get grave dust.”

“He has lost his magic,” the ghost replies with a dark grin.  “What else will it take to teach him to stay away?”

“You don’t understand …” Del begins calmly.  “If you keep doing this, other people will come and force you to leave.”

Defensively the ghost spins on her.  “No one can do that!”

“Yes they can,” Alex says.  “They can send spiritualists out here.  Force you to cross over.”

The ghost is affected deeply by these words.  His weapon fades and he thinks.  “What does this man want?”

“You  can’t ask us,” Jared insists with a shrug.  “We don’t know.”

The ghost pauses, then folds his arms.  “I would like to speak to this mage.”

The Knights exchange looks.  Alex shrugs under the stares of the others.  Finally Delria speaks.  “Sure.  We can take you to him.”

Again the ghost pauses, then says, “I cannot leave on my own.  I will need someone to walk me there.”

Knowing full well what he meant and without any hesitation Delria replies, “Alright.  I’ll do it.”

Alex gawks at her, Raine shakes her head doubtfully.  Trudi is about to ask what’s going on before the ghost turns into mist, which surrounds Delria’s tiny form.  She jerks once, then her eyes reopen.  As the mist disappears she stands straight, her eyes teeming with a power not seen in her before, and her shoulders square with determination.

Delria speaks, and though it is her voice it most distinctly not normal:  “Take me.  Now.  I will speak to this mage myself.”  

Delria possessed by the ghost walks firmly down the stairs, everyone gives her a wide berth.  As they are about to exit the mound, however, she stops and glares furiously at the Knights behind her.  “Someone is taking something out.”

Everyone exchanges glances, then all turn to Norestar.  He stands at the very back of the group, blinking.  “What?”

Alex groans and rubs his temples.  “What did you do?”

“I took a handful of dust.”

“Throw it back.”

“I can’t … I just grabbed some and shoved it in my pocket.  It’s all over the inside of it.”

Delria growls, “I will not leave my guard with something disturbed.”

Alex steps up to the much shorter Norestar.  “Look, just take off your pants.”

Trudi blushes, Watanabe groans and looks away.  Jared shakes his head wearily.  Delria simply stands with her arms crossed, waitingand everyone looks away in disgust to notice that Norestar apparently doesn’t believe in underwear.  Alex takes off his shirt and orders Norestar to cover himself up. At this Trudi turns beet red and her eyes go wide.

Twilight is taking great delight at filming the others’ reactions to all of this.
_________________________

The drive back is awkward.  Delria sits in the car, her eyes shifting over the vehicle and holding onto the seat as though she’ll fly out if she doesn’t.  Raine is sitting in the back with Norestar, but has plastered herself against the window to give him and his only marginally clothed lower half as much space as much as possible. Trudi sits next to Delria, looking highly uncomfortable while Twilight films the inside of the car. Alex sits in the front with his arms crossed over his bare chest, throwing nervous glances over his shoulder at Delria.  Jared hasn’t even bothered to turn on the radio, and Watanabe has been glancing at Delria as well, wondering why she wasn’t fast enough to offer the spirit a host.

When the Bureau Knights return to the Spacey estate they all pile out and escort the storming, possessed half-Fey into the library.  Bill Spacey has been waiting for them, but immediately senses something wrong as they enter.

“What… what happened?” he asks, looking at their half-naked commander.

Before Alex can answer, Delria is suddenly exuding a hateful power.  “You!” her voice snarls, booming and threatening.  “How dare you send more of your mercenaries to attack sacred ground.  You will pay for it with your life this time!”  With that the spiritual spear forms in her hand and she lunges at the man.  

Spacey cries out in surprise and dodges a swing of her ghostly weapon.  He looks directly into her eyes, the expression on his face telling that he knows whom he’s now facing.  At the sight of his fear Delria smiles darkly.

“Delria!  Fight him, do it now!” Alex shouts.

Watanabe simply grins and leans against a bookcase.  “Oh no. That bastard is being attacked,” she says in monotone.  “Oh no.  What will we do?”

Jared throws an angry look at Watanabe and quickly runs to stop Delria.  Trudi deposits Geeba next to Watanabe and tells her to watch him.  The others all run to try to tackle Delria, all save Norestar.  He suddenly changes shape and is once again in full armor, weapon drawn.  

“You liar!” he shouts at Delria.  “You said you wanted to talk to William!”

“I will do what I was kept here to do!”  With that Delria tries to stab at Bill, but is disappointed by the lack of force Delria’s body holds.  

Jared concentrates and his psionic shadow appears.  Platinum follows his command and takes a swipe at Delria.  The half-Fey gasps and stiffens, then her body crumples on the desk.  However, the mist remains in air and floats toward Bill.  Norestar suddenly leaps over all others in his way and strikes the mist with ferocity.  Spacey holds the stab wound created by the ghostly spear and tries to drag himself against the wall, gasping.  He sputters out a weak thanks to his friend.

Delria is weak, but whispers to the others to stop Norestar quickly, and not let him murder the ghost.  Twilight of all people answers this call immediately and throws flames at the centaur.  Norestar is startled long enough to allow the mist to slip by him, and growls in his native tongue in anger.  

Jared is making sure Delria is okay, and the mist flows into Trudi.  After a brief cry she shudders once and then brandishes her weapon.  She throws Alex aside and slams her nunchucks across Raine’s thin back.  The woman stumbles to the floor and Trudi runs at Spacey.  

Alex pulls himself off the floor and demands no one touch Trudi unless necessary.  When Spacey tries to order Alex to make his team defend him, Alex shakes his head.  “My responsibility is them, not you.”

As Trudi looms over Spacey he cringes, waiting for Trudi to attack.  “I never meant to harm anything,” the administrator chokes out.

“You did,” Trudi’s voice says.

Norestar has put out the fire and tries to run into the confrontation, but Alex holds out a hand to stop him.  Jared prepares another mind blast, but waits to see what will happen.  Delria weakly tries to bring herself back to consciousness, Raine is clutching her aching shoulder; and through all this Twilight is still only filming, standing beside Watanabe and Geeba.

Seeing the expectant look in the possessed woman’s eyes, Spacey breaks into a sweat.  “It’s … Listen, spirit… The living have so much trouble communicating with your kind, I was trying to—I found notes on a relic capable of allowing the living to speak to the dead.  I was trying to recreate it!”

“I do not care about that.”

“I was only gathering enough grave dust for components!  I didn’t know what else was up there beyond strong spiritual power.”

“I will protect that ground.”

Spacey swallows.  “Is a bit of dust worth killing me for?”

Suddenly Trudi begins to shake.  The ghost is overwhelmed by Trudi’s emotions, and slowly, forcefully, Trudi’s own voice reaches her lips.  “You…shouldn’t…hurt people.  Don’t…hurt him.”

What follows is what sounds like a pained, pause-filled argument.  Trudi and the ghost try to take control of her body, everyone in the room is stunned to see this battle of wills.   The ordinarily simple woman is winning.  Finally the weapon slips from Trudi’s fingers and she whispers:  “I don’t care…I don’t care about any of…this stuff.  I just…don’t want to see people getting hurt like this.”

Then she falls to her knees and her muscles untense.  With a sigh her voice finishes: “V…very well.  I surrender.  Have your…component.  I…I wish to go home.”
_________________________
The ghost is taken back to the mound, and as soon as he leaves Trudi she wails and cries the rest of the way back.  Jared recovers the vial, but leaves Norestar’s pants.

The rest of the night goes by slowly.  Alex tries to make Trudi feel better, and eventually Norestar comes to drop by and apologize.  She insists that it’s fine, and something strange swells inside him at the sight of such a strong woman still shaking with emotion.  He is now completely taken with this large, naïve, strong young woman.  With this fact suddenly occurred to him, he quickly leaves her room and walks to his own alone, deep in thought.

Delria takes a moment before she goes to bed to walk by the study on the estate’s second floor.  She glances in to see Spacey holding the vial in his hand, examining the dust inside.

“Well,” she says simply.  “I hope you’re finally satisfied.”  She doesn’t even bother to see the expression on his face as she flies back downstairs. 

Raine drops by Alex’s room, where most of the Knights are meeting before they go to bed.  She leans in the doorframe and promises the next day will be easier, after all, they’re going to be headed for New Orleans.  She works there, as it houses the second largest office of the Bureau for the Management of Magicks.  Raine will be happy to help them on their Untouchables case once they get there.

Jared smiles half-heartedly.  “Sorry, I don’t think this is gonna get any easier.”


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## Acquana (Apr 19, 2004)

So anyway ... There's my update.  Just wanted to point out that there's also some new pics in the Delria: Portraits of a Druid album.  

Comments are always appreciated!


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## Acquana (Nov 2, 2004)

*Many moons have passed.*

Yes, it's November now.  Stuff happened.  As a general kind of deal, I had to switch my internet off and on again (curse you, Comcast), I have a brand new computer, I went to San Diego Comic Con with Marlon to promote Shellcat Studio, I had a booth at DragonCon, I had a job at a convenience store for just over 100 days, now I sell insurance.

Lotta stuff.

My frustration with all of my artwork for Route 66 being gone has simply lead me to make a site.  http://www.shellcatstudio.com/Route66.html

Now I have control of where the art shall and shall not go, and for now it shall stay.  

No updates yet, the site has taken up most of the weekend's spare time.  But now I feel confident in picking up where I left off.  I may be doing a similar treatment for Savannah Knights considering the site is desperately needing repair now.  Poor thing.  Hear that, RangerWickett?  ;P

Wellp, that's all for now.  Take care, and a new update should appear both here and on the site in the next two weeks.  I need to go to bed now.

Insurance ... man.  I never saw myself doing _this_.


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## Acquana (Nov 2, 2004)

Hey, by the way ... For anyone in the Savannah area, I'm looking for players for my newest campaign.

Details here: http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=105885


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## Acquana (Dec 11, 2004)

Blarg ... stuff ....

So uh ... anybody still paying attention?


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## RangerWickett (Dec 13, 2004)

What Jessica meant to say is that she and I are in the planning stages of a comic book of *Savannah Knights*, and we're ridiculously giddy about it.  I told her not to announce it 'til we knew we could get it published, and that sort of put a damper on things, but I've changed my mind now.  I've decided that if I can't get E.N. Publishing to support it, we can self-publish.  Jessie should be showing off some character sketches in the coming weeks, and we'll be getting the first issue out before the end of January.

I just thought I'd _re_post the good news, to cheer Jess up a bit.  *wink*


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## Acquana (Dec 16, 2004)

You got it!  Wickett and I are working on a rework of the first High Fantasy story: Savannah Knights!

I should have some character sketches pretty soon, but first, here's part one of Chapter Seven!
_________________________
*Chapter Seven, Part One
French Quarter

July 30, 1996*

It is earlier than usual that everyone gets up.  The same morning routine of trying to force Trudi out and bed, and Norestar into the car follow an uneventful, partial night’s sleep.  As the Knights leave, unsurprisingly, Bill Spacey is not present to send them off.  

It is still early morning that the group of Knights arrive in New Orleans.  Raine impatiently waits for the Savannah natives to finish (in her opinion) an unnecessarily long meal at a café.  Alex informs the other Knights of the situation they now face: if the Untouchables came through New Orleans, chances are it will become a lot more difficult to find them.  Anti-divination devices are illegal, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be found.  

New Orleans is full of ghosts, but even more magi.  It's one of the most highly magi populated cities on Terra, along with the second largest BMM office in the states, and one of Terra's largest black markets.  Few other places is the Bureau so lenient, vampire populations so high,  or is it so easy to buy illegal magical items.  

They eventually get to the New Orleans main office, which is headed by two Knights: Yukamaya Vir  and Genya Toril.  An elf showing the first signs of middle age, and a dwarven woman respectively.  The two of them have other more pressing issues than the Untouchables at the moment: a dragon child has gone missing.  Gaiavein, a thirty year old dragonling, the daughter of the green dragon Erina’arad.

To truly understand the implications of this is to understand that very few full-blooded dragons exist.  Especially dragonlings.  Most dragons prefer to live on Terra, after all, the dragon’s most basic instinct is to collect and horde money, and Terra is where the money can be made the most.  Modern times have completely changed the way business is done, and thus dragons have changed enough to be among the richest in the world.  This means fewer and fewer new dragons are being born as the older dragons spend their time making money, unable to go through the hassle of mating on Terra in their draconic forms.  The number of half-dragons, on the other hand, has skyrocketed in the 20th century.

Thus, the Bureau’s hands are full.  They have to find Gaiavein, and fast.  With her daughter gone less than two days, Erina’arad  is already threatening to pull funds from the BMM unless they find her.  (Even those only recently inducted into the BMM know this is *bad.)  * The PC’s have been out of the loop on current events beyond the Untouchables over the last couple of days, so this is news to them--save for Raine, who is shocked none of the others had heard. 

Vir assures the Knights that they shouldn’t worry, just to keep their minds on their own mission.  Without hesitation Vir says he’ll provide what he can for them, including someone to lend a hand with their investigation.  The best lead that the Knights currently have is that the Untouchables had to be after anti-scrying devices.  Since those are highly illegal and difficult to find, their best bet was to find who may have sold any to them, and track them from there.

The goblin in Trudi’s hands is taken away, despite its best efforts to play deaf, dumb, and totally unaware that it was responsible for helping the rest of its band kill tourists.  Trudi is deeply hurt, even as Alex tries to assure her that “Geeba” won’t be hurt.  Not that he really knows this, he and the rest of the team are just glad that goblin is in custody. 

The team meets their New Orleans guide just before leaving the office.  He’s a tall, dark, vaguely British man by the name of Balthazar Mordred.  He’s an undead hunter like Raine, and thus isn’t working during the day.  His dealings with vampires specifically has given him a good deal of experience with New Orleans’s darker side.

They leave for the markets on the Gaian side of New Orleans.  Raine and Balthazar hit it off immeadiately.  They’ve seen each other now and again along the night routes of New Orleans, but this is the first chance they’ve had to actually talk.  (Raine is taken in quickly by Balthazar’s sublte badass-ness and British accent.)

Balthazar leads the investigators through the gates from mundane New Orleans into Gaia’s side.  The Old Quarter is the most exotic location they've been to thus far: The dress is very Gaian around the Old Quarter--most of the humans dress in fashion that's a strange cross between typical fantasy and late 19th century dress.  Orcs are in fairly small number, but Orkin of all types tend not to stroll around where large numbers of humans do.  The Elf population of New Orleans is also small.  The buildings are ancient, but kept virtually new with magic.  It looks like how the French Quarter must have looked long ago.  The streets are crowded, and the buildings are ornate and picturesque.  

To the guide’s surprise, as soon as the Knights step into the marketplace their collective attention span completely dissappates.  Everyone wanders off in different directions, taking in the shops and the scenery.  Balthazar simply looks at the only ones left, Raine and Alex, and throws the commander a cold stare.  Alex can only reply with a weak smile and a half-hearted shrug.

It’s several hours later before the team is recollected into some semblance of proffessionalism. (Watanabe is sporting an eyebrow ring now, made of some form of dwarven alloy less likely to cause infection.  Trudi’s arms are full of cloth, she found a shop that deals mostly in Elven cloth that gladly takes American currency.)  Balthazaar’s patience with the team beyond Raine has worn thin by this point, but agrees to continue aiding them.  He is somewhat surprised, however, to find that during their respective shopping excursions the team had been looking at the wares in the various shops; none of them think that the main shops are going to have what they’re looking for.  

The team thus goes through darker alleys, looking for smaller shops.  Balthazaar has a few favors to call in, and gets what info he can from a handful of street performers and bartenders.  It’s nearing sunset when Delria notices a dead animal, some poor stray that had died. However upon closer inspection she is rather horrified.  There are bite marks on the cat’s stomach, two puncture marks that border on cliché.  Balthazaar sighs and says he’s noticed other animals in the same condition throughout the day.  Turning to Alex, he asks the commander to have leave of the investigation for the rest of the night.  When Alex asks why, Balthazaar simply replies that it’s obvious there’s a young vampire on the loose.  The bite marks are definitely vampiric, but only someone desperate to fight instinct would drain animals.  It wouldn’t be long before the vampire realized he’s not fulfilled with animal blood, and would become desperate.  Dangerous.

Raine agrees with Balthazaar, and asks if she can join him.  Alex folds his arms, then nods.  He says there was one more shop to check out, and certainly after that the undead hunters could go.  Balthazaar nods in thanks, adding that it’d be impossible to find a young one before sundown.
_________________________

So hey!  An update!  Along with art I've done fairly recently.  There's also a couple of new ones on the Route 66 site: Autumn Yieotanna, and Sadie, Harry, and Dyna from the Untouchables.  I figure I can update more often if I don't keep trying to make m-m-monster updates.

Anyhoo, I'm off!


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## Falkus (Dec 17, 2004)

I like it.


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## Acquana (Dec 29, 2004)

*The Savannah Knights Update*

The first update in literally years, here's a few tidbits about the Savannah Knights rewrite.

There will be changes, after all, it was my first game and I _was_ still in high school.  Expect some new characters in addition to the old ones, in particular some new villians.  That's all I can say storywise for now, at least until I get some honest pages under my belt.  So in the meanwhile, here's some character designs for Tagin-Eve, Jenny, and Finagle


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## Acquana (Jan 9, 2005)

I've been working hard on illustrations, and now on concept art for Savannah Knights.  It's been such a long time since I've touched most of these characters, I have to make sure I still remember them.  

Madeline West has gone through the most changes so far, having before been a bit stale and lacking any personality beyond that of her player.  Now she's a full-blown art school student, with a love for artsy photography and the city of Savannah itself.  The look I was going for with her is almost dead-on someone I met in my speech class in school.  






The Maxwell brothers come in a close second on the change factor.  To fit in with a more Italian heritage they're now Enrico and Iscalio Saracione.  Rick is much older than he was in the story, now almost thirty.






And looking much as they always have are the Chief and Balthazar.










So yeah, haven't heard much from my endearing fans.  Is everyone excited yet?


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