# Under The Eclipse: Updated May 19th!



## Zubkavich (Nov 13, 2002)

My girlfriend has been reading various 'Story Hour' posts and recommended that I register and start my own thread for a new campaign that we've begun. The campaign looks like it's off to a great start.

It's a one-one-one game. One player with one character and me GMing. That's just the way I like it. Lots of time for in-depth role-playing and quirky NPCs. The focus is always on the main character, so you don't have to worry about players feeling left out or the party "splitting up".

I play heavy on the role-play, with lots of fast action when things heat up. Although the first session has no magic or blatant supernatural things, it's a slow burn type of story building, laying the foundation and elements for future action-packed sessions.

I hope you don't mind if I fill you all in on the events. Feedback is welcome. If you like what I've got so far, I'll try my best to keep you all up to date on future sessions.


----------



## Zubkavich (Nov 13, 2002)

*Session One: The Pick-Up*

Karen Frost isn’t like most 19 year olds her age. While most young ladies are getting ready for university or fawning over their latest boy toy, she’s been honing her skills as a break-and-enter specialist. Her given name is Karina Gagliana; she’s a half-italian tomboy who wants to live life on the edge. Even though her mother’s tried to steer her away from her father’s legacy in the mob, she’s found it far too fascinating to ignore. It may have gotten her Pop killed before she can even remember, but she’s drawn towards it like a moth to the flame.

After moving from Albany to the heart of New York City, she gets in contact with Claudio Vercoletti. On the surface, he owns the ‘Parmesan Street Café’. Underneath the restaurant business, he helps the Italian mob move merchandise and organize “jobs”. When Karen gets a good word from her nephew Tony, Claudio decides he’ll test her out and see if she’s trustworthy enough to work for him. She’s given a simple mission: 

"Wait for a bike courier to arrive the alley beside the 10th Street Bakery during lunchtime the next day and pick up a package from him. Make sure you’re not followed, then bring it to the Café."

Excited at the chance to get her foot in the door, Karen heads to her day job. Her schedule is quite flexible and she never worries about whether she’s late or not. Karen works at a used bookstore called ‘Dog-Eared Pages’. The owner is an eccentric fellow named Sedrick VanKlouten. He waxes philosophical while overwhelming her with trivial facts about world history. Absent-minded, yet intelligent, he holds a kind of genius beneath his bizarre exterior. As she helps him reorganize the store stock, he insists that she read a new book that he’s found. The book is a strange hardcover called ‘Properties of Universal Truths’ by M. Coralsmythe. When she flips it open, it seems to be filled with all kinds of disjointed words, arranged seemingly at random throughout the pages. When she asks him how she’s supposed to read it, he just laughs and changes the subject.

Getting home after work, there’s a message from a friend of hers called Buzzard. Buzzard is lanky large-nosed fence who runs a pawnshop called ‘Pawns, Rooks and Drag Queens’ near Hell’s Kitchen. He’s got some new butterfly knives that he thought would interest her and a favor to ask as well. It seems a Haitian gang is trying to force him to take merchandise he considers too hot to touch, and they don’t want to take ‘no’ for an answer. He’s heard that she’s got mafia ties and is hoping he can get some ‘protection’ for his shop. She lets him know that it’s a possibility, but isn’t making any promises.

Buzzard also asks her if Karen has any drug ties. He’s looking for a rare drug called ‘Viperous’ that’s selling for thousands of dollars a hit. He thinks it’s a quick way to some fast cash and is disappointed when she tells him that drugs aren’t part of her criminal repertoire.

Waking up early the next day, she heads to the pick-up location on her motorcycle. She sees the bike courier, parks her bike and walks around the block to casually intercept him. The only problem is, when she gets there, he’s gone. Quickly looking down into the alleyway, she sees a hooded figure in army boots and khakis leaning over the fallen courier. The mysterious figure’s hands are covered with gloves and she can’t make out his face in the shadows. Drawing her gun, she tells him to slowly step away. The figure dashes off with incredible speed and leaps almost ten feet up to climb a fence at the end of the alleyway.

When she checks the courier, he’s more than slightly dead. His lower jaw is ripped from his face and his tongue is missing. Gagging at the sight, she looks away while checking his jacket. Luckily, the package is still there. Running from the scene, she grabs her bike and heads out on a round-about route to ensure she isn’t being followed. When she stops for a coffee on the way, she sees the hooded figure across the street, watching her. Heavily spooked, she runs to her bike and tries to lose him in traffic. The figure leaps an incredible distance and she narrowly swerves out of the way, sending him crashing into a nearby car. The figure reaches out to grab the bike, but only manages to snag her license plate off before she speeds away. Calling the Café, she receives directions to a nearby grocery that has ties to the mob. With the right key word, the owner there will help to hide her from whoever is following.

When she gets there, the mysterious figure is close behind. Dashing into the grocery, the owner draws a pistol and tries to fight off whoever, or whatever is after her. After some chaos, she escapes out the back door to a car sent by the mob to pick her up. She tries to calm down while explaining the weird events to them. She’s told to lay low and keep her face off the street while they look into it.

The next few days are simple: putting in time at the bookstore and watching her back to and from work. As the session ends, she arrives home after another shift only to find her crumpled license plate in the foyer of her apartment building. Whoever tried to get her before now knows where she lives.

It looks like the simple pick-up has gotten her involved in something far beyond anything she could have imagined...


----------



## Zubkavich (Nov 13, 2002)

*Karen Frost (Karin Gagliana) (Fast Hero 1):* HP 10; Mas 15; Init +2; Spd 35ft.; Defense 15; touch 15, flat-footed 13; BAB +0; Grap +0; Atk +1 melee (1D3+3, brass knuckles), or +2 ranged (2D6, Glock 20); SV Fort +2, Ref +3, Will +2; AP 0; Rep +0; Str 13, Dex 15, Con 15, Int 15, Wis 14, Cha 16.
*Occupation:* Criminal (bonus class skills: Knowledge [streetwise], Sleight of Hand)
*Skills:* Balance +3, Disable Device +7, Hide +5, Knowledge [streetwise]+6, Move Silently +6, Profession +5, Read/Write Italian, Speak Italian, Tumble +6
*Feats:* Defensive Martial Arts, Dodge, Personal Firearms Proficiency, Simple Weapons Proficiency
*Possessions:* Glock 90, brass knuckles, backpack, cell phone, lock pick set, multipurpose tool, flashlight, concealed holster, car opening kit and personal possessions.


----------



## Desdichado (Nov 14, 2002)

Cool stuff!  Of course, I'm definately a d20 Modern guy through and through already, so I'm easy to please with a well-written Modern tale...


----------



## Zubkavich (Nov 16, 2002)

*Session Two: A Box of Snapdragons*

Obviously paranoid after the discovery of the license plate, Karen thoroughly searches her apartment and the surrounding area, but comes up with nothing. Although she’s scared, she tries to carry on a normal routine while watching her back. Almost a week goes by with no sign of the hooded stranger or anything out of the ordinary.

Stopping at the Parmesan Street Café, Claudio’s right hand man named Stevie asks to sit down with Karen. He explains that Claudio’s gone out of town on business, but that he’s going to make sure she’s taken care of. The mob assigns two men to keep an eye on Karen’s neighborhood. The first is a no nonsense tough named Conroy. He prides himself on taking orders well and not asking questions. The other is an ox of a man named Mr. Melt. Melt speaks only when he has to, and only when he has useful information to impart. He’s a careful individual considering his massive size and methodically checks Karen’s apartment for any bugs or other electronic devices. The Italians don’t want to take any chances. If there’s a new gang on the street, the FBI or something else entirely, they don’t want to be caught off guard.

Checking her mail, Karen finds a package pick-up slip. Her mob “escort” insists that they go with her and check it out before she cracks it open. It’s a medium sized box with Karen’s name on the sender address and the delivery line. Knowing that Karen hasn’t sent herself any packages, Conroy calls the mob’s explosives specialist, Paggio, to open it up. 

Paggio’s a dirty little man with a creepy grin who seems to delight in looking Karen up and down as well as playing with bombs. After determining that the box is safe, he peels back the packaging and finds a simple jewelry box inside. The jewelry box is empty and there’s no distinguishing markings or notation.

“I guess you’ve got a secret admirer.” he remarks.

Although disgusted by him, Karen wants to know more about how explosives work and asks him for some training. He happily agrees to do it for a thousand dollars cash, specifically “...used twenties wrapped with a red rubber band. The red and green looks nice together.” Paggio’s got some weird hang ups.

Before she has a chance to go home, Karen is invited to visit an old lady named Regina who is close friends with Claudio. Dropping Karen off at the woman’s house in the suburbs, Conroy tells her to watch out, as Regina is quite the harsh old vulture.

Karen’s nostrils are assaulted by the smoke in the air as she enters the old residential home. Regina has terminal cancer, but chain smokes anyways, rasping her words in thick Italian through her cracked lips. The old woman claims that she’s no psychic, but that she “plucks truth out of the air, polishes it and take a good look at the reflections it gives off.” Karen’s confused look makes the Regina smile and with her gnarled and wrinkled fingers, she deals Karen some cards so that the two of them can play some Black Jack.

As the rounds of cards go by, Regina compares Karen’s life to the game; the risks she takes, the rounds she wins or loses. Each hand unveils something about the way Karen lives her life and the things that have brought her to this point. Regina sees something big on the horizon for the young Italian girl, and wants her to grab it instead of letting fate slip through her fingers. Once it’s over, Regina tells Karen to book off the 20th of the month, “for respectful reasons.” Not understanding, she agrees to anyways. She has a lot to think about once she gets back to her apartment, but exhaustion from her long day puts her to sleep.


----------



## Zubkavich (Nov 16, 2002)

*Session Two continued...*

The next morning, Karen awakens to an odd sensation. The refreshing smell of flowers is coming from somewhere in her apartment. A quick search reveals that it’s emanating from the jewelry box. Slowly lifting back the lid, she sees that there’s a snapdragon flower and a note inside. Scared that someone’s been in her apartment, she searches the whole place up and down to see if anything’s been disturbed. Finding nothing amiss, she comes back to the note and carefully unfolds it. It reads as follows:


_Greetings,

I hope this letter finds you well. This will be my first correspondence with you. I’m writing these letters to help you understand the changes that are coming.

Miller_


Karen is extra careful as she locks up and goes to work the next day. Coming home, she’s amazed to smell the flowers again. Opening the jewelry box. She finds another snapdragon with another note:


_Greetings,

I hope this letter finds you well. This Snapdragon Box is the only way I can communicate with you. I will correspond with you as much as I am able. I will help you to read the text you have. Keep your wits about you as the coming days will be very important. You have the means to carry out incredible tasks. Do not forget this.

Miller

PS: I can only send one note at a time._


Feeling oddly compelled to respond to the letter, she tears a scrap of the paper off, writes a note back and leaves it in the jewlery box:


_Hi,

Who are you? How are you going to help me read that book? What do you want me to do? Why are you sending me one page at a time?

Karen_


With a few days off of work, she needs something to occupy her time and forget the bizarre events of the last week. She does what she used to always do back in Albany when she was bored: she looks for a place to break and enter.

Slipping out the back door of her apartment, she wanders the streets. Casing a small house for a few hours, she covers a basement window with a towel and breaks it quietly. Slipping in, she sweeps the house, grabbing small but expensive items like jewelry or handheld electronics and any cash lying around. Slipping back out through the window, she leaves the scene of the crime with caution, while trying to stay nonchalant. That is, until the mob car pulls up beside her and Conroy tells her to get in.

Conroy freaks out on Karen, wondering why she tried to lose her escort and why she broke into a house when she was supposed to be laying low. He’s angry at her for not following orders and obviously scared that something could have happened to her. He’s even more frustrated that she’s got a backpack of stolen merchandise and insists that Mr. Melt and him go with her to Buzzard’s to get cash for the goods.

Pulling up to the pawn shop, Karen is about to step out of the car when the hooded figure from the pick up comes crashing down from above. Although he’s medium-sized, his impact puts a massive indent into the roof of the car and sends everything into chaos. Melt slams the car into reverse as the mysterious figure punches through the roof to try and grab at Karen. While the car spins and jostles, Conroy and Karen try to pull their guns and fire at the body flailing above them. When the arm pushes through the roof further, Karen is clawed by the figure’s razor-sharp fingernails, sending her reeling back into her seat with horrible pain.

The chase spills out into the streets, with the hooded figure clinging to the roof of the car as it weaves back and forth dodging traffic. When Melt brakes hard, the figure crashes onto the hood and promptly elbows through windshield to try and stop the wild ride. As beads of glass ricochet around the inside of the car, Melt takes his hands off the wheel, slams on the gas and pushes the mysterious figure off the hood, sending him crashing to the street. With no rearview mirror left and no time to waste, Karen and her escort drive to a mob warehouse to assess the damage and hide from any police called to the scene.

Taking Karen to a doctor paid off by the mob, he tends to her wounds and binds her arm in a sling. She’s not to do anything strenuous with it for at least a week. 

Calling Stevie to fill him in on their weird encounter, he tells them some bad news. Regina passed away in the night, a victim of natural causes. Claudio’s flying back and he wants Karen to be at the funeral that’s planned for the 20th.

Once Stevie gets the details on the attack at the pawn shop, he orders Melt to stay at Karen’s apartment and watch her wherever she goes. Melt shrugs his shoulders and sets up a sleeping bag on Karen’s living room floor. Her bachelor pad just got a lot more cramped. Helping her cook and tidy up the place, Melt comments that the apartment has a nice smell “like fresh cut flowers”. Karen smells it too, and realizes that there’s another note waiting for her in the Snapdragon Box. Now she just has to check it when Mr. Melt isn’t watching...


----------



## Buddha the DM (Nov 18, 2002)

Love the story so far, and please keep more coming to us!

- another d20 Modern fan


----------



## d'Anconia (Nov 18, 2002)

Hey,
Just wanted to let you know you've got another reader. Love it so far


----------



## ShawnLStroud (Nov 18, 2002)

Nice touch with the box and flowers!  It's mysterious and yet adventur-ey!  Good job so far.


----------



## fenzer (Nov 20, 2002)

Nicely done.  I'm hooked on yet another story hour.


----------



## Zubkavich (Nov 20, 2002)

Here's the stats for Karen's "escort":

*Mr. Melt  (Tough Hero 3)*: HP 36; Mas 17; Init +0; Spd 30ft.; Defense 12; touch 12, flat-footed 12; BAB +2; Grap +0; Atk +3 melee (1D4 +3 lethal, martial arts strike), +3 melee (1D6+3, unarmed strike); SV Fort +5, Ref +1, Will +0; AP 6; Rep +1; Str 16, Dex 11, Con 17, Int 11, Wis 9, Cha 10.
*Occupation:* Criminal (bonus class skills: Disable Device, Knowledge [streetwise])
*Skills:* Disable Device +4, Drive +8, Intimidate +6, Knowledge [streetwise] +2
*Feats:* Brawl, Combat Martial Arts, Drive-By Attack, Vehicle Expert
*Talents:* Damage Reduction 1/-, Remain Conscious
*Possessions:* portable screwdriver, cell phone, multipurpose tool, pen sized flashlight and personal possessions.
*Vehicle:* Mid-Sized Sedan class vehicle


*Conroy (Strong Hero 1, Fast Hero 1, Dedicated Hero 1):* HP 22; Mas 15; Init +2; Spd 30ft.; Defense 17; touch 17, flat-footed 15; BAB +1; Grap +0; Atk +1 melee (1D4 +1 lethal, martial arts strike), +2 ranged (2D6, Beretta 92F); SV Fort +2, Ref +1, Will +1; AP 6; Rep +1; Str 13, Dex 15, Con 15, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 9.
*Occupation:* Criminal (bonus class skills: Hide, Knowledge [streetwise])
*Skills:* Balance +3, Climb +2, Hide +4, Investigative +3, Jump +2, Knowledge [streetwise] +9, Profession +5, Read/Write Italian, Sense Motive +3, Speak Italian, Spot +3, Swim +3, Tumble +5
*Feats:* Advanced Firearms Proficiency, Combat Martial Arts, Personal Firearms Proficiency, Quick Reload 
*Talents:* Evasion, Extreme Effort, Skill Emphasis- Knowledge [streetwise]
*Possessions:* Beretta 92F pistol, binoculars, concealed holster, cell phone and personal possessions.


And now stats for Buzzard, the owner of the Pawn Shop:

*Buzzard (Charismatic Ordinary 3, Dedicated Ordinary 1):* HP 12; Mas 10; Init +1; Spd 30ft.; Defense 13; touch 13, flat-footed 12; BAB +1; Grap +0; SV Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +4; AP 0; Rep +6; Str 8, Dex 12, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 15.
*Occupation:* Criminal (bonus class skills: Forgery, Knowledge [streetwise])
*Skills:* Bluff +9, Craft [writing] +3, Diplomacy +10, Forgery +9, Gather Information +11, Knowledge [streetwise] +9, Knowledge [business] +8, Listen +5, Profession +9, Sense Motive +7, Spot +5
*Feats:* Personal Firearms Proficiency, Renown, Trustworthy, Windfall
*Possessions:* Owner of “Pawns, Rooks & Drag Queens”, a pawn shop, so he has a multitude of normal items at his disposal.


----------



## Zubkavich (Nov 20, 2002)

Thank you for the feedback, all of you! I'm grateful that you've read and enjoyed what I've got posted so far. It's a real booster to visit Story Hour and see that people have checked out my campaign storyline.


----------



## Broccli_Head (Nov 20, 2002)

Well Z., 

You've got another Dedicated Hero..err I mean Fan.

Must be fun to throw all those NPCs at your player. They are very unique!

Looking forward to more of Karen's adventures!


----------



## Zubkavich (Nov 22, 2002)

*Session Three: Follow The Bugs*

Waiting for Mr. Melt to take a washroom break, Karen quickly flips the lid of the Snapdragon Box and grabs the note inside before he returns. Getting a chance to read it later, she finds the following written in the same flowing script as before:

_
Greetings,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am not sure when this will reach you; the sooner, the better. Time may be passing here faster than where you are. No matter.

You should have a book somewhere in your possession. It may seem to be quite an odd tome, but do not be discouraged. The method of translating and securing it makes it hard to disseminate, but it must be done this way.

You must know however, that by accepting this you take on a measure of risk. Keep yourself safe.

Miller
_

Pulling out a pen, she surreptitiously writes another letter back to Miller and slips it into the box while Melt is busy writing a grocery list:

_
Are you M. Coralsmythe the author? Did Sedrick tell you about me? Did you help him to read the book? How am I supposed to make sense of random words on a page? What do you mean about “time may be passing here faster”? I seem to get your letters once a day, if that helps you.

What kind of risk? Strange hooded guys with claws trying to kill me type of risk?

Karen
_

Heading out to get groceries with Mr. Melt, Karen and her escort discuss what the “family” means to them and how they became involved in their criminal lifestyle. Melt seems offended being referred to as just a “leg breaker” and they poke fun at each other’s specialties.

While on their way, they both keep carefully checking their surroundings, wary of another assault. While analyzing the environment around her, Karen picks up on something very subtle and odd, without even knowing why. The ants and other bugs on the sidewalk seem to be moving in a distinct direction. They’re not randomly crawling around, they’re all headed southwards towards “something”. No one else seems to notice, and Karen tries not to become distracted by it while keeping up her conversation with Melt. Her curiosity is definitely piqued, but she’s hesitant to explain it to him.

After picking up groceries and dropping them off at the apartment, Karen bugs Melt to go for another walk. He doesn’t want to push their luck by heading out again, but she complains about being cooped up enough that he finally relents. Unbeknownst to him, Karen takes them on the same route that she noticed the bugs going.

Their walk takes them down to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Karen scopes around the building and can see that the bugs are definitely converging on the museum. Mr. Melt is quite confused with Karen’s behavior, but tries to keep his eyes peeled for anyone who may be following them.

Entering the museum, they notice that there’s a large Egyptian Mythological Art exhibit that’s recently opened. Melt jokes about Egyptian curses, while Karen is intent on seeing what’s gathering the bugs around the building, even if no one else has noticed anything strange.

When Melt goes for a bathroom break, Karen scans the museum’s patrons, looking for anything out of the ordinary. A Japanese tour group is headed through the exhibit and one of the individuals seems to be wearing a strange hat that has a mosquito netting-type material hanging down in front of his face. She tries to get a better look at the man, but doesn’t want it to be obvious that she’s staring. Just as she thinks she might be able to see more, she hears a loud crash come from the men’s washroom. Becoming alarmed, she decides to check it out.

Upon opening the door, she’s confronted with quite the sight. Mr. Melt is struggling with the hooded figure as they batter each other off of the urinals and sinks in the washroom. Melt looks winded though and has a massive welt on his forehead from where he’s been struck. Attacking the hooded figure from behind, Karen brings her leg up in an arching kick. When she strikes him, the man barely budges and her foot feels like it’s hit a brick wall. As it continues to batter Melt, Karen pulls back its hood and finally sees what’s underneath.

A patchwork of flesh and muscle greet her eyes as she stares at the thing in horror. The man is a piecemeal body, with grayish-green skin, stitching and strange seams running all over its body. The thing turns towards her, but doesn’t attack. It first carefully lifts the hood back over its face, then stiffly reaches out to grab her with its clawed hands. Shaking off the blows he’s taken, Melt pounds at the thing, trying to bring it down. It seems like things can’t possibly get any stranger, when someone else enters the washroom.

Karen can see out of the corner of her eye as the Japanese man with the strange hat casually opens the door and stands, momentarily watching the battle play out before him. Then he opens his mouth wide, wide like an anaconda, distending grotesquely into a gaping maw. From inside that hole comes the sound of fluttering wings and a dozen or more black misty birds pour forth, filling the room with chaos. The hooded figure bellows an echoing inhuman roar and tries to escape as the birds surround it, tearing at its flesh and eyes. The figure stumbles towards the nearest wall and smashes at the bricks, desperate to escape the birds’ onslaught. In the midst of the melee, Melt picks up Karen and they rush to the hallway. As the door swings closed behind them, Karen takes a quick glance back and notices that the birds aren’t reflected in the mirror. 

While the museum security surrounds the washroom area and the police are called in, Karen and Melt slip out an emergency exit, trying their best to stay out of sight.

Catching their breath, Melt and Karen have more questions than answers. What kind of freak is this man they’ve been fighting? How does he know where they’re going? Karen asks Melt about the birds and the Japanese man, but Melt says that he didn’t see anything odd, only that the man stood and watched while they fought. Melt assumes that the hooded figure ran because of “whatever bad drugs trip he’s on” and Karen lets the subject drop, realizing she’d have a hard time convincing him of what she saw.

Trying to calm down back at Karen’s apartment, they both agree that they won’t be taking any more unplanned walks. Conroy phones a few hours later and lets them know that he’s coming to pick them up in the morning so that all three can meet Claudio at the airport. Regina’s funeral is in two days and Claudio wants to take stock of the things that have happened in his absence.

Exhausted, Karen quickly checks the Snapdragon Box before going to bed. Finding another note, she sighs and opens it up:

_
Greetings,

I hope this letter finds you well. My full name is Miller Smythe. I am from the land of Coral. These letters must traverse time and space, so I don’t know when or where you are receiving them.

I am a sage of sorts who is trying to stop a great evil. It is attempting to leave our land and enter yours. The fact that you can communicate with me bodes well for our efforts. The book finding its way to you so soon is also excellent. I had no idea how it would come into your possession, only that it would do so eventually.

Stay strong,
Miller
_

Tired and irritated at the lack of answers, Karen scrawls him a hasty note before falling asleep:

_
Coral? Where’s Coral? Are you in the States? Travel time and space? This is damn weird. Assuming I believe all this, what kind of evil are you talking about? So you did write the book then? I still can’t read it. I just got attacked by a guy with a stitched on face while some Asian guy spit out shadowy cloud birds. If this is your doing, I don’t want anything to do with your damn book!

Karen
_

That night, Karen has an unexplainable dream. She recalls her encounter with Regina perfectly, but the sounds and voices are totally changed. When Regina’s mouth opens, she’s saying completely different things and advising Karen about the events that have happened in the last few days. Karen can respond, but only when her mouth was open in the original conversation, creating strange and jarring sentences. Regina tells her to stay calm and to ask Claudio to introduce her to an Eskimo man named Onan Aalak. Regina says that Onan can see the supernatural just as Karen sees it, and can help her to understand it better.

Waking up feeling a bit better, she and Melt get themselves cleaned up and presentable to meet up with Claudio. The old mob boss is quite concerned about the “drug crazed killer” after Karen, and promises her that he’ll be rubbed out as soon as they find him. The museum attack made local news, but the only person in custody seems to be the Japanese man. Karen can’t understand how a figure as conspicuous as the stitched-skin man could escape.

Staying at Claudio’s estate for the night, Karen tries to relax a bit and enjoy the spacious surroundings. After an extravagant dinner, Conroy takes her for a quick drive to Buzzard’s to finally pawn the loot from her break-in from a few days before. While there, he also pawns some jewelry and makes her promise not to tell anyone about it. She asks him where he got the jewelry and what the money is for, but all he’ll say is that he’s having “financial difficulties”.

The funeral the next day is a somber affair. Karen notices that there are a lot more people attending then she had anticipated. All sorts of people young and old who had come to the old Italian woman for advice. The wake at Claudio’s afterwards is filled with various members of the mob, many of whom seem to be there more for free food then to remember the woman that they just saw buried. Heading to the patio out back, Karen watches the sunset over the water. As she’s about to head back inside, one of the guests steps out on the patio. It’s the Japanese man from the museum.

“Hello Karen, my name is Setakawa Kasuna. Do you have a few moments to speak with me?”


----------



## Zubkavich (Nov 23, 2002)

Nether Falcon (Undead)
Semi-solid ghosts of birds that are seemingly made of shadow and smoke, they gather in groups of six or more, swarming their prey with sharp claws and piercing beaks. Although hard to tell for certain because of their shifting forms, their bodies measure just under a foot long with wingspans of 5 feet or less.

Species Traits
Skill Bonus: Nether Falcons gain +6 species bonus on Spot checks at night. As nether creatures, they gain a +4 to Move Silently and Hide checks. At night, their darkened forms are even harder to see, granting them an additional +4 to Hide.
Bonus Feat: Nether Falcons gain the bonus feat Weapon Finesse (claw).
Improved Grab (Ex): As per the ability described on page 9 of the D&D Monster Manual.
Damage Reduction: A nether creature’s shadowy essence is resistant to attacks, giving the creature damage reduction 4/-.
Shadowy Form (Ex): A nether creature’s indistinct and shadowy form makes it difficult to determine where its body actually is. Any melee or ranged attack directed at it has a 20% miss chance.

Nether Falcon: CR2; Tiny Animal; HD 1d8; hp 4; Mas 10; Init +3; Spd 10ft., fly 60ft. (average); Defense 17, touch 15, flat-footed 14 (+2 size, +3 Dex, +2 natural); BAB +0; Grap –10; Atk +5 melee (1d4, claw); Full Atk +5 melee (1d4+1 beak);FS 2.5 ft. by 2.5 ft.; Reach 0ft.; AL none or owner; SV Fort +2, Ref +5, Will +3; AP 0; Rep +0; Str 6, Dex 17, Con -, Int 3, Wis 14, Cha 6.
Skills: Hide+7 (+11 at night), Listen +6, Move Silently+ 7, Spot +6 (+12 at night).
Feats: Weapon Finesse (claw).
Advancement: None.


----------



## Broccli_Head (Nov 23, 2002)

Another rousing session. 

I love mysteries and your story has my curiosity piqued. I wanna know just what Karen wants to know!

Hopefully you won't keep us waiting toooo long.


----------



## Zubkavich (Nov 27, 2002)

*Session Four: Eyes Like Fire*

Obviously taken aback by Setakawa’s arrival, Karen tries to maintain her cool while he explains what has brought him to her. He is a Japanese man who has taken on the honorable duty of guarding his ancestors' spirits. The eldritch power that the ancestors wielded in the past still exists and he keeps it safe and in check. He has traveled to New York to seek the source of a great imbalance that the spirits have felt. When he saw the hooded man, he could sense that it was connected to the imbalance and he lashed out at it with the might of his ancestors' magic. Knowing that very few people can see his power at work, he realized that Karen was not just an average girl.

Setakawa tells Karen that he needs her help. The forces that he’s up against are invisible to normal people. Anyone who can see what he sees is a valuable asset. Karen is intrigued, but quite worried as well. She can’t just ditch her mob escort and running off to find whatever evil this man’s talking about doesn’t sound like a very safe option. She promises to contact him in the next day or two. He agrees and quickly leaves.

After the wake winds down, Karen talks with Conroy about the gang information he’s been trying to find. Conroy can’t understand why his street contacts haven’t been able to dig anything up on Karen’s stitch-faced attacker. The only news he's come across is word of a large shipment of the drug called Viperous being brought in to Manhattan some time in the next two nights. The dealer involved is an urban legend of the streets called “Nicholas Click”. According to what Conroy’s heard, Nicholas is a mystery man, with no photographs of him ever being found. He communicates by cel phone via a series of clicking and popping noises; a complex code so that police and FBI can’t tell what’s being communicated to his flunkies.

When Karen mentions Onan Aalak’s name to Claudio, he tells her that Onan is a young financial planner who helps him out with some of his investments. She asks him if she can meet with Onan, and Claudio arranges a lunch for the two of them to discuss her financial future. Karen makes sure that Claudio will be busy with other things so she can ask Onan about Regina and the supernatural. Feeling tired after another busy day, Karen crashes out in one of the guest rooms at Claudio’s estate.

Heading downtown for lunch the next day, she finally meets Onan. Although his Eskimo ancestry is apparent, he’s obviously a well off modern man, complete with suit and tie. Karen struggles to break the ice in talking about the bizarre things that have happened to her, not wanting to come as some sort of wacko. She tries to explain how she met Regina and was instructed to meet with him. He seems intrigued, if also a bit confused. When he drops hints about spirits and other things, Karen takes a risk and tells him everything she’s seen; the stitched-faced man, the nebulous birds, the letters and the strange book. Onan’s obviously blown away by all the information and struggles to make sense of it all. He decides to come clean with her; although he's a financial planner and businessman, he still carries on shaman traditions from his family, performing rituals and communicating with totems of the spirit realm. He’s felt a horrible sense of dread over the last few weeks and the worst tides of it seem to coincide with the events that have happened to Karen over the last couple of days. Speaking in hushed tones, he tells her that some kind of new force seems set to do battle with the traditional spirits. He has no idea what it is, but is afraid of the war that may be coming.

At that moment, Setakawa barges into the restaurant. His hands are bloody and he seems quite frantic. Trying to calm him down and keep the rest of the restaurant from becoming alarmed, Karen coaxes him for an explanation and tells him that Onan is as attuned to the situation as any of them. Setakawa tells her that one of his birds has found a source of great evil outside of New York. It’s heading towards the city and should be there some time that night. He needs her to come with him to investigate it. Karen asks Onan to come along as well. The young businessman doesn't know how to reply and is obviously quite afraid; he’s used to dealing with benign spirits, not physical evils. Karen needs a way to lose her mob escort, and feels that Onan may provide that “out”, along with adding support to their mission. When he asks her what kind of "out" she means, she smirks and says:

“We’ll just convince my bodyguard that over our lunch here I’ve become quite smitten with you and that we’ve got a hot dinner date set for tonight.”

Onan’s embarrassed beyond belief, but is unable to worm his way out of the situation. With the plan set, they agree to meet with Setakawa that night and scout out what is arriving in New York.

When Conroy takes Karen home, she pretends to swoon over her meeting with Onan and plays up her lust for him. Conroy’s equal parts disgusted and worried. He has no intention of leaving her unprotected and she doesn’t want an escort to ruin her “private time” with her dinner date. After arguing back and forth about it, Conroy grudgingly agrees to give her a bit of time alone. She’s got two hours with Onan for dinner, and not a minute more before Conroy comes to pick her up. Dropping her off, he parks his car and waits in the driveway. With the clock ticking, she runs inside, gathers Onan and Setakawa and they head off out the back door to find Setakawa’s bird and the source of the spiritual distress.

Setakawa’s innate connection to his bird leads them to an empty parking garage in the eastern end of Manhattan. Sneaking around the cement supports in the dark, they come across a strange gathering. Several men armed with machineguns are guarding a van full of boxes. As they watch, a shiny Porsche arrives driven by a man unlike anything they’ve ever seen.

Standing about 6 feet tall, the man has gray skin and flickering reddish hair. He speaks with a hissing, almost steam-like hush to his voice, and slight puffs of smoke roll off his tongue as he punctuates his sentences. The clicks of sparks and fire seem to fill any silence in his speech. His eyes dart back and forth, hot and piercing. The other men seem quite afraid of him, giving him wide berth as he berates them for their lack of focus and slow delivery. As the men load the boxes into the Porsche, the fiery man brags:

“If Lord Hizerath want an army, I’ll make sure he gets one. Every vagrant on the streets will serve our cause once more arrives from the portals, make no mistake about that. Nealcatus will take care of everything.”

With that, Nicholas Click drives off into the night, leaving the parking garage in tense silence. After Karen picks the lock to the staff entrance, the trio sneak out of the parking garage and head out onto the street. Just as they’re about to head back to Onan’s and meet up with Conroy, Karen notices something very, very wrong. Conroy’s car is sitting across the street from the parking garage. Even worse, he’s not in it...


----------



## Broccli_Head (Nov 27, 2002)

Bad Mr Z. leaving cliffhangers like that!

can't wait until the next one!


----------



## fenzer (Nov 27, 2002)

Great Stuff Jim!  I am on the edge of my seat.  Please post soon.


----------



## Zarthon (Nov 30, 2002)

Cool story, Keep it up


----------



## Ruined (Dec 2, 2002)

I didn't focus on the name at first, just checking out the thread as the roommate and I were talking about d20 Modern. Then I saw the sig and was surprised. I've been following Makeshift Miracle since its inception! Very cool to see you around here. 

Your story hour looks very promising. I look forward to seeing the developments in both story lines.


----------



## Sammael99 (Dec 2, 2002)

theRuinedOne said:
			
		

> *I didn't focus on the name at first, just checking out the thread as the roommate and I were talking about d20 Modern. Then I saw the sig and was surprised. I've been following Makeshift Miracle since its inception! Very cool to see you around here.
> 
> Your story hour looks very promising. I look forward to seeing the developments in both story lines. *




Thanks for pointing that out, Ruined One ! I just checked the website and it looks great. I'll have to investigate that Modern Tales thing now...

I haven't been able to post for the last few days, and my main comment to Jim was : I get a feeling there are a few Sandman influences here (esp. from "A Game of You") but I guess if you're a comic artist, chances are you have read Sandman


----------



## Corwyn (Dec 2, 2002)

Just someone else adding suport to what appears to be the beginning of a great story.


----------



## Zubkavich (Dec 3, 2002)

theRuinedOne said:
			
		

> *I didn't focus on the name at first, just checking out the thread as the roommate and I were talking about d20 Modern. Then I saw the sig and was surprised. I've been following Makeshift Miracle since its inception! Very cool to see you around here.
> 
> Your story hour looks very promising. I look forward to seeing the developments in both story lines. *




Cool! It's always great hearing from people who are reading Makeshift. Thanks for the vote of confidence!

Look for more session rundowns soon. My girlfriend is in the midst of exams, so it's been hard to find time to play.


----------



## Zubkavich (Dec 4, 2002)

Information on the  Eldritch Soul Advanced class and a new feat called Arcane Talent are in a new thread I've started. Feel free to read and comment.

More session summaries coming soon. My girlfriend's got exams, so we're trying to find time to role-play amongst the chaos


----------



## Kaodi (Dec 4, 2002)

*Quality Storyhour*

Ah, when the first new of d20 Modern arrived, I though that I might be interested in it. When the Modern SRD came out, that became fact. 

Your storyhour seems to be shaping up nicely, especially since it is a one on one. Both of you keep up the the good work, and keep on rolling.

May the dice be with.


----------



## Corey (Dec 4, 2002)

Great stuff, Jim.  Seriously arousing my interest in D20 Modern.  

Corey


----------



## Zubkavich (Dec 6, 2002)

*Session Five: Forgotten*

Telling Setakawa and Onan to wait in the car, Karen sneaks back into the parking garage to look for Conroy. Making her way back towards the van and the dealers, she slips up and kicks an empty bottle. It spins into the wall, alerting her presence to everyone in the garage. As the thugs head towards the source of the noise, Karen sees Conroy hiding out behind one of the cement pillars. Knowing that the thugs will come across him before they see her, she decides to confront them head on and give Conroy time to run away.

Pulling out her pistol, she fires and wings one of the thugs. Although surprised, they recover quickly and a pitched firefight quickly ensues. One of the thugs sprays the area with machinegun fire and pegs Conroy several times while he dives for cover. Karen fires and hits two of the goons squarely then ducks back behind one of the parked cars. Conroy, obviously hurt badly, shoots and scores a solid hit on one of the other men. Knowing that they’re out gunned, out numbered, and that Conroy’s nearly dead, Karen breathes deep and charges into the fray. Running forward, she takes a hit, then blasts one of the men down and uses him as cover. The last thug runs to the van to make his escape and Karen stops him cold with a shot through the windshield. After the echo of gunshots subsides, Karen has 4 dead bodies, a van with several boxes still in it and a severely injured friend to contend with. Quickly gathering Setakawa and Onan, they throw the boxes in the car and carry Conroy to the backseat. Speeding away from the scene of the crime, Karen frantically calls Mr. Melt.

Melt tells her that he can meet them at Lenox Hill hospital. As they swerve into the Emergency department, Melt’s car pulls up and Conroy is wheeled away by the paramedics. He’s in bad shape and needs emergency surgery to extract the slugs imbedded in his body. Karen tries to explain the situation to Melt without including any of the supernatural elements, but it just ends up coming out as a confusing mess. He can’t understand why she’d take a middle-aged Japanese man and a financial planner to spy on a drug deal and the more she tries to explain, the worse it gets. Telling her to leave it until tomorrow when they’ll explain it to Claudio, he picks up the boxes from Setakawa’s car and takes them to one of the mob’s warehouses for safe keeping. Then, he drives her back to her apartment and tells her he’ll stay the night to keep an eye out for her protection. He’s angry, confused and the uneasy silence between the two of them on the drive home leaves Karen feeling wracked with guilt.

Stumbling into her bedroom, she’s exhausted but her mind keeps her awake. Smelling flowers again, she opens the lid of the Snapdragon Box and finds another note. Grimly, she unfolds it:


_Greetings,

I hope this letter finds you well. I mean you no harm. Whatever ills are befalling you are because of the changes happening on your side. I am not initiating them. The transition will be difficult, but you must persevere. As your awareness increases, you will be able to take hold of the power gathering.

Open the book. Calm yourself completely, flip the pages and see the patterns of things unseen.

I will do my best to protect you from my side, but my influence is distant and weak.

Miller_


Angry and sick of the constant barrage of mysteries, she harshly scribbles a note and puts it in the box:


_No, this letter does not find me well! Thanks to this otherworldly crap, I’m in a $%@*load of trouble with my family and being watched like a hawk. And I can’t even tell them the truth, which makes it even more suspicious.

Karen_


Unable to sleep, she lies in bed and stares at the ceiling, trying to come up with an alibi that she can tell the mob and trying not to think about the people she killed. She needs the right words to get her out of this situation, something she can say to make them believe her. By morning, she’s still unable to come up with anything and packs a bag so she can run away when Melt falls asleep. But he stayed awake all night in the living room and is still watching the apartment, guarding over her.

As the sun rises, Karen groggily heads to the kitchen to get some food. As she does so, Melt looks up at her and suddenly, his eyes widen in surprise. Pulling his gun off the coffee table, he aims it at her, asking her who she is and what she’s doing there. She can’t understand why Melt doesn’t recognize her, and tries to calm him down. She tells him who she is, but he has no recollection of her at all. Looking him in the eye, she can see that he’s completely sincere, that he’d shoot her like a stranger that’s invaded his house. Melt grows more agitated as she tries to explain why she’s there and he throws her out of the apartment, telling her to “go steal somewhere else.” Hastily leaving the building, she can’t understand why Melt has suddenly forgotten her. More things unexplained, ruining her life.

Calling Setakawa, she’s relieved to hear that at least he still knows who she is. He comes to pick her up and listens to her frantic explanation of Melt pulling the gun on her. Although he doesn’t know why this has happened, Setakawa suggests that they consult his ancestors for guidance. They go to a curio shop owned by a friend of Setakawa and perform a ritual at a small shrine that is set up in the back. Setakawa sends forth one of his birds and promises her that when it returns, it will help guide them to their next goal. They decide to visit Onan in the meantime and see how he has recovered from their wild evening.

Onan is still quite tired and has taken the week off of work to reevaluate his work schedule in the face of the supernatural events that have been happening. He takes a closer look at the wounds Karen has suffered and tells her that his spirit totems may be able to help. Taking some cold ashes from his fireplace, he rubs them into the wounds while chanting. Although skeptical at first, Karen is astonished to feel a numbing chill and see the wounds slowly disappear. Her pain and scars are completely gone. Still inspecting the smooth skin where her cuts had been, her cel phone rings and she answers.

Sedrick from the bookstore asks her if she’s feeling better and whether or not she can take an extra shift. She can tell that he’s nervous about something over the phone and tells him that she’ll come by the next day. Hanging up, she tells Onan and Setakawa that they’re going to go pay Sedrick a surprise visit. If the mob or anyone else has gotten to Sedrick, this will be a good way to surprise them. If not, at least they played it safe and looked into it. After last night’s fiasco, she’s not taking any chances.

Parking a few blocks away from Dog-Earred Pages, Setakawa sends forth one of his ancestor birds to spy around the shop before they go in. He’s surprised that for some strange reason, although the bookstore looks normal, it has powerful wards protecting it and making it practically invisible to the supernatural. His birds can’t enter, so they’ll have to go in themselves...


----------



## Buddha the DM (Dec 6, 2002)

Please sir, can we have some more?


----------



## fenzer (Dec 6, 2002)

I'll second that.  Please, more, MORE!


----------



## Zarthon (Dec 7, 2002)

Great story  Jim, keep it coming


----------



## Krellic (Dec 7, 2002)

I agree this is a most intriguing tale and I'm looking forward to watching it unfold.

Well done...


----------



## Broccli_Head (Dec 7, 2002)

very cool! 

can't wait to see what's in Dog-Eared Pages. Hey! How come Karen didn't go and visit Conroy?


----------



## Zubkavich (Dec 11, 2002)

*Session Six: Shifted Worlds and The Past*

Cautiously entering the store, Karen looks for anything out of the ordinary. Sedrick is chatty as always, spinning trivia and greeting her friends. While Setakawa and Onan browse the books, Sedrick shows Karen his new pet, a large owl that sleeps soundly until he shakes the cage while taking it off the shelf. Karen verbally prods at Sedrick, trying to find out why he’s acting nervously. He dodges her questions, getting coffee for the four of them and moving books randomly from shelf to shelf.

When Onan and Setakawa head upstairs to look for some obscure periodicals, Sedrick follows them and discusses the wealth of knowledge to be found on the shelves around them. 

Karen shrugs her shoulders and searches the main floor for any signs that things are wrong at the store. As she’s scanning the shelves, she notices a tiny bit of movement coming from behind a few of the books. Quietly, she moves towards it and carefully pulls a book out to see what’s behind it. Standing there, looking up at her innocently, is a tiny figure with butterfly wings on his back. His skin and wings seem to shift patterns, like a chameleon, warping to blend in almost perfectly with its surroundings. Fascinated and smiling, she watches as the tiny faerie folk shyly slips back behind the books.

As Sedrick comes back down the stairs, Karen stammers to speak, overwhelmed with what she’s just seen. Sedrick looks at her intently. Sedrick’s normally frantic face changes to a far more serene one and his stuttering voice becomes confident and smooth. Although shocked, Karen doesn’t feel afraid.

“I didn’t want it to happen this way. I wanted you to have more time to train and learn. But the transition is happening far too quickly.”

“You, you know about all these weird things?” she says with surprise.

“Yes I do.” He says with a smile.

Sitting her down, Sedrick tries to explain to her the depth of what she’s gotten herself into. Another world, a place called Coral, is slowly shifting into our own. Creatures and spirits from this place are being transported to Earth, trying to gain a foothold. This shifting happens in a long cycle. The peaks of the cycle are decades apart but are growing shorter each time. At each peak, Coral has a chance to shift over completely, causing destruction and chaos. From what Sedrick knows, there are beings on the other side who are trying to implement a full shift, and others who are attempting to stop it. When the last cycle peaked, Sedrick was just barely able to bring it to a halt.

“So, you can just do it again, right? You can kick these guys’ asses and stop it from happening again?”

“No.” he says with a regretful frown. “The last time killed me.”

Sedrick isn’t a ghost, but he isn’t alive either. He doesn’t know how or why, but he’s been here all this time, trapped in the bookstore. He’s been alive since the 1900’s and hasn’t aged a day since 1925. He’s been watching, researching and waiting for someone who can stop the evil bleeding over from Coral when the next cycle arrives. 

He explains that the only customers that come into the shop are people who have the potential to see the supernatural. The fact that Karen applied for a job, stayed after hours and enjoyed being there gave Sedrick a good indication that she might be the one he was looking for. When the book from Coralsmythe mysteriously arrived and was addressed to Karen, it confirmed his suspicions.

Karen tells Sedrick all about her encounters with the supernatural and how Onan and Setakawa are tied into everything. Gathering them all in the main room, Sedrick explains to them how he became involved with Coral and the powers of magic.

Opening his bookstore in 1923, Sedrick kept all manners of strange things on his shelves. One of these was an old telegraph that he was given as a present. One night while he was reorganizing the inventory, the telegraph started to tap out a message in Morse code.  It seemed impossible; the telegraph was unhooked and covered in dust! Shocked and amazed, he started to transcribe the messages that came clicking forth. Sometimes the messages would be days apart but slowly, information began to come together. Wondering if he had gone mad, he tried to stay away from it, but in the end his fascination got the best of him and he continued to write down the words being sent.

The messages were from a woman named Shaeline Coralzeffen. Over time, she taught Sedrick about the creatures that were finding their way to Earth from her world. If he could learn to find the beasts and to wield the magical power that was slipping over as well, he could stop the shifting before it got out of control. Over the course of the next year and a half, he learned how to unleash magic with words, gestures, items and his own inner strength. As these skills were developing, he gathered a few people who seemed drawn to the bookstore and inadvertently to the occult. At first, all of them were in disbelief at his claims of other worlds and monsters. Soon enough, the proof became overwhelming. Several encounters with things science could not explain would forge a strong bond of friendship between them.

Sedrick noticed that the magic he used carried with it several benefits and many curses. Although he was able to “sense” where the creatures could be found, they were drawn to him too, putting him and his group in constant danger. As well, he noticed that people without the knack for the occult couldn’t see the monsters for what they really were. Worse still, the disbelievers who interacted with him and his friends when the supernatural was apparent forgot who he was. Somehow, their memories were altered by their brush with the unknown.

It all came to a climax in 1925. Sedrick and his group tracked down a particularly powerful creature. This beast was the key which would allow the complete shift of Coral to Earth upon the cycle’s zenith. After a titanic battle, Sedrick’s final spell destroyed the creature, but killed the entire group as well. This ended the cycle and set the shifting of Coral back until the next peak. Although he thought he was dead, Sedrick awoke later; alive somehow but unable to leave the store.

 Now, over seventy years later, the next peak is looming closer each day and Karen doesn’t seem to have the luxury of time that Sedrick enjoyed. The creatures shifting over this time seem far more intelligent and organized. They’ve blended into the populace and are working their way towards the full shift with more zeal than ever before.

The pieces start to fit together and Karen realizes that she’s been sensing creatures for quite some time. The ants crawling in unison were a sign; a way for her to know which way to go to find the stitched-face monster. Mr. Melt didn’t recognize her the other day because he’s been too close to the supernatural, but has no way of believing in it. The magic was already altering her life, whether she wanted it or not.

She has no way of knowing if Conroy is the same as Melt or if he has a knack for the occult. If Conroy can see what they see, then the creatures will be drawn to him. Wounded and in the hospital, he’d be easy prey, even under the guard of the mafia.  Not willing to take that chance, Karen decides that they have to go to the hospital to check on him and if necessary, get him out. 

Onan thinks it’s crazy to try and sneak into a hospital that’s going to be guarded by the mafia and probably the police as well. He wants to go back to just being a financial planner, and not fearing for his life. Karen tells him that after this mission to the hospital, he can leave whenever he wants, but that she needs his help this time. Onan thinks it over, and finally agrees. He tells her that he can heal Conroy with the help of some powerful totems. It will also require the powder of a ground up bull’s horn for strength and the blood of a pure virgin man for healing. Setakawa thinks they can find the horn at his friend’s curio shop, but that the blood might be more difficult. They head out to gather the items, leaving Karen to try and filter through all the things she’s learned and plan out how they’re going to get in to see Conroy.

“Don’t you think all of this is just strange?” she remarks to Sedrick.

“I’m a dead wizard trapped in a magical bookstore with faeries running around. Nothing surprises me anymore” he says with a grin.

Sedrick tells Karen to clear her mind as much as she can. He wants her to try and read Coralsmythe’s book again. Slowly, she opens it up and fans the pages before her eyes. The pages flip, but never seem to stop or come to an end. They flutter by and as she watches, the words seem to dance across the pages. The words, which seemed so random before, now form sentences when they are flipped. She can finally learn their secrets.

The book shows her a simple incantation that will start her connection to Coral. She has to try and begin the process, to connect herself to Coral’s magical properties. The sooner she can do that, the better her chances are of growing in power. Pricking her arm with a pin and letting blood come forth, she speaks the arcane words aloud and weaves patterns with her fingers through the air. The blood seems to write symbols on her arm before it disappears, leaving only a tingling sensation behind. Looking around the bookstore, she feels a little bit different: more aware and calm. Sedrick smiles at her progress.

Onan and Setakawa return a few hours later with the blood and powder. When she asks them where they found the virgin blood, they won’t tell. She looks at them with a smirk and says:

“So, which one of you is the pious one?”

They refuse to answer, leaving her quite amused.

Before they head out, Sedrick gives them an item to help them enter the hospital unnoticed. It’s a pair of ice cubes that he’s infused with sorcery. When pressed together in someone’s hand, they make the person and those nearby invisible. It’s powerful magic, but will only last until the ice melts. Karen thanks him and puts them in a thermos to keep them cold until they’re needed. Then, all three of them head out to the hospital, expecting the worst.


----------



## Buddha the DM (Dec 11, 2002)

Man I liked this latest installment. You have an excellent knack for storytelling.


----------



## Broccli_Head (Dec 11, 2002)

Z., 

I love how you have integrated the magic into a modern setting and I love the premise of Coral and the attempt to come  into our world.  

So when do we get an update of Karen Frost as a spellcaster?

And stats for her geek squad?


----------



## Zubkavich (Dec 11, 2002)

Just posted up a thread up with a pdf for a new FX item I created based on the ice cubes Karen was given in Session 6.

*Eldritch Ice Cubes*


----------



## fenzer (Dec 12, 2002)

Good stuff.  I want more.


----------



## Buddha the DM (Dec 12, 2002)

Me too!! Me too!!


----------



## Tear44 (Dec 18, 2002)

bump bump bump


----------



## Velenne (Dec 20, 2002)

Tear44, I just want to thank you for that last bump.  I may have regretably passed on this story hour had it not been right in front of me.  

But now that I've found it, I'm amazed!  Z, you do a great job here and I'm hooked on some d20 Modern!  It sounds like you've got a nice little group building up.  Excellent grasp of the situations and interweaving of the magic with the real.  

Consider me a fan!


----------



## Zarthon (Dec 21, 2002)

Zubkavich said:
			
		

> *Then, all three of them head out to the hospital, expecting the worst. *




Im dying to find out what the worst is


----------



## ShawnLStroud (Dec 26, 2002)

*Bump!*

Loving your story hour!


----------



## Zubkavich (Dec 26, 2002)

I had been meaning to do this a while ago, but now's as good a time as any. I took that stat info on the Nether Falcon creature I created and compiled it into a pdf with an illustration. I really like how it turned out, and I hope you all do too!

*
Nether Falcon pdf (90kb)
*







Thanks again for the incredible support and enthusiasm that you've shown for my campaign. It's been a real treat getting so much positive feedback.

I'm out of town for the holidays. Both my girlfriend and I are visiting my family and enjoying the season. I had hoped to squeeze in one more session before Christmas, but things got very busy and I'll have to wait until we get back home.

In addition to session rundowns, I want to create more rules and artwork based on the new things I come up with for the campaign. Ideally, I'll get around to some character portraits and other pieces soon.

Have a wonderful holiday season, all of you. Take care,


----------



## Zubkavich (Dec 31, 2002)

I just wanted to let everyone know that my girlfriend and I are back from holiday visits. Look for new sessions and rules soon. 

To keep you all coming back for more, I thought I'd add some more art. I finally got a chance to paint a picture of the "hooded figure" that Karen ran into way back during Session 1. Enjoy:






You don't want to mess with this freak!


----------



## fenzer (Dec 31, 2002)

I love your art, Zub.  I can't wait for the next update.


----------



## Zubkavich (Jan 2, 2003)

*Session Seven: Tracked and Assaulted*

Setakawa assures Karen that he can create an ample diversion while Onan and her sneak into the room where Conroy is being treated. Before he drops them off, he sends one of his ancestor birds to stay with them and let him know when they are in trouble. Even though the bird is shrouded in black smoke and seems obvious, Setakawa reminds them that people won’t see it because of its magical nature.

While Onan gripes about how his life was simpler before all this trouble started, the two head into the hospital and try not to look suspicious. Finding Conroy listed under the Vercoletti family name, they slip around a corner and Karen pulls out the enchanted ice cubes. Pressing them together, she can feel an unnatural coldness shoot up her arm as the magical invisibility takes effect. Carefully, they tip toe down the hallway and up to the second floor, leaving the occasional drip of melted water behind them.

In front of Conroy’s hospital room are two enforcers from the mob. Karen wracks her brain for a way to get past them while the ice slowly melts in her hand. Before they have a chance to come up with anything, a loud explosion from outside deafens the hallway and sends people in the hospital scrambling for cover.

“That’s one hell of a diversion.” Karen mutters under her breath.

One of the enforcers runs for the window to see what created the sound while the other one pulls out his cel phone to call for help. While he dials, Karen grabs the phone by its antenna with her invisible hands and flings it down the hallway. Shocked and confused, the man runs after it, wondering how it flew from his grasp. 

As they enter Conroy’s room, Setakawa’s bird flutters around and opens its mouth in a strange silent birdcall that makes Karen uneasy. If it’s trying to contact Setakawa, there must be something wrong.

Then, chaos erupts as a crash echoes from down the hallway. Glancing out to see why Setakawa’s diversion seems to be getting closer, she realizes that things have taken a turn for the worse and that their plan is whirling out of control. The hooded figure is in the hospital, throwing staff and patrons like rag dolls and walking towards the room. When the two goons run to attack the stitch-faced monster, Karen slams the door shut and barricades it with several chairs. Dropping the partially melted ice cubes back into the thermos, the invisibility dissipates and she heads over to see if Conroy recognizes her.

Tubes in his nose and intravenous in his arm, Conroy has seen far better days. Large blood soaked bandages are wrapped around his mid section and a variety of bruises and cuts pepper his face and arms. It’s obvious that he’s on some powerful painkillers as the sounds outside have barely stirred him. She carefully shakes his arm, trying to get him conscious enough to at least find out if he can remember her. With the muffled sounds of violence continuing out in the hall and Onan pushing to keep the door barricaded, Conroy’s eyes flutter open.

“Whuuuu... whuz goin’ on? Huh... K- Karen? What’re you doin’ here?”

Wondering if it would have been better if Conroy could have forgotten her, she tells Onan to start his healing ritual. As Onan blows the bullhorn powder all over Conroy, it’s obvious that he’s upset, but also too weak to do anything about it. Taking a quick peek out the door, she sees one of the mafia goons crushed by the powerful fists of the hooded figure. Before she slams the door shut again, she catches a glimpse of Setakawa’s birds attacking the monster.

Onan chants and carefully draws symbols with blood on Conroy, trying to finish quickly without ruining the totem magic. As Karen looks for other things to barricade the door with, the hooded figure pounds a hole through, breaking the top hinge and bending a corner of the door. While it attempts to claw its way in, Karen fires several shots at its head, trying desperately to slow it down. Even though some of the shots hit it directly in the face, they don’t seem to deter the thing.

Finishing the ritual, Onan unhooks Conroy from the intravenous and uses the pole from it to shatter one of the windows in the room. He starts to lift Conroy from the bed while yelling at Karen to leave the door.

“We can’t go out that way! We’ve gotta head out the window!”

Not having any better ideas, she pulls back as the hooded figure tears down the remains of the furniture blocking its way. As it crawls through the hole, Setakawa climbs in behind it. His birds are doing their best to tear at the beast and distract it, but it seems more driven than before. Flailing with its arms, its fists smash one of Setakawa’s birds, destroying it in a puff of black smoke. Setakawa stares in horror, stunned at the loss of one of his ancestors.

Onan pulls deep down into his reserves for strength as he carries Conroy to the window. Muttering a quick prayer to his totems, he jumps out the window to the grass two stories down. Pulling Setakawa from his stupor, Karen drags them both out the window behind the other two.

Crashing to the grass and bushes below, Karen comes away with only a few bruises. A few feet away, she can see that Onan’s twisted his ankle in the fall but that Conroy looks okay, all things considered. Pulling out the ice cubes again, she grabs the other three as the invisibility bursts forth, hiding them from prying eyes. Setakawa’s birds spill forth from the window, scattering in all directions.

She watches as the stitched-face figure scans from the shattered window, looking for them. When security and police burst into the room behind it, the creature stands absolutely still. Unbelievably, no one reacts to it as they look around at the destruction and call for back up. She knows that the creature is supernatural, but seeing so many people so close to it, she’s still stunned that they don’t see the monster at all. Slowly, they move as a group back to Setakawa’s car, staying invisible until the car is started and they’re back on the road.

Conroy babbles incoherently, trying to understand what happened and how they left the hospital. Karen tries to explain bits and pieces of it to him, but gives up after realizing that until the painkillers wear off, it’s a futile effort. Arriving at Dog-Eared Pages, the battered group rests and takes stock of what happened.

As Conroy sleeps, Karen explains to Sedrick their encounter. She doesn’t understand how once again, the creature knew exactly where and when to assault them. Sedrick explains that from what she’s describing, the creature may be some sort of “construct”, a thing created solely to track and slay its prey. He surmises that the wards on the bookstore will hide them but once they're outside, the supernatural taint of the group would make them a target. Not having any thing else to go on, she writes a note to Miller and leaves it in the Snapdragon Box:

_
Hi Miller,

It’s Karen. The people trying to bring things from your side to mine appear to have something powerful working for them. Sedrick called it a construct. Said it was something made, not a person. It can take a bullet to the throat and face without being stopped! It’s very strong and seems to have no trouble finding me wherever I am. It looks like someone stitched a bunch of people together to make it. Like a quilt or something. Do you know what this thing is and how to stop it?

I was finally able to read the book, only once but I enacted some ritual that was supposed to open me up to magic or something. Haven’t had time to do more yet.

Karen
_

A few hours later, the familiar smell of fresh flowers hits her nostrils and a note is waiting for her:

_
Greetings,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am sorry to hear of your current strife. Your sage friend is quite correct. From what you have described, I would guess that it is one of the Flesh-Driven. They are creatures that track supernatural prey and destroy their opposition with fists like iron.

If this is indeed the case, you must remove the solid silver stone that is its unnatural heart. Carve deeply and pry it free. It cannot exist without it.

My thoughts are with your success.

Miller
_

Wondering how they’ll be able to tear into the thing’s chest, she’s relieved that they at least have something to go on. Looking around the bookstore, Karen wonders how her ragtag crew would fare. With Setakawa driven to avenge his lost ancestor, he’s more than ready to attack the creature again. Onan is afraid and nursing a sore ankle, but she thinks he has the strength to keep going. If she can convince Conroy about all the craziness he’s now a part of when he wakes up, he should be a useful ally. None of them are close-combat minded and the thing is too strong to take on in hand to hand. It might be possible, but she hasn’t even seen anyone hurt the creature in any major way. 

Still, it doesn’t look like there’s any other choice: They have to strike instead of waiting for another ambush.


----------



## Lela (Jan 2, 2003)

New reader here.  

You know, I always like catching up on an excellent story hour.  It's good to find one new enough that it doesn't take me days or even weeks to read the whole thing.

The sad part is that it doesn't take me days or weeks to read the whole thing.  

Can't wait for more!


----------



## Broccli_Head (Jan 2, 2003)

Happy New Year, Z. !

Glad to see another post and the story continue. My roommate just bought d20 modern  and I am going to send him to this story so he can get inspired!


----------



## Velenne (Jan 2, 2003)

Great stuff Z!  It's actually inspired me to start my own d20 Modern game.  We played Agents of PSI yesterday and I'll probably start up the story hour after our next game.  Wish me luck!


----------



## Zubkavich (Jan 6, 2003)

I hope that goes well, Velenne. Glad I was able to inspire you guys! Go kick some butt!


----------



## Horacio (Jan 7, 2003)

I've just discovered this story, what a shame for a story hour addict like me not knowing such a wonderful work.

More, please!


----------



## Lela (Jan 8, 2003)

Horacio said:
			
		

> *I've just discovered this story, what a shame for a story hour addict like me not knowing such a wonderful work.
> 
> More, please! *




Horacio's here.  Time for the real party to start.  As such, it's time to get your GF alone and make her take up the dice.


----------



## weiknarf (Jan 10, 2003)

Thread nearly fell off the first page.


----------



## Zubkavich (Jan 10, 2003)

Thank you all for the bumps and enthusiasm. I'm hoping to have up more stats, session summaries or artwork soon.


----------



## Velenne (Jan 15, 2003)

*bump*

More people need to read this.  We can't let it fall off page one! TO ARMS Z!


----------



## Tear44 (Jan 17, 2003)

Once more into the BUMP my friends!


----------



## Lela (Jan 18, 2003)

Zubkavich, remind us of the glory that is D20 Modern.

I need my fix here.  Just a small one.  To tide me over.


----------



## Zubkavich (Jan 18, 2003)

Thanks all of you.  Work has been extremely busy for me, so I haven't had very much time for anything.

My girlfriend and I are looking at playing on Sunday, so I should have a new story update for everyone afterwards. As well, I have a rough outline of rules for the Snapdragon Box magical item and hopefully some more artwork soon.

Thanks for your patience and enthusiasm.


----------



## Lela (Jan 18, 2003)

I think I can hold off my withdrawls for a little longer.

Thanks for the info Z.

Rock on.


----------



## Horacio (Jan 18, 2003)

Lela said:
			
		

> *I think I can hold off my withdrawls for a little longer.
> *




It will be difficult for an addict as me, but I think I'll be able to wait


----------



## Lela (Jan 18, 2003)

We'll support each other Horacio.


----------



## Horacio (Jan 18, 2003)

Lela said:
			
		

> *We'll support each other Horacio.  *




While we wait, we can always create mahem with a nice firefight in Doc Midnight's story hour


----------



## Lela (Jan 18, 2003)

Horacio said:
			
		

> *
> 
> While we wait, we can always create mahem with a nice firefight in Doc Midnight's story hour  *




Aw yes.  Why wait for Tsunami anyway?  If you'll make the start tonight, I'll pick it up tomarrow.  That kung fu master with an ego problem and nicotine addiction is going down.


----------



## Zubkavich (Jan 20, 2003)

*Session Eight: Hunt the Hunter*

After the group rests for a while to regain their strength, Sedrick lets Karen know that Conroy is finally awake. Taking a deep breath, she heads in to try and explain what’s happened to him and what he’s now wrapped up in. At first he assumes that they’re at a mob safe house, but Karen assures him that they aren’t and that things are far more complicated than he might have thought. This isn’t just a gang war, it’s something far worse. Dodging around anything blatantly supernatural, she tries to warm him up to the idea that there are strange things in the world that people don’t understand. When she asks him if he’s ever encountered something he couldn’t explain, Conroy tells her that his sister had psychic visions that drove her to suicide when he was a teenager. Not wanting to delve deeply into it, Karen’s explanation trails off. She can’t bring herself to tell him the full truth, afraid that he’ll just think that she’s crazy.

Running out of ideas, she asks Onan to approach Conroy. The young shaman tells her that he’ll do his best but offers no guarantees. He tries to lay things out in as straight forward a manner as he can: There’s an assassin after Karen, the mob thinks that Karen has screwed up and isn’t going to help her. Onan offers to pay off any debts Conroy has wracked up if he’ll help them kill the man that’s been chasing her. It may not be completely truthful, but it keeps Conroy focused on the task at hand; the rest will have to wait. 

Conroy assumes that this “hit man” has some kind of body armor in order to have survived the fights he’s been in. He makes a call to Paggio, the mob bomb specialist, to get some explosives to take care of their “stalker problem”. When Paggio arranges a meeting with them at his warehouse out of town, Karen and Conroy go to check out his wares.

Paggio, as slimy as ever, shows them a variety of explosive devices that could fit their needs. When Paggio makes an off comment about having a few thermite grenades, Karen jumps at the idea. She figures that the incredible heat generated by it could blow a hole in the creature, maybe even blast the silver stone right out of its chest. Conroy thinks the grenade is complete overkill to use against “some drugged up nutball”, but Karen insists on a demonstration of the thermite from Paggio. When the thermite blasts the door off a personal-size safe and leaves the inside of it a scorched and bubbling metal mess, Karen smiles and buys three of them from the scummy bomb builder. While Conroy cautions her on how to use grenades during the drive back to the bookstore, Karen starts to formulate a plan to take the stitched-face monster down.

After discussing the plan with Setakawa and Onan, they all decide to get some extra sleep before they ready the ambush. Having trouble falling asleep, Karen slowly entices several of the faerie folk living in the bookstore to come out and eat some candy. Playing with the tiny sprites, she enjoys a calm moment before the battle to come.

Late that night, Karen hotwires a vehicle and all four of them drive a few hours upstate while Onan remarks on their illegal behavior. 

“I can’t believe you just ripped off a car.”

“Would you rather we took your BMW when we’re headed out to blow somebody up?” she quips.

Finding a campsite that seems empty, they park and get prepared for their ambush. While Onan performs a long ritual asking his totems for guidance and blessing, Setakawa sends his birds forth to look for any sign of the hooded figure. Karen hopes that the magical ceremony brings the creature to them like a bloodhound. Conroy is confused at how Karen thinks that going camping will bring out their assailant, but shrugs his shoulders and says that he’ll go along with it for now.

After two hours, Onan is still chanting and dancing while Karen wonders if this plan is a good idea after all. When storm clouds start forming, Conroy jokes that the weather seems to be co-operating with Onan’s “crazy Indian ritual”. Karen decides it’s too much trouble to explain to him that Onan is an Inuit. Trying to keep her wits sharp, she watches the woods warily, looking for any sign of the hooded figure.

Another couple hours pass and Karen and Conroy are surprised that Onan is still in the throes of his ceremony. Just as she’s about to comment on Onan’s stamina, Setakawa screams out that the birds have spotted something. Pulling her gun, she scans the trees for trouble. The clouds break and rain begins pouring down from the sky in a torrential storm. Then, the birds swarm at a spot in the woods and all hell breaks loose.

The hooded creature tears through the brush into the campsite, swatting at Setakawa’s birds while looking for the source of magical energies it’s sensing. Karen dives for cover behind one of the trees while Conroy takes a few shots at it. With her heart pounding in her ears, Karen tries to move silently behind the creature. She’s amazed as her legs and feet seem to tingle with magical energy, carrying her swiftly and silently around the monster. Just as she thinks she may be able to get in close to strap a grenade to its back, it whirls around, drawn to the magic she’s just used. Stumbling to stay out of its reach, she slips on the mud and is battered by the thing’s steel-like fists.

Conroy moves in to try and stop the creature from killing her while Setakawa directs his birds to distract it and Onan continues the ritual like a man possessed. The rain continues, coming down in roaring waves of water that seem to deafen everything except Onan’s chanting and singing. Even after Conroy shoots the monster directly in the kneecap, it ignores him and continues its assault on Karen. Finally, Conroy steps in the way of one of the blows, taking it to the top of his head. Crawling out of the creature’s reach, Karen pulls out one of the thermite grenades. She struggles to slap it to the thing’s back with a duct tape strap she made up beforehand, but the water and rain throws her off balance, just missing her target. When Conroy pulls back the creature’s hood to punch it in the face, he’s shocked to see its misshapen face and stitched skin:

“You are the ugliest bastard I have ever seen!”

Karen slams the grenade into the pulled back hood and pulls the pin. She stumbles on the mud and yells for Conroy to clear out as Setawaka grabs him from behind. As she narrowly dives behind a log for cover, the grenade explodes, sending chunks of flesh spraying all over the campsite. Glancing out, she’s horrified to see that the thing is still alive. It’s head and neck are blasted apart, but the body and legs are still thrashing around. Tossing a second grenade, the thing unbelievably survives another blast, losing one of its feet and part of the leg. Knowing that she won’t have another chance, she runs up to the monster to jam the last grenade into the thing’s back. As she pulls the final pin, it grabs at her with its charred arms dropping her to the ground as the grenade detonates. The explosion rips the silver stone from the thing’s chest, finally killing the monstrosity. Rolling and covering her face, Karen’s arms are badly burnt by the blast, torching her jacket to scraps and leaving her almost dead. As she blacks out from the pain, she is able smirk in the knowledge that the hooded thing is finally destroyed.

Oblivious to the events around him while in his ritualistic trance, Onan finishes his ceremony and asks for help from the spirits. At that instant, the clouds split as lightning from the sky strikes Conroy, sending him flying off his feet. Onan doesn’t understand why the spirits would have lashed out at Conroy, but tries not to worry about it as Setakawa and him gather their injured friends and drive away from the campsite. Setakawa admires the silver rock that was once the heart of the creature, its surface still hot from the thermite blast.

Several hours later, Karen awakens in the back room at the bookstore. She winces at the intense pain from the blisters and scars along her arms. Onan is preparing a healing solution for her, but tells her to rest until it’s ready. When she asks him about whether Conroy was hurt in the fight, Onan looks at her nervously. Just as he’s about to explain what happened, Conroy enters the room completely unharmed. He walks with an uncommon grace and an intense look in his eyes that she’s never seen before. Even before he opens his mouth, she can tell that he’s somehow not the same person she knew.

“Miss Karen, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am Tupilak, an avatar in service to Sila, the Inuit guardian spirit. I have come to aid you in your time of need.”


----------



## Horacio (Jan 20, 2003)

Wow, it was worth the waiting!!!!

Great update


----------



## Lela (Jan 20, 2003)

Zubkavich said:
			
		

> *“Miss Karen, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am Tupilak, an avatar in service to Sila, the Inuit guardian spirit. I have come to aid you in your time of need.” *





COOL!!!!!!!


----------



## Zubkavich (Jan 20, 2003)

Some interesting tidbits and trivia for those who might interested:

- Karen's magical silence in the fight is from a feat and spell combo she has. The feat,  Arcane Talent, is one I wrote up based on Psychic Talent from D20 Modern. The spell she chose with that feat was a cantrip called "Footpad's Grace" which I adapated from Dragon Magazine #302. It adds +3 to Move Silently checks.

- The Flesh-driven, as people have already guessed, is a varient on a flesh golem with enhanced abilities to sense magic and also incoporating the idea for creature weaknesses from D20 Modern.

- A "Tupilak" is an Inuit spirit weapon.


----------



## weiknarf (Jan 20, 2003)

sweet!


----------



## Tear44 (Jan 20, 2003)

Excellent.

This is a wild ride, please keep it going.


----------



## Velenne (Jan 20, 2003)

woohoo!!  Good stuff, Z  How much damage did Karen take in that blast?


----------



## Broccli_Head (Jan 20, 2003)

Very cool fight scene Zubavich!

Now what will the baddies beyond the veil come up with to take Karen out?


----------



## Zubkavich (Jan 27, 2003)

*Session Nine: Quiet Time*

Tired and still extremely sore from her injuries, Karen questions Tupilak about his nature and why he’s chosen to posses Conroy’s body. The spirit answers simply and honestly, telling her that it is meant to assist Onan and help the group defeat the evil that they have encountered. The spirit has no qualms about sacrificing Conroy or anyone else in the group to achieve this end; it believes that the future is far more important than any individual. Karen tries to explain that Conroy wasn’t a willing body the spirit should have possessed, but it is unswayed by her. The spirit has a mission and it will complete it.

Onan meanwhile, is a bit of a basket case. Seeing one of the totem spirits that he worships made manifest in front of him and talking to it directly has made him extremely uptight. Karen can see that the amateur shaman is trying to make everything simple and traditional for Tupilak, but is completely unsure of how to treat the spirit at all. While Onan is administering healing ointments to Karen’s wounds, she tries to get him to calm down, to little avail.

“You can just talk to him, you know.  He’s not freaked out. Why should you be?”

“Yeah, sure. I’ll just be all buddy-buddy with a little piece of the Gods.”

Setakawa, on the other hand, is fascinated by the Inuit possessor. Both have extreme personal drive to see the mission through which Tupilak finds quite pleasing. The more Setakawa talks informally with the spirit, the more Onan seems to become irritated and soon the tension in the bookstore is thick enough to cut with a knife.

Karen tries to ignore it all by poring over ‘Properties of Universal Truths’ and trying to get more in touch with her magical nature. After she explains to Sedrick about the magical effect she felt during the battle with the Hooded Figure, he surmises that this was inadvertently her first real spell. He prompts her to go through the book again, while thinking clearly about this spell and its effect. Once again, the pages turn by themselves and she can see words flash before her. This time, they read in depth about the ability to suppress noise and become stealthy. Her face lights up as she comprehends the incantations and gestures needed to reproduce it. When the book is finished, she has fully absorbed her first spell.

Sedrick is pleased with Karen’s progress and he asks her to try looking for some simple detection spells in the book. Flipping through the pages again, she’s disappointed to see only vague descriptions of possible effects, but no specific information. Sedrick is confused that she isn’t able to gather more from it. He tells her to keep trying and heads off to feed his owl.

Pondering over the book some more, she eventually decides to get some extra sleep and regain some more of her strength. As soon as she drifts off, she has another dream encounter with Regina. As before, she recalls her encounter with Regina perfectly, but the sounds and voices are totally changed. When Regina’s mouth opens, she’s saying completely different things, this time about the nature of magic itself. She explains that time is tight and Karen has much to learn. But even under such pressure, she can’t just force the magic to come forth.

“Magic isn’t a tool you wield or something you push along. It’s inside of you and around you; a part of yourself and a reflection of your soul.”

“But how can I make it grow?”

“Just do what you feel most strongly about and be yourself in every way. It will build naturally from there.”

Karen asks Regina how she’s able to contact her from beyond the grave. The old fortuneteller tells her that her soul is being summoned by someone else to help give Karen advice.   

She wants to ask Regina more, but she’s suddenly awakened by Onan as he tends to her burns again. After he finishes changing her bandages, they talk about his fears and his faith in the spirits. Onan wanted to go back to his normal day-to-day life after killing the hooded figure, but the mission is too big now and he knows he can’t just walk away from it. Karen agrees, but wishes there was another way.

While Onan tries to meditate to relieve tension, Karen puts out more candy for the faerie folk and happily watches them play amongst themselves. It’s some quiet time after the difficulties the group has been through these past few weeks.

Just as she is able to forget the pressing problems in her life, Setakawa enters the room with important news. The ancestor bird he sent away to find guidance for them over a week ago has finally returned and it may have some of the answers they are looking for.


----------



## Zubkavich (Jan 27, 2003)

Session 9 may seems extra short, but much of the role-playing based conversations could be summed up in a few sentences, even though they were quite long and in depth.

I hope you all like it anyways, even if it's not an action-packed session.


----------



## fenzer (Jan 27, 2003)

Good stuff Zub.  Thanks for the update.


----------



## Lela (Jan 27, 2003)

I'll admit that I was hoping for more but I still like it.

Thanks for your time Z.


----------



## Horacio (Jan 27, 2003)

Wonderful non-combat update!


----------



## weiknarf (Jan 27, 2003)

Of course we like it


----------



## Broccli_Head (Jan 27, 2003)

Yah! It's really good. Sometimes a low action session is neccessary especially when you are able to develop the characters.


----------



## Zubkavich (Feb 2, 2003)

Finally got around to doing the artwork and write-up for the Snapdragon Box. As before, I've uploaded it in pdf format for people to check out:

*Snapdragon Box FX Item (127 kb pdf)*

Here's the picture of it to grab your attention:







Comments, as always, are welcome.

Thanks.


----------



## fenzer (Feb 2, 2003)

Zub, your art work is really very good.  Do you do PC portraits?  I would like to see more of your work.


----------



## Zubkavich (Feb 3, 2003)

fenzer said:
			
		

> *Zub, your art work is really very good.  Do you do PC portraits?  I would like to see more of your work. *




You can find more of my artwork at my website called
Zubkavision and my online comic called The Makeshift Miracle. I'm very lucky to have a job where I draw for a living... so I get quite a bit of practice.

I'm slowly building a portfolio of RPG-related artwork so that I can try and get some work in the RPG industry. Working freelance like that on published RPG books would be incredible.

I've actually never done commision drawings. If you'd like one, we may be able to work something out. Feel free to e-mail me and we'll get it figured out.

Thanks for the praise and feedback.


----------



## fenzer (Feb 3, 2003)

Zub, Great stuff!  Those life art images are incredible and some you did in 30 seconds!  Wow.

I love the samurai and the orc barbarian.  And your color work is very good.

I have never commissioned an artist before and by the looks of your work, I am afraid I would only insult it with what I could offer but if you are interested, I have a unique rider and mount duo that I think would be rather fun.  If you would like, I can e-mail you the particulars.


----------



## Lela (Feb 3, 2003)

Z, I'm starting to use Yahoo Groups to provide a website for the campaigns I run.  I was wondering if you'd mind if I occationally used some of the artwork on your site to give a visual reference.  It's a closed Group for only my players (if that matters).


----------



## Horacio (Feb 3, 2003)

Zub, the art is wondeful!


----------



## Zubkavich (Feb 3, 2003)

Thanks everyone for the praise. It's always nice to know that people are enjoying the things I've put up on my website.



			
				fenzer said:
			
		

> *If you would like, I can e-mail you the particulars. *




That would be fine. Although my schedule is busy right now, I will have a lot of free time in about 3-4 weeks and I could draw something up if we can agree on everything.



			
				Lela said:
			
		

> *Z, I'm starting to use Yahoo Groups to provide a website for the campaigns I run.  I was wondering if you'd mind if I occationally used some of the artwork on your site to give a visual reference.  It's a closed Group for only my players (if that matters). *




That's fine. All the images have my signature on them, so as long as that isn't removed, I'm okay with it.

I want to put together more artwork, rules and play more sessions of Under The Eclipse soon. It's just been a matter of finding the time. My girlfriend and I have had schedules which are pretty conflicted, but we're going to set aside time this week to play again at least once.


----------



## Velenne (Feb 3, 2003)

So what does she think of all her character's fans out there across the world?  Is she adapting well to her new-found fame? 

She might want to hire a PR team, or at the very least an agent to handle appearances and interviews.  You thought your schedules were conflicted now, just wait till the calls start rolling in!


----------



## Lela (Feb 3, 2003)

Zubkavich said:
			
		

> *
> That's fine. All the images have my signature on them, so as long as that isn't removed, I'm okay with it.
> *




Yay!


----------



## Zubkavich (Feb 8, 2003)

Velenne said:
			
		

> *So what does she think of all her character's fans out there across the world?  Is she adapting well to her new-found fame?
> *




Heh... she's not quite sure what to make of it actually. She's a bit embarassed that every move her character makes is being _recorded_ in some fashion. She likes it, but finds it a touch intimidating.

That's one of the reasons I haven't posted updated stats for Karen Frost. She's a bit worried about her stats choices being put under the microscope by people. I've been prodding her, complimenting her and trying to explain that she shouldn't be uptight about it. It wouldn't be a good story without her incredible input and role-playing. She should be proud of that.


----------



## fenzer (Feb 8, 2003)

Zub, I e-mailed you about a week ago.  Did you get it?  I sent an attachment, jpeg, along with it.  

I can send the info again if you missed the first one.


----------



## Zubkavich (Feb 8, 2003)

*Session Ten: Spreading The Faith*

Setakawa is nervous as he relates his ancestor’s information to the group. From what the ancestors have been able to discern, the beings from Coral aren’t just trying to arrive physically on this plane of existence. They need a spiritual anchor of some sort and seem to be causing a shift in the spirit world to make room for it. Setakawa believes that they are trying to prepare for an arrival of some greater spiritual figure, a God of some sort.

“How can they do that?” Karen asks.

“Simply enough... through huge amounts of faith.” says Setakawa.

If they can use the faith of a massive amount of people, they could create a permanent foothold on this world from which to control it. Although he’s not sure, Setakawa believes that New York has been chosen because of its large population base that doesn’t have a single dominant religion. They could be swayed and the beings from Coral seem to want to use their drugs to do it. It’s an important lead and gives the group a direction to head towards.

Karen explains to Tupilak that Conroy has important information that they need to access. Conroy’s drug ties throughout the city could prove invaluable in their search for Nicholas Click’s next move. Tupilak seems mildly insulted at the idea that he should give up control of Conroy’s body and explains to her that his possession of Conroy “does not work that way.” Annoyed, but not having any other choice, Karen decides to check in with Buzzard at the pawn shop and see if he has any leads. Before she heads out, she drops a note in the Snapdragon Box for Millar:


_
Greetings Millar,

I have some information on some of the people trying to shift things over here.

Two names, one is Nealcatus. This guy has flawless brown skin, perfectly red eyebrows and hair. Right before he speaks there is a sizzle or something and a couple times I swear that I saw steam from his mouth.

Nealcatus spoke of a higher up he called Hizerath. I think this Hizerath is still on your world. They are using some drug to make soldiers. I think they make it in Coral and bring it here via “portals”. Their word for it, not mine.

One of my allies says that they are trying to shift the faith over here so that one of their Gods can get a foothold here. Do you have any info on any of this?

We slew the construct. Thanks for the advice. What do we do with the silver bit we took out of it?

I was able to tap into the whole magic thing briefly. I walked quieter than normal, but I can’t see basic magical things. Sedrick doesn’t know why.

Karen
_


Stopping into "Pawns, Rooks and Drag Queens", Buzzard and Karen get caught up with recent events. He flirts and flits about the shop as usual while Karen explains her injuries away as “gang problems”. When Karen asks about the drug called Viperous, Buzzard is quite intrigued.

“I thought you didn’t want to get mixed up in drugs, honey?”

“I’m pursuing all sorts of options.” smirks Karen.

Buzzard’s excited because there’s a weakened version of Viperous that he’s heard of through his contacts on the street. The old goth wants to get in on the deals and start selling this new drug around town. He’s supposed to be heading to a huge rave in Manhattan the next night to try and get in on the action. Karen charms Buzzard with compliments until he invites her to come along with him. She knows that getting this close to the dealers could be dangerous, but she needs to know what they look like and what their game plan is.

Heading back to the bookstore, she picks up Onan and heads out shopping. Her current clothes won’t allow her to blend in at a rave, so she decides to pick up some flashy clubbing clothes. Onan grumbles the whole way, telling her that he’s not comfortable with her infiltrating this rave and getting this close to whoever is behind it. She explains that they can’t just go charging in with their guns blazing. There’s too many people at this rave and they don’t even know who the dealers are yet. She promises him that she won’t get into any combat and will keep it to just a scouting mission. Onan asks her if he can go too, but after showing him the clothes he’d need to wear to blend in, he has to admit that he’d never be able to act natural dressed like that.

Tupilak is frustrated that there’s no clear threat for them to attack, but understands that he cannot go along with her. He utters some magical blessings for Karen before she leaves, hoping that it will protect her. On the taxi ride over to the pawn shop to meet up with Buzzard, she feels nervous and vulnerable. She can’t take her weapons and has no idea what to expect when she goes to the rave.

At an abandoned warehouse on the southern edge of Manhattan, the party is already in full swing. Pounding bass can be heard almost a block away and the line up outside the venue is massive. Buzzard estimates that there’s at least 700-800 people inside, all potential customers for the wares he’s picking up. He grins from ear to ear as he tells her how much money he could get for one night’s work. Karen tries to be happy for him, but her thoughts are about the far more immediate dangers.

Heading to the side entrance, Buzzard meets up with the rave organizer, a man dubbed Crisp Cringle. As he leads them inside the warehouse, Karen has to strain her ears to hear him talking over the pounding trance music. Crisp explains that he and his associates are looking at running several large events like this in the next couple of months. Karen pretends that she may have an interest in investing some capital in future raves, and Crisp seems to hit it off well with her. He leads them both to an upper tier where they can look out over the entire dance area and meet his associates.

Sitting at a set of couches entertaining a group of giggling girls is an intense looking individual. As Buzzard greets him, he stands up to shake Karen’s hand and she gets an eerie feeling in her stomach. The man’s eyes have an almost pinkish tone to them and his pupils dilate oddly as he greets Karen with a smooth voice and a slight smirk.

“My name is Morfuseid.”

“That’s a pretty weird name. Where does that name come from?” she asks with a grin.

“ It’s... South American.” he says unflinchingly.

While Buzzard starts to wheel and deal, Karen decides to relax for a bit. Sitting down amongst the couches, she refuses various drugs that are offered to her while discussing Morfuseid’s business. He explains to her that the raves require a lot of advertising and promotion in order to gain credibility with its clientele. She listens intently while watching for anything out of the ordinary.

Without warning, Morfuseid leans in close to her and begins to speak in an extremely calming tone. His eyes dilate even more and she can feel a strange sensation overwhelming her. Suddenly, she thinks she likes him, even though she knows on a conscious level that he’s probably involved with the evil from Coral. He seems very nice to her and she wonders if maybe she’s misjudged him. When he asks her if she’d like to head to the dance floor, she’s instantly compelled to follow him.

As they merge into the writhing crowd, the music continues to pound and the movement of people’s bodies is like an ever-shifting pattern. When Morfuseid dances with her, she feels incredibly good and she realizes that she’s smiling despite herself. Just as she feels like she may be lost to the rush of emotions, a voice breaks through Morfuseid’s unnatural charms. Tupilak’s prayer hits like a hammer, shattering the spell that she was under. She shakes off the charm’s effect just as a strobe light flickers and she’s able to see Morfuseid for what he really is.

Under the light’s glare, she sees pinkish jelly-like skin and a mouth that’s a mess of tentacles swirling back and forth to the music. His eyes are milky white without any pupils at all. Staring in horror, she realizes that no one else can truly see this monster in front of her.

Using charm and slight of hand she takes a pair of sunglasses from a nearby dancer to cover her eyes. She isn’t sure if it’ll help her resist Morfuseid’s influence, but she needs some sort of protection from his charming eyes. Morfuseid doesn’t seem to have noticed that he’s lost his hold over her, and she maneuvers to stay away from his gaze while pretending to be enjoying the music. 

She sees a head moving quickly through the crowd as another individual approaches, looking to speak to Morfuseid. The second man is a tall with a crew cut and various piercings. Morfuseid smiles and introduces him to Karen.

“This is my cousin, Horvulok.” He says.

“Horvulok?” she asks.

“Also South American.” Morfuseid replies.

Horvulok ignores Karen at first, intent on other things. Karen strains to hear what they’re saying to each other while the music pounds onwards.

“Nealcatus has felt a presence. Something is here. Something is close.”

Morfuseid seems annoyed that he has to leave the dance floor, but heads off to speak to security. Karen prepares to blend into the crowd and leave the warehouse while Horvulok is left standing on the dance floor. Just as she’s about to slip out of view, Horvulok glances over towards her and his eyes widen, sensing her magical nature.

“Right in front of me... you there, STOP!”

Karen tries to push her way through the crowd, squirming past the gyrating bodies and looking for the exit. Horvulok draws a small curved blade and tries to stab at her, but she narrowly avoids him and slips between several dancers to stay away from him. Looking back, she’s amazed to see him jump almost 30 feet straight up to grab the rafters overhead. Amongst the chaos of sound and lights, no one else notices Horvulok looking out over the crowd, searching for her. Trying to stay out of his view, Karen auto dials her cel phone, yelling at Setakawa to send help. Glancing up every so often as she moves towards the exit, she can see Horvulok crawling along the rafters like an insect, clinging impossibly to their surface. 

Just as she nears the door, Horvulok spots her again and vaults down into the midst of the crowd to grab her. Just as he gets hold of her shirt, two of Setakawa’s birds burst through the door to attack him with beaks and claws. He screams and flails at them, while the crowd clears away from his spastic movements. Karen slips away with a smile, knowing that since normal people can’t see Setakawa’s birds, Horvulok looks like a man in the midst of a really bad drug trip.

Running from the warehouse venue, she soon finds Setakawa’s car parked a few blocks away. She knew he’d ignore her orders and follow her, but it inadvertently saved her life so she doesn’t complain. As they drive back to the bookstore, Karen is exhausted but resolute. She’s got more information and a focus for their efforts. If she can disrupt this drug driven cult, the beings from Coral will lose their chance to invade our world.


----------



## Lela (Feb 9, 2003)

Zubkavich said:
			
		

> If she can disrupt this drug driven cult, the beings from Coral will lose their chance to invade *our* world.




A part of your writting that gives it a personal feel.  Now I'm really routing for our heroine.


----------



## Broccli_Head (Feb 9, 2003)

good thing the illithid wasn't hungry!


----------



## Zarthon (Feb 9, 2003)

Your story keeps gettinig better and better, I really enjoyed the club scene, keep it coming


----------



## Velenne (Feb 10, 2003)

> Your story keeps gettinig better and better, I really enjoyed the club scene, keep it coming




I'll second that!


----------



## fenzer (Feb 11, 2003)

Nice update, Zub.  I am really enjoying the story.  Please update soon.


----------



## Zubkavich (Feb 17, 2003)

*Session Eleven: Under The Watch*

Arriving back at Dog-Earred Pages, Karen lies down and thinks of ways that the group can disrupt the Viperous drug trade before sleep finally overtakes her. Even though she escaped the rave without any wounds, she’s still sore from earlier encounters and the stress she’s been under.

The next morning she awakes, feeling a bit better. As she stretches and prepares to head downstairs, her eye catches something odd out the window. Across the street she sees the morning sunlight glinting heavily off of some sort of reflective surface from a second story window. It wouldn’t normally have gotten her attention, but she gets a weird feeling in her gut about it and decides that it’s not just a coincidence. 

Heading to the main floor, she sees Tupilak offering prayer to his fellow spirits. Waiting until he’s finished, she makes him a proposition.

“Do you want to do some hunting?” she says.

“Of course.” He answers with a smile.

She explains that “hunting” in the city is different from hunting animals. He must be stealthy, but until she knows what their “prey” is, he’s not to strike out. She figures it’ll give him a chance to get out of the bookstore and a give her some strong back up in case her gut instinct is right about danger.

They head out the back door and around the block so that they can approach the building across the road from behind. It’s a two-story building with shops underneath and bachelor apartments up top. Maneuvering into the apartment entrance, Karen picks the lock while Tupilak stands guard and blocks anyone seeing her activity from the street level. Within a few minutes, the lock gives a satisfying click and they gain access to the apartment hallway.

Leaning in towards each of the three apartment doors, Karen listens for anything strange. The second door which corresponded to the reflection of light she saw has strange machine whirring noises behind it, as if there are several computers or appliances running at once. Not sure if there’s anyone inside, she decides to leave and come back later for a closer peek. Just as she’s leaving, she hears someone open the first apartment door. Slipping outside with Tupilak, they casually walk down the street. When Karen takes a quick glance back, she sees a man with short red hair looking out the door, obviously wondering where the noise he had heard came from. He looks up and down the street and stares across the road at the bookstore.

Heading around the block and back into the bookstore through the back door, the rest of the crew are just waking up. Karen gathers them together to relate her troubles from the previous night and explain that there may be someone spying on them from across the road. Onan wonders if it’s agents of the evil forces they’ve been fighting with while Setakawa suggests possible assault strategies they could use. Karen tells them to stay calm and not to jump to any conclusions.

Waiting and watching, she checks the Snapdragon Box and finds a new message from Millar:


_
Greetings,

I hope this letter finds you well. Hizerath is indeed a dangerous individual who is one of the Shadow-Borne. He has many agents and soldiers at his disposal, but has not been heard from here in a long time. If he is still alive, it will make the situation in Coral far more difficult. Battles are raging here and we are doing our best to keep pressure upon the Shadow. They are gathering momentum and we will be hard pressed to keep them contained within the borders of Stamad’s Vale.

This use of faith would be a horrifying way for them to escape. Their Gods have corruptive powers that would cripple your world. Ensure that this does not come to pass. I will try to strengthen you from here as best I can.

The silver from the construct has their taint and a piece of it can be used to detect them as they have detected you in the past. Check the tome, prepare it and use it against them.

Millar
_


Trying not to let things distract her, Karen attempts several times to read her book and understand how to prepare the silver. Each time she does, Onan or Setakawa interrupts her, wanting to know what they should do about the potential spies across the road. Finally, she seeks refuge in the attic and reads the book while sitting amongst the old trunks of clothes and antiques Sedrick has stored up there. Although the book has details for readying the silver, she realizes that she doesn’t have the magical ability to do it yet, and asks Sedrick if he can prepare it. He tells her that he will try, but offers no guarantees. 

Over the course of the rest of the day, Karen tries to subtly check and see if the man from the apartment building will leave so she can get a closer look. While waiting and watching, she sees a pair of construction workers set up a survey tripod down the street and start to take measurements. The red-haired man leaves his apartment soon after. She’s not sure if it’s just a coincidence, but she doesn’t want to take any chances. She asks Setakawa to unleash some of his ancestor birds to spy on the construction crew as well as to turn into mist and check out the apartments across the road. If any of the people can actually see the birds, she’ll see the commotion and they can strike out at them; if not, at least they’ll know what’s going on.

The birds fly forth and soon bring back some interesting information. No one seemed to react to them, so whoever the people are, they’re not attuned to the supernatural. However, there are a variety of machines in the second apartment and it’s definitely not being used as living quarters. There’s obviously some kind of surveillance going on.

Losing her patience, she decides to get confront the problem and see things for herself. Grabbing Tupilak, she heads across the road again. While picking the lock this time, the red-haired man returns. Karen quickly hides her lockpicks and lets the man go by, feigning that she’s interested in possibly renting an apartment in the neighborhood. As she asks him about the building and how he likes living there, she can sense that he’s growing nervous and making excuses to get out of the conversation. When she brings up his interest in the bookstore, he quickly heads towards his apartment. Tupilak vaults up over the banister, lands in front of him and slams him up against the wall. Karen tells him to hold the man while she asks him a few questions.

“Okay pal, why’s your curiosity so piqued by the bookstore across the road?”

“Th-there’s no bookstore, it’s just a vacant lot!” he stammers, trying to squirm free of Tupilak’s grip.

“If that’s so, why are you spying on it then?” she asks with a smirk.

Just as she finishes her question, the man bursts into action, kicking Tupilak in the shin and ripping free of his grasp. Tupilak hammers him in the head with a punch like a jackhammer, but he’s able to stumble into his apartment and pulls a gun on them.

Tupilak prepares to attack him again, but Karen is able to keep the spirit warrior calm and raises her hands in surrender. Tupilak’s muscles are tensed, but he stays still. Karen explains that she works at the bookstore across the road and wants to know who he is and why he’s spying on them.

“You work at that store?” he gasps.

He explains to them that he’s been photographing the vacant lot for a few weeks, trying to understand why he’s gotten glimpses of a store at dawn and dusk each day. His name is Evan Ansel and he’s a scientific investigator working for an organization dedicated to detailing the unexplainable.

“Are you guys working for the government?” Karen asks.

“Some of our crew used to, but the program was shut down after a lack of any conclusive evidence and federal funding cuts. We’re continuing the work on our own though, without any outside help.” He explains.

Karen explains to Tupilak that Evan isn’t a threat and lets the investigator get an ice pack for his bruised head. Evan is stunned that Karen is interacting with the building he’s seen glimpses of and wants to know everything about it. Karen can’t tell him all that he wants until she knows more about him and the people he’s working with, but invites him to head back to the bookstore and see it for himself. Evan is shocked and unsure.

“I- I- I don’t know if that’s proper protocol for this sort of situation...”

“Look, protocol went right out the window the minute we found you out. Do you want to interact with something amazing or just sit back and try to watch it?” she asks him.

After a few moments of indecision, he walks with them across to the store. As they get within a few feet of it, Evan is amazed to see the bookstore appear before him. Karen assumes that their presence with him has helped him to see it and she opens the door for him to enter. Nervously, he steps inside.

Once Onan, Sedrick and Setakawa are brought up to speed, they try their best to feed Evan’s curiosity without revealing too much of their purpose. The investigator is in awe at the magical nature of the building, not understanding how it could have been invisible before.

“How come no one can see this place?” he asks.

“It is hard to explain. However, I think that most people are merely foolish in their eyeballs, Mr. Evan.” Seatakawa says with assurance. 

Karen laughs at Setakawa’s broken explanation, but doesn’t really have a better answer. After letting Evan see more of the bookstore, Karen begins to ask him more about the organization he is a part of. Evan in turn explains that his group only has four members left at this point. Their leader is a psychic woman named Sandra who has seen the bookstore more than anyone else amongst them.

“Is this Sandra person a dark-haired oriental girl?” asks Setakawa.

“Yeah. How did you know?”

“She’s heading across the road towards us with a gun.”

Evan quickly heads out the front door to calm Sandra down as she is overcome with shock at seeing the store appear in front of her. She explains that she felt Evan’s aura was erratic and came over to investigate. She can’t contain the surprise on her face as she looks around the bookstore, trying to understand how it appeared.

“Is this a transdimensional fixed anomaly or some kind of bio-rhythmic psychic shell space?”

“A what or a what?” exclaims Onan.

Sandra spouts all sorts of pseudo-scientific terminology for what she’s encountering while Karen tries to hide her amusement at the two investigators. Sandra tries to bully the group by explaining that Evan and her “work for the government”, but Karen tells her that they already know that they are no longer government-affiliated. Sandra sighs and loses some of her pushiness, realizing that intimidation won’t get her far here.

Karen explains that the two groups may be able to find some common ground and help each other. Sandra quickly agrees and apologizes for her confrontational attitude.

“You’re right, we got off on the wrong foot. My name’s Sandra Honet. I’m the leader of Department-7.”


----------



## Horacio (Feb 17, 2003)

And Department 7 arrives to the story 

Great update!


----------



## Lela (Feb 17, 2003)

Aw, the good old Department 7.  Gotta love it.

Reminds me too much of Department 36 from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.  Let's just hope they aren't as, well, evil.

Thanks Z, appreciate it muchly.


----------



## fenzer (Feb 19, 2003)

Another great update Zub.  I love what you did with the bookstore, a great idea.

Update soon.


----------



## Broccli_Head (Feb 25, 2003)

_sigh_....I apologize for letting this AMAZING story hour get to page 2.

Back on page 1, then. 

BUMP!


----------



## Zubkavich (Mar 9, 2003)

*Session Twelve: Red Chalk*

Over the course of the next few hours, Karen tries her best to explain to Sandra almost all of the strange things that have happened to her. At first, Sandra seems overwhelmed, but eventually she reveals to Karen that a horrible sense of psychic foreboding she had felt led Deprtment-7 to New York in the first place, and that Karen’s story seems to coincide with the visions she’s been having. Although Sandra has felt fleeting dark auras that she couldn’t explain, she hasn’t had a chance to pinpoint them. The only thing she could seem to get a consistent impression of was Sedrick’s bookstore, so Evan set up a group of cameras to try and figure out what it was.

While Karen fills Sandra in on Coral and the beings who are trying to bring their evil god to our world, she stresses that they need all the help they can get. Sandra isn’t used to getting involved in the supernatural, only investigating it, but she pledges to help as much as she can. She decides to try to meditate and see if she can get a better bead on where some of the strange auras are located. She isn’t sure if the strong magic of the bookstore will interfere with her psychic exercises, but after hearing about the creatures Karen and her group has encountered, she decides she’ll try it rather than being outside and risking any attacks.

Not having any choice but to wait, Karen grows restless and decides to take a quick walk to a corner store to buy some candy to entice the faerie folk with. On her way back, her senses seem to sharpen, as they did with the insect patterns a few weeks ago. She looks around carefully and her eyes seem drawn to a penny on the sidewalk. Picking it up, she notices that it’s dated 1984, the same year she was born. Not willing to assume it’s a coincidence, she walks a bit further down the sidewalk and sees another penny; this one is dated 1985. Her curiosity piqued, she continues until she sees another up ahead of her. Stopping, she remembers how much trouble she’s gotten into going off by herself and decides that she should get some one to come with her before she wanders into another bit of the unknown. Even if the penny isn’t there when she returns, at least she hasn’t gone off alone and been attacked.

Heading back to the bookstore, she asks Tupilak to accompany her on a short jaunt. The spiritual warrior is sick of being cooped up in the bookstore anyways, and quickly agrees. As they walk down the street where Karen discovered the penny, Tupilak asks her about Conroy’s faith. He’s noticed the cross that Conroy wears around his neck and wonders if it’s some sort of religious symbol. With a smirk, Karen explains to him that it’s a Christian symbol, showing faith to God.

“This god, Christian, what is he like?” asks Tupilak.

“No, the god is named just ‘God’. Christians are God’s worshippers.” She says.

“The god is named ‘God’?” he says, looking confused.

“Yeah, the Inuit gods have never interacted with him?” she asks expectantly.

“No, never heard of him.” he says.

While Karen tries to rationalize the fact that there may or may not be a Christian god, her senses twitch again as a cyclist rides by on a red bicycle. The red seems extra vibrant and her eyes are subconsciously locked onto it. Assuming that it’s the type of mystical sign she’s been waiting for, she jogs after the cyclist and Tupilak follows. Within a few minutes, several other red items catch her eye and she follows them, hoping it will lead towards something of interest.

Finally, she sees a flash of something red from an alleyway and stops to take a closer look. A short, tan-skinned man in a long jacket seems to be etching the wall of the alley with red chalk. Karen and Tupilak slowly creep forward, not sure exactly what to expect. Just as they’re within touching distance of the man, he turns around to face them with a wicked grin across his face.

“It’s not nice to interrupt an artist, my dear.” he says.

Then, his hands crackle with energy and a stream of colored light shoots forth, blinding both Karen and Tupilak. Although she flails in front of her to try and grab at the man, she can’t find him. By the time both of their vision returns, the man is gone, leaving only the red blotch of chalk and more questions than ever.

 At first glance, the red seems normal enough, a thick blob of chalk, with no distinctive features. But when Karen takes a look up close at it, she’s shocked to see thousands of very tiny symbols etched almost too small to see. From a normal distance, it all blends together into a solid color, but extremely close she can make out what it really is. The writing is unbelievably precise, and she’s positive that it isn’t anything normal.

Calling Evan on her cel phone, Karen asks him to bring some camera equipment, so that they can get some pictures of the red writing before she washes it off the wall. While he arrives and takes a bunch of photos with some high-powered macro lenses, Karen and Tupilak keep a watchful eye on the neighborhood, looking for any sign of the strange man. After Evan finishes, Karen buys some bottled water from a nearby grocery store and splashes it on the chalk to get rid of it. Although the redness washes away, they’re all quite surprised to see that most of the writing has been burned into the cement surface of the wall.

“How are you gonna get rid of that? You want me to find a sledgehammer?” remarks Evan.

Karen doesn’t want to make any noise and arouse suspicion, so they opt for simple surveillance instead. Sending Evan back to the bookstore to tell the others to hang tight, Tupilak and Karen hide out in the alleyway, hoping that the strange man will return. After several hours when the sun goes down, their patience pays off. The man creeps back into the alley, but this time he’s not alone. Following a few feet behind him are three German Shepard dogs. Figuring that they have to move quickly to get the drop on the man and the dogs, they quickly move forward. Unfortunately, the dogs’ senses are too sharp, and they easily pick up Tupilak’s scent, sending everything into chaos. 

All three dogs attack, snapping with sharp teeth and claws while the man seems to ignore the battle and continue his bizarre artistic handiwork on the wall. Tupilak is badly bitten several times and angrily slams his knife into the snout of one of the canines, while Karen tries to maneuver around them and get closer to the man. Just as she thinks she can get past, things take a turn for the worse. All three of the dogs’ eyes glow red and she barely has time to avert her face as they breath fire! Tupilak yells in anger and pain as the flames burn his skin while Karen grits her teeth and leaps past it to land beside the man. She jams the gun into the man’s temple, trying not to let the pain distract her.

“Okay a**hole, call off the dogs.” she threatens.

The man smirks and even before she can fire, he’s already moving. With a simple gesture of his hand, he wipes the burnt letters clean from the wall and ducks below her gun. She fires at him, grazing his arm, but he keeps going, dashing down the alleyway towards the street. With his back turned, she levels the barrel with his midsection, ignoring Tupilak’s yells as he slashes at the dogs. With two clean shots, she blasts holes in his spine and chest, sending the man crashing to the ground. As he expires, she hears him wheeze out a few final words.

“Blasted weak bodies.”

As soon as the man drops, the dogs cease their attack. In fact, the animals seem completely normal and begin whining and licking the wounds they’d inflicted only seconds before. Tupilak is shocked and at first isn’t sure if he should keep striking at them. Karen looks around cautiously, sure that the noise of their battle will bring the police soon. They can’t drag a corpse through the streets, so they have to leave it. Kicking him over to get a closer look at his face, she ponders his last comment. The dead mans eyes stare off into nothingness and from his open mouth spills forth red chalk, the exact same color as was on the wall.

“Looks like the human was possessed by the chalk thing...” notes Tupilak.

A cold chill runs up Karen’s spine. That body may have been an innocent person, just a normal guy who was drawn into this thing without knowing why it was happening. She killed him and there was no way to take it back. Her hands tremble as she puts away her gun. With a last glance at the body, they head out, trying to avoid being seen by anyone on the street.


----------



## Broccli_Head (Mar 9, 2003)

Hey Z., 

nice to see another post. what was that chalk thing?

I liked how you described Karen's crisis of conscience.


----------



## fenzer (Mar 10, 2003)

Fun update Zub.  I love the chalk and the microprint.  The pennies were a cool idea too.


----------



## Lela (Mar 10, 2003)

Aw, the wonder of pennies.  I'll have to remember that if I ever play a game that isn't set in the world of copper and gold.


----------



## Zubkavich (Mar 17, 2003)

*Session Thirteen: Pawn Shop Chaos*

Heading back to Dog-Eared Pages, Karen is burnt and hurt once again, prompting Onan to give her another stern lecture while he tends to her various wounds. Karen tries not to think about the innocent she may have killed while giving the rest of the group a rundown of the incident with the man full of red chalk.

While she rests and recovers from the combat, Sedrick brings her some good news. The silver that the group had pulled from the Hooded figure was hard to enchant, but he was able to create two small charms. The tiny chunks of silver will detect the Shadow-Borne and other entities not of this world. When they are close, they will grow warmer, when not, they stay room temperature or colder. 

“Reminds me of playing Hot or Cold when I was a kid.” She remarks.

“Of course it does. That game came from enchantments such as this, even if no one can remember it now.” He says with a grin.

She asks Sedrick about the red chalk and the type of magic that could etch such small mystical writing into the wall. Sedrick has never seen anything like it and isn’t sure where he could research the answers. Not sure of where else to turn for more information, she jots a letter down for Miller and drops it into the Snapdragon Box:


_
Hi Miller,

What exactly is a “Shadow-Borne”?

Is there any way that we can help you in Coral? Not that we aren’t pretty busy here. Speaking of which, where is your world? What is it like?

We are doing our best here. I think we have found some allies here to help us. Sedrick managed to fashion two charms from the silver, like you said to. We should be able to use them to find these creatures. Are any of them demons?

On of the things we ran into filled some guy up with red chalk and blinded us with magic. He had dogs that seemed normal until they breathed fire on us. I figured he was bad news, so I shot him up. He said something about “weak bodies”, then died, leaving this body filled with red chalk stuff. Then the dogs went back to normal.

I don’t want to hurt innocent people! How do I get rid of these evil demons?

Karen
_


It doesn’t take long for a reply to appear:


_
Greetings,

I hope this letter finds you well. The Shadow-Borne are beings that exist in darkness. They were formed from the mistakes our people made in the past; A legacy of violence that we may never atone for. We are doing all we can to contain them, but still their power grows. I do not know if you can help us directly, but stopping them on your side is a start. I do not know what “demons” are. The Shadow-Borne are evil.

The red dust you speak of is Crimson Path, a foul abomination that preys on souls. It fears purifying minerals of our world. Maybe yours will ward it away as well? Crimson Path can multiply and grow. It is a channeler of energy and very dangerous. It brings out evil impulses and I am sorry to hear that some of it has crossed over. My prayers are with you.

Miller
_


Karen reads it over, carefully analyzing what Miller wrote. She scrawls out another quick letter, hoping that he will write back just as quickly:


_
What kind of purifying minerals? How do they multiply? What kind of mistakes created the Shadow-Borne? Is their power growing because of what they’re doing here? What do you mean by a “channeler of energy”?

Karen
_


Onan feeds her some broth and tells her to lie still while he tries his best to help her condition. Concentrating deeply, he calls upon powerful healing magics to bind her wounds.  Before her eyes, her skin tingles and the cuts and blisters seem to melt away, replaced with a slight numbness that soon fades. The Inuit shaman has been preying steadily and with Tupilak’s help, he’s tapping into more powerful spirit spells. Karen is blown away by the strength of his healing, and stares at her clear and unblemished skin in amazement.

Just as she’s about to compliment him on his new abilities, her cel phone rings. Looking over at it, she wonders who could be calling her. Then, without warning, she has a quick flash in her mind and she knows who it is: Buzzard! Unsure of how she knew without even looking at the display on the phone, she picks it up and greets the gothic pawn shop owner. 

Although Buzzard seems polite and decent to her, she can instantly tell that he’s not himself. His words are to perfect and he isn’t making any effort to flirt with her. He asks where she went after the rave and she explains that she had some problems with Horvulok. Buzzard barely gives her time to explain before he’s inviting her to come by the pawn shop for a meeting. He’s got several boxes of the drugs that Morfuseid was dealing in and he wants to know if she wants “in” on the action. Karen tells him that she’ll be by the pawn shop shortly. As she hangs up the phone, she sighs.

“Who was that?” asks Onan.

“Buzzard. Looks like Morfuseid’s hypnotized him or something. He sounds like a regular gentlemen instead of the a**hole I know and love. I’ve got to go over there right away and see what he’s gotten himself into.” She says.

“You realize that it’s a total trap.”

“Yeah, I know. That’s why we’re going to head in as a group and nail the b**tards.”


*(more to come... damn long session...)*


----------



## Horacio (Mar 17, 2003)

Great update!

Hehe, I like the whole slow discovering of the magic and supernatural theme, it's wonderful.


----------



## Lela (Mar 17, 2003)

Zubkavich said:
			
		

> *
> 
> (more to come... damn long session...) *




Aw, holy session of length, we adore thee.

Thanks Zub.  As Horacio said, that is way cool with the slowly advancing magics.  Way cool.


----------



## Broccli_Head (Mar 17, 2003)

Horacio said:
			
		

> *Great update!
> 
> Hehe, I like the whole slow discovering of the magic and supernatural theme, it's wonderful. *




I agree with Horacio!

I know that you'll also be coming up with characer pics soon...right?


----------



## Zubkavich (Mar 17, 2003)

More than just character pics, check out *THIS THREAD *!

Exciting times ahead!


----------



## fenzer (Mar 18, 2003)

Thanks for the update Zub.  I am excited to see the pdf.  You put out good quality stuff.  I cant wait.


----------



## Zubkavich (Mar 22, 2003)

*Session Thirteen continued...*

Gathering everyone together, Karen tells them the plan. She’s going to head into “Pawns, Rooks and Drag Queens” alone and talk up Buzzard, pumping him for information. The others will wait nearby and if Setakawa’s birds see anything go wrong, they should charge in. Even if that happens, no one should use guns unless absolutely necessary. Gunfire in the middle of the day will attract way too much attention.

Sandra is concerned about carrying things out this way.
“I know that Department-7 isn’t a government-run organization anymore, but we can’t just condone assault, break and enter or anything like that, you know.”

“Trust me, once you see the things that are doing this, you won’t be as worried about breaking the law.” Karen says with grim determination.

Just as they head out the door, Karen quickly checks the Snapdragon Box and is relieved to find a response to her letter:


_
Greetings,

I hope this letter finds you well. The crystal minerals are clear and tiny. I do not know what you would find like that on your world. 

It is hard to explain these ideas related to the Shadow-Borne. Our ancestors wanted power beyond that which they were meant to wield. Magic which corrupts instead of working along side the flow of life. I know this however; if they gain worshippers, they will grow in power. 

Crimson Path redirects energies like light, storing and spitting it out in small amounts. They are one of the only Shadows that can stand extreme light because of their power to possess other beings.

Miller 
_


Not having much time, Karen grabs a salt shaker from Sedrick’s cupboard, hoping that they are the “crystal minerals” Miller is talking about in his letter. With that, they head downtown.

Parking a few blocks away from the pawnshop, the group keeps hidden while Karen makes her way to the back door where she normally meets with Buzzard. Setakawa sends a few of his birds to go with her as back up. They fly silently and swiftly, invisible to those who can’t see the supernatural. 

After she knocks, Buzzard comes to the door and unlocks it with a smile. It’s creepy seeing him so sedate, with no sly words or sarcasm. Doing her best to pretend that everything is normal, she heads inside, keeping her eyes peeled for anything else out of the ordinary. Setakawa’s birds slip in unnoticed by Buzzard and hide amongst the shadows.

“It’s good to see you, Buzzard.” She says with a grin, trying to keep her composure.

“You too. I wish you’d have stayed at the rave. It was quite the party.” He says without emotion.

They walk into the main store and just as she’s about to reply to him, he suddenly falls to the floor completely unconscious. Without warning, a man comes bounding over the shelves with incredible agility. Karen runs and tumbles to one side as the man gracefully lands on the counter. She dashes to the exit, but he’s upon her almost instantly, pinning her against the back door. A flash of metal and a knife is pressed against her throat. Her eyes narrow towards the figure and she grimaces; it’s Horvulok.

“Wonderful to see you again.” He sneers while several thugs move up to surround her.

Karen’s outnumbered and in deep trouble. In the back of her mind, she hopes that the cavalry is quickly on their way.

“It’s quite the racket you guys have set up.” Karen says, trying to give herself more time.

“Why thank you. Does this mean you had a good time at the rave?” He smirks.

“I don’t mean the rave, Horvie-baby... I mean the whole interdimensional drug running and worship crap.” She says.

“We don’t have to hurt you, you know. I like humans. You have basic needs and desires that fascinate me.” He says, licking his lips.

 Just as he’s about to continue, the front door comes shattering off its hinges and Tupilak barges into the pawnshop. The other men around Horvulok run to stop him while Karen slips free and drives her fist into Horvulok’s face. 

Horvulok snarls with anger and slashes at her with his glittering knife, cutting her arm deeply. Gritting through the pain, Karen draws her gun and jams it into his neck. She blasts a hole through Horvulak’s throat, spraying dark blood against the wall and sending him reeling backwards from the pain.

“Is that a basic enough need for ya, Horvie?”

Tupilak grabs one of the men and sends him crashing into the shelving units while stabbing another with his hunting knife. Karen kicks the back door open to see Onan fighting with another two men in the alley. Setakawa’s birds swoop in and attack the other men, pecking and clawing at them from all sides.

Horvulok lets out a deep growl and jumps at Karen, pinning her shooting arm against the doorframe and crushing it with his strength. She smashes at his face with her free hand, but he won’t let go.

When Tupilak finishes knocking out the two thugs in front of him, he charges forward and grabs Hurvulok from behind. He practically lifts Horvulok over his head, ripping him away from Karen. She realizes that Tupilak intends to kill him, but she wants to keep him around for questioning.

“Tupilak, don’t!”

Overcome with battle frenzy, the spirit warrior ignores her, slams Horvulok against the wall and impales him with his knife. The blade plunges through Horvulok’s body and pins him several feet off the ground. The Shadow-Borne struggles for a few moments trying to pull the blade out, but finally expires, hanging limply from the wall like a sick Halloween ornament.

Sandra and Evan enter the front door moments later. As Sandra surveys the destruction and unconscious bodies, she looks shocked. When she reaches the back and sees Horvulok’s corpse nailed to the wall, she is aghast.

“Holy s**t! You killed that guy!”

 “That’s no guy.” Karen says, checking her wounded arm. The cut is deep and she thinks it might be infected.

Looking closer, Sandra doesn’t see much that marks Horvulok as anything but a human being. She’s visibly worried, unsure of the morality of what’s been done.

Karen checks the thugs that were with Horvulok. They look like normal people, but she has no way to know for sure. She grimly levels her gun at one of their heads. Sandra snaps out of her analysis of Horvulok and grabs Karen’s arm.

“You can’t just kill these guys. That’s cold-blooded murder!” Sandra yells.

“You don’t know how this works. They’re not going to stop unless we kill them all.” Karen says resolutely.

Onan breaks up the two women as they glower at each other.

“We don’t have time for this. There were gunshots, which means that the cops will be here soon. Grab what you need and get the hell out of here.” Onan says sternly.

Karen tries to calm down and not let her fear get the best of her. Her heart is pounding and her breathing is heavy. She wants to get rid of them all, but isn’t sure which ones are human and which ones aren’t. 

Then, she has an idea.

Taking the salt shaker out of her pocket, Karen sprinkles some of it on the thug in front of her. At first it doesn’t seem to do anything, but moments later, the man lets out a groan and red chalk starts to flow from his mouth and nose. She realizes they’re just normal men under the possession of Crimson Path. She shakes her head, wondering what she would have done if she’d have killed another innocent person.

“Okay Sandra, you’re right. These guys are humans.” She says, letting out a long exhale.

“We’ll have a long talk about this. I want some damn proof before I go along with this.”

Without a lot of time, they check Buzzard’s pockets and find the keys to his back office. Inside they uncover several boxes of pills; drugs from Morfuseid. They grab the boxes, and take Horvulok’s body off of the wall. Setakawa backs his car into the alleyway and they quickly put the body and drugs into the trunk.

“What about the other guys?” Sandra asks.

“The cops will have to assume that it’s some sort of botched break and enter. We don’t have time for anything more fancy.” Karen replies.

Just as they’re about to leave, Karen decides that they should take the unconscious Buzzard with them. They need to know what kind of control he’s under and what other information he can provide about the Shadow-Borne’s plans. Karen secretly hopes that he won’t remember anything and that he can get back to something resembling normal. She doesn’t want to wreck another person’s life by dragging them into this whole supernatural mess.

Onan insists on driving, worried about Setakawa’s sense of direction in downtown New York. With no time to argue, Setakawa, Karen and Tupilak pile in with Buzzard’s body while Sandra and Evan sneak to their car parked several block away. As they pull away, sticking to the side streets, Onan shakes his head.

“You realize that we have a trunk with a load of drugs and a dead body. This is nuts.”

Karen tries to shake off the rage she felt and smiles at him from her reflection in the rearview mirror.

“Then I guess you better drive the speed limit.”


----------



## Zubkavich (Mar 22, 2003)

Session 13 finally concluded just above this post.

Not sure if you guys and gals saw this in the other thread from the d20 Modern section on En World:

I've finally had a chance to start drawing the characters. I'm going to be releasing a pdf sourcebook on RPG Now of NPCs, magic items, monsters and Advanced classes from Under The Eclipse. Enjoy a sneak peek at the pics of Karen and Conroy/Tupilak:


----------



## Lela (Mar 23, 2003)

Very intense Z.  I especally liked Sandra's new take on everything that happened.  I really would expect that reaction and, much of the time, it doesn't happen.

Well done,


----------



## Horacio (Mar 24, 2003)

Greeat update, once more.

It's me or Karen is going nastier, more cold blooded?


----------



## Velenne (Mar 26, 2003)

She most definately is....I LIKE IT!  

Seriously though, this story hour just keeps sucking me in.   I have to admit, for some reason I picturedKaren as a t-shirt-and-jeans, average-but-cute blonde, and Conroy being a much larger man.  I often misread things in books and imagine characters "wrong" but I guess it's all in the Mind's Eye of the reader.  Not that I'm complaining!  The art's great, Zub!  Keep it comin'!


----------



## Lela (Mar 26, 2003)

Horacio said:
			
		

> *Greeat update, once more.
> 
> It's me or Karen is going nastier, more cold blooded? *




It might just be one of the possible natural reactions to killing an innocent.  Harden up to block out the pain.  Now, whether that works or not is, in the RL, up for grabs.

It may also be that she's slowly coming more into the N side of her CN alignment.  Seemed like she was more CG before and she's starting to adjust.


----------



## Horacio (Mar 26, 2003)

Lela said:
			
		

> *It may also be that she's slowly coming more into the N side of her CN alignment.  Seemed like she was more CG before and she's starting to adjust. *




As long as she doesn't overpass the adjustment and fall into CE, it is good for me


----------



## Lela (Mar 26, 2003)

Horacio said:
			
		

> *
> 
> As long as she doesn't overpass the adjustment and fall into CE, it is good for me  *




But it could be kind of poetic--in a tragic way of course.  The hero falling into the evil she once fought.


----------



## Zubkavich (Mar 26, 2003)

I've compiled all the session summaries into one convenient pdf file for people to download and read. It should make it easier to follow, especially now that the game has gone on for quite a while:

* http://www.makeshiftmiracle.com/Artwork/UTE.pdf*

I'll update the pdf as new sessions are added (but will still put the summary here on the forum, so you can read it either way).

The sourcebook is coming along well. Check  this thread for any updates.

Enjoy!


----------



## Broccli_Head (Apr 11, 2003)

*a friendly bump*

Can't wait for the next post!


----------



## Zubkavich (Apr 12, 2003)

We've had a chance to play two sessions in the last 4 days! I haven't had a chance to type up the first session summary, but am about to work on that now. With a bit of luck, the first one will be up tonight and another one tomorrow or Monday.

Look forward to them as there's some pretty neat stuff that's happening...


----------



## fenzer (Apr 12, 2003)

Go Zub go!


----------



## Zubkavich (Apr 13, 2003)

*Session Fourteen: Mindless and Tired*

Arriving back at Dog-Eared Pages, the entire group is exhausted and irritable. After unloading the boxes of drugs, Tupilak wraps Horvulok’s body in a blanket and carries it inside. Onan is frantic about having the corpse around.

“What the hell are we gonna do with this guy’s body? We can’t just keep it!”

“I’m still trying to get over the fact that you guys killed a man in cold blood.” says Sandra.

“I told you already, he’s not human... What do you want to do? Burn it? Drive him out to the woods and bury him? You know, I used to have people in the family that dealt with this sort of thing, but I can’t contact them anymore.” replies Karen.

The bickering continues for many minutes, with Onan sarcastically shooting down options while Sandra looks for proof of Horvulok’s otherworldly ancestry. Finally, Karen remembers one of her old letters from Miller. He had mentioned that the Shadow-Borne hated light. She thinks back and recalls that she never did see Horvulok in the daylight or any bright light at all. Wondering if he’s some sort of vampire, she recommends taking him out into the sun in the morning and seeing what happens. Onan isn’t so sure...

“Great, we’ll just show off a corpse in broad daylight, hoping that it bursts spontaneously into flames. I’ve got a better idea... let me summon some light.”

“Y- you can do that?” remarks Karen.

After Karen and Sandra carry the body up to the bathroom and put it into the bathtub, Onan digs around his various packs and items until he finds a jar of dead fireflies. Taking two of them in his hands and crushing them, he mutters mystical words and closes his eyes. Almost instantly, light begins to pour forth from his palms, engulfing the room in an intense glow. Before their eyes, the body of Horvulok turns to inky blackness, and then slowly fades away.

“Holy s**t, it worked! Okay Sandra, do you believe me now?” asks Karen.

“Yeah... but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to have a shower here ever again.”

With the corpse taken care of, there’s still more to do. Buzzard is still unconscious and Karen doesn’t know how to wake him up out of his unnatural slumber. Sandra offers to try and mentally probe him, but doesn’t have any guarantees that it’ll help. Figuring that they have nothing to lose by trying, Karen agrees and leaves Sandra to meditate with Buzzard.

Taking one of the boxes of drugs to Sedrick, Karen asks him if he can figure out what the pills are or how to get rid of them. Sedrick tells her that he will consult his mystical tomes and research it as best as he can. As they discuss Karen’s encounters with the creatures, she thinks of something odd: Why would the Shadows want our world when there’s daylight around more than half of the time? Sedrick isn’t sure either and Karen leaves him to ponder it while she makes herself a quick meal.

Breathing a sigh of relief that things seem to be progressing half decently, Karen sits down to write a letter to Miller. While doing so, she reflects on the fight at the pawn shop and the intensity of the emotions she’s been put through over the last few weeks.


_
Hi Miller,

We have those crystals you wrote about – we call it salt. I used it to send this Crimson Path stuff out of the bodies they/it was possessing. Where do they go when they leave the body? Do they die, go to hell, go back to your world or what?

Sunlight seems to hurt some of these other Shadow-Borne. Why do these things want to take over a world that they can’t move around in very much? I don’t know what your world is like, but half of our day is sunlit. Could this God of theirs blot out our sun?

If you want us to do all we can, then we need more information here. I need you to tell me as much as you can so we can be more effective. I appreciate all the help you’ve given us so far, but they are clearly gearing up for something and I don’t want to be too late in stopping it.

Karen
_


As Karen sends the letter off, Sandra enters the room looking quite shaken. Her probe of Buzzard was successful and he’s woken up, in a manner of speaking. Unfortunately, it seems that his mind has retreated deep into itself and that he’s not truly conscious, even though he’s awake. Not fully understanding, Karen dashes downstairs to see Buzzard. Although he’s sitting up and his eyes are open, Buzzard stares blankly into space, not noticing anything or anyone around him. Anger wells up inside of Karen as she shakes him violently, trying to get him to react.

“How did this happen?!” she yells.

“I don’t know! He’s sort of there, but I can’t seem to connect with his conscious mind.” Sandra replies.

Hearing the yelling, Onan enters and tries to calm the two women down. Looking over Buzzard while Sandra explains her inability to contact him properly, Onan’s face goes grim. After thinking the situation over for a few minutes, he gives Karen an odd task.

“Head over to the corner store with Tupilak and buy four or five bags of ice. I may be able to help your buddy, but it won’t be easy.”

“Why do you need...”

“Just go. I’ll explain later.” he says without emotion.

Grabbing Tupilak, Karen heads down the street, tired and frustrated. After a few minutes outside, she feels a throbbing pain from her arm. Pulling back her sleeve, she can see that it’s coming from the cut she received from Horvulok’s knife. The cut is deep and almost ebony in color. Tupilak looks at it and sneers.

“If that is taint from the Shadows, we may have to cut your arm off to save you.”

“You are not cutting off my arm!” she says with a growl.

Unsure of why the cut has suddenly become so painful, she tries to ignore it and walks into the store. Once she’s inside, she can feel the sting quickly subside. Confused, but pleased that it’s passed, she grabs the ice Onan wanted and some groceries for the rest of the crew. As they walk back to the bookstore, she can feel the pain start to swell again and she grits her teeth so that Tupilak won’t know that it’s sore again. Back in the bookstore, the pain subsides once more and Karen surmises that the magical cut is somehow feeding on the darkness outside. She reminds herself to get Onan to look at it later and then brings him the ice.

After dumping two of the bags of ice into the bathtub, Onan carefully places Buzzard in, mutters a few quick enchantments and starts to pour ice over top of him. Onan explains to Karen that if Buzzard’s mind is lost, he may be able to bring him back by forcing him on a spirit journey. Usually spirit journeys happen naturally when a person is trapped in a dire situation, but in this case, there’s no immediate danger. Onan hopes that if he submerges Buzzard in ice and performs the proper rituals, it may fool his body and kick start Buzzard on a trip back to the waking world.

“And what if it doesn’t?” Karen asks.

“We’ll take him to a hospital to live out his days as a vegetable.” Onan says, trying to make light of the situation. 

Then, the young shaman asks Karen to leave and tells her not to expect any results for at least eight or nine hours. Walking out, Karen realizes that she has nothing else she can do and that she desperately needs some rest. Although her body is horribly tired, her mind is still awake. Needing a way to wind down, she heads to the fridge, cracks a can of beer and starts to chug it back. Soon after, Tupilak walks in and she offers him one. He opens it, sniffs at the contents and then takes a drink.

“What do you think?” she asks him.

“It tastes like airy sea foam. I do not like it.” he says as he finishes the can anyways.

After a few more, she’s good and tipsy. Offering beers to Setakawa and Evan, she laughs and tries her best to relax. Numb and a bit dizzy, she stumbles up to her room and finally falls into a fitful sleep.

Karen wakes up the next morning as Evan knocks on the door to her room. Groggily cracking her eyes open, she tells him to enter. He’s come to her because Sandra is helping Onan by psychically scanning Buzzard and he doesn’t know who else to talk to.

“The other two members of Department-7 are missing. I’ve been trying to call Tim and Jacob for a few days, but they haven’t gotten back to me.“ he says with a worried edge to his voice.

“Are you sure they’re not just busy?” she asks.

“They’ve never gone more than a few hours without returning a call. Given that we’re all investigating the strange events around New York, I doubt that it’s a coincidence.”

Karen agrees and after shaking off some vestiges of her grogginess, she gathers everyone together. Onan explains that he’s done all he can for Buzzard and that he needs to sleep, so he heads off to bed. Sandra is tired as well, but is obviously concerned about her team members and wants to find them. She asks Evan to call in some of their old favors from when Department-7 was with the government and see if some of their FBI friends can triangulate a location from the cel phone calls they sent. Sandra tells Karen and the others that they don’t have to come along, but Karen disagrees.

“Look, we’re all a part of this now. It’s better that we stick together and see this through rather than get picked off one by one. Besides, Tupilak’s probably itching for a fight and he’d be angry if he missed one.”

Sandra seems surprised at the sentiment, but agrees.

With a task to keep her mind occupied, Karen packs some things to take with her when they search for the rest of Department-7 and loads a fresh clip into her gun. Trying to stay positive in light of all the bad things from the night before, she’s unprepared for the note that she finds when she checks the Snapdragon Box:


_
Hello,

I have received a note and am a bit confused as to its contents. This box belonged to my master and I have received it since his demise. From his writings, it seems to be some sort of link to our battles with the Shadow. Is this correct?

If so, I hope we can communicate. Things here have grown dire and the power of Shadow holds our land in its grip.

Kalay_


----------



## Lela (Apr 13, 2003)

Zubkavich said:
			
		

> _
> Hello,
> 
> I have received a note and am a bit confused as to its contents. This box belonged to my master and I have received it since his demise. From his writings, it seems to be some sort of link to our battles with the Shadow. Is this correct?
> ...




The phrase that comes to mind: "Crap in a box."  Something I say often.

Dang Z, that's bad.  What happens when the box falls into enemy hands?  Woe is us, all will soon be lost.

Better work fast,


----------



## Broccli_Head (Apr 14, 2003)

I hope Karen remembers the injury on her arm...


----------



## fenzer (Apr 14, 2003)

Great stuff Zub.  I love the idea of both worlds fighting the same evil and not having much success.  

Please post soon.


----------



## Horacio (Apr 15, 2003)

Great update, Zub!


----------



## Zubkavich (Apr 20, 2003)

*Session Fifteen: The Water Works*

Taken aback by the letter from the Snapdragon Box, Karen hurriedly grabs the old letters from Miller and stuffs them into the box along with a hastily written note:


_
I’m sending you all of the letters that have gone between Miller and I. Hopefully they will give you some idea about things. I will answer any questions you may have if I can, but to be honest Miller was usually the one answering my questions. 

Why did he die? How? How bad is the situation in your world? I am trying to prevent these Shadows from taking over mine.

Karen
_


Closing the lid, she’s stunned and angry at the same time. Without Miller’s valuable information, the group is virtually left out to dry in their quest to stop the encroaching Shadow-Borne.

Checking the Snapdragon Box an hour later, she sees that her new letter has vanished but that the old ones are still folded up and sitting in the box. Remembering that she can only send one page at a time, she decides to paraphrase a bunch of the information for Kalay into a quick letter and send that on instead. Not knowing how long it will take before she hears back, she decides to check in with the others.

Evan’s received the triangulation information for the signals sent to Tim and Jacob. As far as Evan and Sandra knew, they were in different parts of the city investigating things, but the coordinates he gets from the FBI says that their location is identical.

“Why would they have teamed up on this without telling us?” wonders Evan.

“They haven’t. They’ve probably been captured... or killed.” notes Karen.

Sandra notes that they must both still be alive; she’s worked closely with them for years and would have felt something on a psychic level if either had been killed. With that assurance, the group gathers their equipment and heads to the north end of Manhattan to track down the location they received. 

After maneuvering through the heavy New York traffic, they come to the North River Wastewater Treatment Plant. The group quickly discusses how they plan to gain access to the plant and Sandra decides that she’ll try to use some of her old government ID to get past any security. It ends up being unnecessary; the front gate is closed and locked, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone around. The front security booth is empty and although they can hear the hum of machinery beyond, there’s no one to be seen.

Not wanting to waste time, Karen instructs Setakawa to use his birds and destroy the security cameras pointed at the gate. Then, she scales over to the other side and opens it up from the security booth. Rolling the van inside, Karen starts to feel a strange, almost queasy sensation. Something is unnatural here, and she can knows it. Like watching the air warp from heat waves, she can make out a strong sensation of magic coming from inside the treatment plant. She leads the group inside the main facility, concentrating the whole way. As the group moves quietly past the empty front reception desk, they draw their weapons, knowing that things aren’t the way they should be.

Following the flow of magical energies, the group carefully moves down several flights of stairs. The sounds of machines as well as the rush of water gets louder and they can make out walkways and huge pipes from the small windows that peer out to each floor as they pass by.

The supernatural energy seems to be growing stronger on one of the floors and Karen stealthily takes a closer look while the others wait back at the stairwell. There’s movement in the room beyond and Karen can see men moving boxes back and forth while a women dressed in a business suit directs them. The magical aura extends over several of the people, but is strongest around the women. Telling the others, they decide not to take any chances.

Bursting into the room with weapons drawn, the group rushes forward. Karen swiftly presses her gun up against the woman’s throat and smiles.

“Alright, how about I ask some questions and you tell me everything I want to know?”

The woman glares at her. Karen can see that her eyes are almost reptilian, glittering gold in the lights from the room.

“I assume this is some sort of arrest? Have you got some identification I can see?” she says, trailing the S’s in her speech.

Karen sarcastically parlays back and forth with her while telling the others to search the boxes. Evan opens up one of them and see bottles that look like they’re filled with chlorine.

The woman looks unimpressed.

“Unless you can prove yourselves or what this raid is all about, I’m afraid you don’t have any legal ground here.” she says with a scowl.

 Karen is confused. Why would something supernatural be moving normal chemicals? Are they working at the treatment plant?

“Open it up, Evan. Take a sniff and make sure it’s chlorine.” says Karen, growing desperate.

Evan prepares to open one of the bottles, but doesn’t get a chance. The woman’s eyes flash and combat breaks out. The thugs charge forward while the woman pulls back suddenly. Karen pulls the trigger, but only grazes the woman as she dodges backwards so fiercely that it looks like she should have broken her own spine. Setakawa’s birds scatter everywhere, pecking, scratching and distracting the thugs. Sandra and Evan grab the men nearest to them and try to keep them from flanking Karen. 

The woman sneers at Karen and a stream of acid shoots from her mouth, hitting Karen square in the chest. She screams out in surprise, but is able to minimize the amount touching her skin by throwing her arms up in time.

Getting pushed back by the workers around her, Karen can’t stay near the woman with all the chaos and she backs away, flashing a wicked grin in Karen’s direction as she heads down a nearby ladder on the walkway.

“You will not escape, demon!” yells Tupilak as he vaults over the men nearest him and runs towards the ladder. He doesn’t even use the rungs as he bellows a war cry and plummets down the hole after the woman.

Finally breaking free of the scuffle, Karen heads down the ladder after Tupilak and the reptilian woman. She jumps the last few feet down onto a catwalk, looking around for any sign of them. Below the catwalk is a torrent of water, being piped back out into the Hudson River. With the noise of the water, she strains her ears to hear the clashing of metal and Tupilak’s yells. Running down the catwalk, she can see them slamming each other against the railing. Tupilak has burns on his body, but he ignores them and fights on.

As Karen approaches, the woman curses in an unknown language and backs away. As Tupilak and Karen approach, her body suddenly undulates as she shrinks and warps before their eyes. In mere moments, the woman has become a snake and slithers quickly towards the edge of the catwalk. Karen dives to grab the snake, but it wriggles free of her grasp and plummets into the rushing water below.

Heading back up the ladder, Karen and the others dump salt on the thugs and discover that several of them were possessed by Crimson Path. Speaking to one of the ones who wasn’t, Karen asks him about his employer.

“I don’t want any more trouble.” He says, throwing his hands up in surrender. “We were hired by a guy to do some moving, not get shot up or nothin’!”

“Who’s this guy?” Sandra asks.

“I dunno his name. Some guy wit’ really red hair. Nice guy... up front wit’ da money and everythin’.”

He explains that they had a van of boxes they were to transport to the water treatment plant. That’s all he claims to know. After Tupilak knocks the thug out, Sandra leaves an anonymous tip for the police. Grabbing the boxes from the van, the group quickly heads back to their own vehicle and drives away.

Back at the bookstore, they’re not left with many leads. The woman had a purse that she left behind when she transformed, and inside they find Tim and Jacob’s cel phones. Sandra hopes that if they can track down some more of the Shadows, they may be able to find a lead on their whereabouts. The group agrees that they have to find the men quickly, before things get worse. 

Tupilak tore several of Conroy’s leg muscles when he jumped down the ladder and limps around the bookstore until Karen berates him for not taking better care of his host body. Begrudgingly, he agrees to go to Onan for healing.

Sedrick does some quick tests on the “chlorine” and identifies it as some liquid form of Viperous. Based on his research, he believes that Viperous weakens the target’s mental defenses, leaving them feeling euphoric and giddy, but easy prey for mental or magical attacks.

“In other words, this stuff makes people perfect subjects for possession by Crimson Path?” she asks.

“Exactly. They want to ensure that their hosts do not reject them and waste their numbers.” he says grimly.

Considering that the group wanted to put this liquid into the water treatment plant, Sedrick commends them on their victory. He believes that they’ve set back the Shadow-Borne substantially. It’s a positive note in an otherwise difficult time.

As Karen goes to see if Onan is awake yet, Sandra stops her in the hallway. The Department-7 leader is pale faced and seems ill. She dizzily looks up at Karen with tears in her eyes.

“It... it’s happened!” Sandra whispers.

“What, what is it?” Karen asks.

“One of them just died... I felt it. They... they killed Tim.”


----------



## fenzer (Apr 20, 2003)

I'm really loving this Zub.  Keep'em coming!


----------



## Lela (Apr 21, 2003)

I was thinking it was a bittersweet victory before I read about Tim's death.  You're running a harsh campaign here Zub.  And you do it well.  Everything is realistic and logical.

Keep it coming, I'm learning a lot.


----------



## Zubkavich (May 8, 2003)

*Session Sixteen: Sacrifice For Snake*

Karen tries her best to console Sandra as she stumbles, dizzied from the mental impression caused by Tim’s death. The psychic leader of Department-7 can’t pinpoint where it happened, and she’s in no state to concentrate further. She goes to lie down and try to figure out what they can do to find Jacob before he is snuffed out as well.

Karen quickly explains to Onan about Tim’s demise and they discuss possible courses of action that they could take. Karen also shows him the black scar on her arm that’s been throbbing when not exposed to light. He tries to cast sunlight upon it, but it doesn’t seem to have any effect. After examining it more thoroughly, he decides that there may be a way to purify it.

“I’m going to need gemstones, as pure as you can get to focus the light through and sear that sucker off.”

“Gemstones? Like jewelry?” she asks, confused.

“Uncut or polished... emeralds would probably work best. I don’t know where you’ll be able to get ‘em. I didn’t come up with this stuff; I just try to carry out the spirits' will as best I can.” he says with a shrug.

Karen thinks about some of the investments that her father left to her after his death and wonders how much she’ll have to liquidate in order to buy enough gemstones. Her thoughts are cut short by the shrill ring of one of the cel phones they recovered from the mysterious snake woman at the water treatment plant. The cel phone that used to belong to Tim...

As Karen reaches for the phone, she gains a supernatural flash of insight. Like before, she knows who’s on the other end of the line before she even picks it up or checks the call display screen: Morfuseid.

“Hello.” she says with a grin.

“Who is this? How did you get this phone? Where are you?” Morfuseid asks in rapid succession, obviously tense.

Karen realizes that Morfuseid doesn’t know that she has the phones. That must mean the snake woman hasn’t been able to report back yet!

“Calm down, pal. No need to be in a rush. Let’s just say that I’m someone who’s obtained a cel phone.” Karen says, amused that he hasn’t recognized her voice.

A long pause follows.

“Alright, stranger, let’s play. I’m interested in paying handsomely for that phone you have. Can we arrange a meeting place?”

“Nuyorican Café, in about twenty minutes?” she inquires.

Another pause.

“Y-yes... that’s fine.” He hangs up quickly.

With the clock ticking, Karen gathers up the group and lets them know about the little meeting she’s organized.

“Are you actually going to go and let him see you there?” asks Setakawa in shock.

Karen laughs.

“Probably not. I want to see how many guys he can pull together in that short a span. We’ve got to put him on the defensive. If we get him going on a wild goose chase for a bit, we might just figure out where the snake woman’s gone in the meantime.”

The group jumps into the Department-7 van and drives by the café, careful not to linger or look out of the ordinary. Parking a few blocks away, Karen and Tupilak sneak closer to the restaurant, climbing a fire escape on a building across the road and using a set of Evan’s binoculars to get a better look. After a few minutes of checking around the café, she can see a few suspicious men in the alleyway behind. Looking more extensively, she can see a sniper set up on one of the adjacent rooftops, watching the front of the café like a hawk.

“Should we slay these dishonourable dogs?” asks Tupilak, obviously ready for an impending battle.

“No. We’re not getting into this and getting ourselves killed. We’ll get them Tupilak, just not right now. Keep your anger in check and let’s get back to the others.”

While the group drives back to Dog-Eared Pages, Karen wonders why Morfuseid isn’t better informed. Unless the snake lady drowned, she should have been able to get in touch with him, identify her attackers and give the Shadow-Borne a heads-up on the assault at the water treatment plant. When she voices this to the others, Onan comes up with a possible explanation.

“Maybe the snake-chick doesn’t want Morfey to know that she screwed up?” he surmises.

*(to be continued... there's quite a bit more to come...)*


----------



## fenzer (May 8, 2003)

Waiting with bated breath.


----------



## Zubkavich (May 8, 2003)

*Session Sixteen continued...*

It seems a decent possibility. From all that they’ve seen, the Shadow-Borne probably don’t treat failure well. It means that the snake-woman will want to get some sort of revenge before she returns to Morfuseid and tells him about what went wrong. Karen wants to find her first, but isn’t sure how they can track her down.

Back at the bookstore, Tupilak offers a suggestion.

“I may be able to contact the spirit of Snake and ask it to help us find this woman that uses a snake’s body but does not worship the reptile spirits.” he says grimly.

“You don’t sound like you want to.” Karen remarks.

“It is... difficult. The cold-blooded spirits do not like you warm-bloods. They are not enemies, but not allies either. I will have to appease Snake with a ritual if I wish to communicate.”

Karen figures they have nothing to lose by trying and tells him to gather what he needs for the ritual. After a few hours, he has two eggs and a dead mouse. Karen isn’t sure what these things have to do with calling Snake, but sits at the kitchen table while Tupilak starts murmuring in his Inuit tongue. A minute or two later, he swallows one of the eggs whole, shell and all. Karen gags as he chokes back the egg, the sound of crunching shell and liquid emerging from his throat. Looking at the dead mouse, Karen’s stomach starts to feel uneasy.

“Please tell me you’re not gonna...” she stammers.

Tupilak grabs the mouse and takes a deep bite into its side. The squelch of flesh and blood makes Karen’s stomach lurch. 

“I’m never telling Conroy that you did this while in his body.” Karen sputters.

Another couple of bites and they feel a presence appear in the air around the table. A serpentine voice seems to emerge from all sides, fading and warping as it speaks. Although Karen can hear it speaking in Inuit, she hears echoes of English she can understand.

“Why do you call me, spirit in man-flesh?” asks the voice with distain.

After explaining the situation, the spirit is intrigued. It negotiates a deal with Tupilak. It will find the woman and send him a vision of her location, but he must sacrifice her in the name of Snake and curse her soul. He agrees and after the spirit leaves, he finishes off the mouse to please Snake further. Karen can’t hold back any longer and runs to the washroom to throw up. 

A few minutes later, Tupilak emerges from the kitchen with his knife drawn.

“I see her. We must go quickly by foot.” he says, staring off in a haze.

“That’s great. Brush your f**king teeth or I’m not going anywhere with you.” chokes Karen.

Before the rest of the group even has a chance to ask what’s happening, Tupilak runs out the door to start the hunt. Karen quickly grabs her gun and dashes after him. As she leaves, she tells Evan to stay at the bookstore and tell the others that they’ll be back soon.

Sprinting as fast as she can, Karen keeps Tupilak in sight as he streaks across streets and through alleyways, disregarding pedestrians and traffic alike. As athletically fit as she is, she struggles to keep up with him as he runs like a man possessed. She can feel her cursed scar throbbing as she runs, but does her best to ignore it. 

Finally, Tupilak heads towards a cement drainage ditch and draws his knife. As Karen arrives, wheezing from the exertion, she can see Tupilak look around wildly, trying to find the snake-lady. As she glances up and down the ditch, she sees a flicker of movement. Squinting her eyes, she can make out a humanoid form blended almost perfectly with the nearby cement and refuse. Drawing her gun, she points it towards the camouflaged woman.

In a flash, the woman dashes forward as Karen fires at her, clipping her in the side. Tupilak dives at the woman, stabbing and slashing with a fervor Karen’s never seen in him before. As they wrestle in the mud and grime, Karen waits to try and get a clear shot. When Tupilak pounds the snake woman to the ground and looms over her to strike again, she spits acid full on in his face. The smell of burning flesh fills the air as Tupilak staggers backwards from the pain. With the two separated, Karen fires a burst of bullets at the woman and sends her sprawling into the dirt. Karen dives on top of her, crushing her face into the cement and keeping her held fast.

“Okay b**ch. I’ve got some questions for you.” Karen says, still breathing heavily.

“You shouldn’t fight me. I can sense magic from our world within you. We should be working together to bring about a new age.” says the snake-woman, trailing her S’s.

“I don’t think so. I’ve seen what you guys do to people.” Karen retorts.

“I can help you... you should work with us.”

Tupilak stumbles forward, following the sound of their voices. He edges towards the snake-woman, ready to slay her.

“Okay lady, why didn’t you tell Morfuseid about us? You couldn’t have been hiding all this time without a way to contact him.” asks Karen.

The snake woman hisses out a laugh as Karen keeps her face pressed against the cement embankment.

“The under-dwellers and the water-borne compete with us for Hizerath’s affections. Morfuseid is not my master and never will be.”

“There’s different species? What about Nealcatus? Which group does he lead?” she asks quickly.

“Nealcatus is a messenger of Hizaerath. He observes and pushes the transfer of worlds forward.” she says, trying to make Karen understand.

“What about that Crimson Path stuff? Who does that serve?” asks Karen, intrigued at her response.

“The Path is like larvae to the butterfly. It prepares you for the time when you may become like me, the under-dwellers or the other Shadows. It is evolution and you must not stand in its way.” she says, desperate to make eye contact with Karen.

Karen is horrified, but keeps her grip firm.

“We- we’re gonna become like you?” 

“Yessss... yes. Understand your potential, girl. You would be beautiful, a goddess.” she says, obviously obsessed with the idea.

Karen stops for a moment, putting the pieces all together. The Shadows are colonizing... different factions fighting for the blessing of Hizerath, their dark god. Humans are just unknowing eggs waiting for the Shadow-Borne to impregnate them and increase their numbers. She thinks of the death and destruction that the Shadows will cause trying to carry their plan out and it becomes a simple decision.

“Tupilak, give her to Snake.” she says without emotion.

Tupilak stabs the snake-woman until she doesn’t move anymore and then launches into a fury of yelling to the sky, cursing her and all the Shadows in the name of Snake. Watching him, Karen can see that his face is destroyed, a melted jelly with one of his eyes sealed shut through scars and puss. He chops and kicks at her body for several minutes, gutting the snake-woman thoroughly and completely. 

Karen watches the buildings nearby to make sure no one else sees the slaughter while she calls Onan to bring the van and pick them up. Her mind swims with what she’s learned, and she wonders how they’ll ever be able to stop the invasion permanently.


----------



## Broccli_Head (May 8, 2003)

Zubkavich said:
			
		

> *Session Sixteen: Sacrifice For Snake
> 
> “Maybe the snake-chick doesn’t want Morfey to know that she screwed up?” he surmises.
> 
> *




that's the great thing about baddies....there's so much in-fighting...


----------



## fenzer (May 8, 2003)

I love Tupalik and his spirits.  Nicely done with the eggs and mouse, I was doing that tounge and mouth thing you do when you eat something disgusting.

More gruesome feasts if you please.  I'm still hungry.


----------



## weiknarf (May 8, 2003)

Zubkavich said:
			
		

> * As athletically fit as she is, she struggles to keep up with him as he runs like a man possessed.  *




Nice


----------



## Lela (May 9, 2003)

Well, she's managed to get the Spirit of Reptiles on her side.  That's something.  Soon they'll all be going around yelling, "Crikee, that's a big'n shaddow."

Then again, perhaps they should have looked into getting the Spirit of Avians on their side.  Unless one of the heros happens to be afraid of feathers. . .


----------



## Zubkavich (May 11, 2003)

*Session Seventeen: Echo Of The Sky*

Onan pulls up the van beside the drainage ditch and heads down to survey what’s happened. While calling magical sunlight to dispose of the snake woman’s body, Karen fills him in on how it went and how badly hurt Tupilak is. When Onan looks at Tupilak’s face, he chokes at the sight. Calling upon his healing powers, Onan is able to clean and start the healing process, but Tupilak’s face is still quite ravaged. Taking Karen aside, Onan has some distressing news for her.

“Look, I can fix the flesh, his nose and even his mouth, but I can’t grow back things that aren’t there anymore.” he says grimly.

“What do you mean?” she asks with concern.

“His left eye... it’s burned right out. The spirits’ magic enhances a person’s natural healing to phenomenal levels, but it can’t regrow things that are gone. Skin and muscle is relatively easy, missing limbs or organs is right out. There may be more powerful spells that can do it, but I don’t know them.”

Karen can feel tears welling up. If Conroy ever regains control of his body, he’ll be blind in one eye through no fault of his own. She walks over to the van and her anger gets the better of her.

“Dammit Tupilak, you have to protect that body! Conroy doesn’t deserve to be torn apart while you run around on your spirit crusade s**t!” 

“My mission is more important than this one man.” he says without emotion.

“F**k that! That ‘man’ is my friend! He never asked to be possessed, he doesn’t even know the supernatural exists! He doesn’t deserve this!” she says through gritted teeth.

“You do not understand the way of spirits. This battle scar proves that I have fought with courage and honor.” says Tupilak, looking into the night sky.

“What?! You are f**king healing that thing as soon as Onan finds a way to do it, got that? I may not know spirits, but you don’t understand the importance of human life! You’re gonna have to learn it if you want to work with me!” she threatens.

The ride back to Dog-Eared Pages is filled with silent tension. When they finally arrive, Karen heads in first and explains to the others about Tupilak’s injury. She doesn’t want them to comment on it, or give him a chance to brag about his ‘battle scar’. After everyone settles in, she relays the information she learned from the snake-woman and the potential for trouble amongst the ranks of the Shadow-Borne.

After heading to her bed, Karen broods for a while, trying to calm herself down so she can finally get some sleep. The black scar on her arm throbs slightly in the darkness of her room, and she finally falls asleep with a lamp shining down on it and a pillow on her head to block the light.

Waking up the next morning, her arm aches with intense pain and she can see that the flesh around the scar is discolored and bruised looking. Realizing that she’s ignored it too long, she immediately gets on the phone and starts to call around to jewelry stores to see if she can purchase a raw emerald. After making several inquiries, she sets up an appointment at a jewelry store. Looking around for Onan to let him know about the gemstones, she asks Setakawa where he is. He tells her that Onan went to his job to make some arrangements, probably for taking more time off. Karen invites Setakawa to accompany her for the ride and they head out.

“Have you thought of a way to stop these Shadows?” Setakawa asks as they drive.

“Well, I’ve got the start of a cunning plan forming, but I’ll wait until we get everyone together before I go into too many details. Suffice to say that I’m sick of being on the defensive.” she says. 

“If we’re able to save the world, what will you do afterwards? Will you go back to being a thief?”

Karen laughs.

“Yeah, probably. I mean, if the world didn’t owe me a favor before, they sure would then, wouldn’t they? I could pretty much steal whatever I want and justify it, couldn’t I?” she says with a grin.

“Don’t you think it would be better to leave the karmic scales balanced in your favor?” he asks.

“Maybe, but that’s the kind of debt that I don’t think I could screw up.” she says with a broad grin.

At the jewelry store, the clerk is surprised at Karen’s request and indicates that they may be able to arrange a raw emerald to ship within a week. Wanting it faster, she socializes and talks to the manager. Eventually, she’s put in touch with a Mr. Finley, a jeweler who mounts gemstones on rings and necklaces. She negotiates with him for the biggest emerald he has in his possession and they arrange for a transaction after a high-class dinner at a nearby Manhattan restaurant.

Heading back to the bookstore to get some better clothes, Karen is surprised that Onan isn’t back yet. Calling his cel phone, she can hear the sounds of him driving his car as he picks up the phone.

“What are you doing? I’ve been running around all day trying to get my hands on an emerald and you’re gallivanting around town. You’re going out for an expensive dinner tonight, so I wanted to make sure you made it back in time.” she says.

“High class meal, eh? Okay babe, I’m up for it. I took care of work stuff and now I’m on my way to my house to pick up some supplies and more clothes.”

“Are you sure that’s safe? We don’t know if these Shadow guys have tracked down our homes or anything like that.” she says with concern.

 “It’s fine. The house is safe. If it wasn’t, I’d know. So... where are you stealing the emerald from?” he asks, obviously amused.

“I’m not stealing it! It’s all legal... I’m buying it from a real jeweler with some of the investment money my Dad left me.” she says, bristling with annoyance.

“Yeah sure... is this jeweler guy Italian by chance? Some mob guy you’re paying off with Dad’s blood money?”

“F**k you!” she yells as she hangs up the phone.

*session be continued...*


----------



## Lela (May 11, 2003)

Some girls just can't handle a little stress. . .


----------



## fenzer (May 12, 2003)

Boy, I agree Lela.  She better get that arm fixed before someone, and I'm not talking bad guys here, gets hurt.

Fun update Zub.  Thanks.


----------



## Lela (May 12, 2003)

fenzer said:
			
		

> *Boy, I agree Lela.  She better get that arm fixed before someone, and I'm not talking bad guys here, gets hurt.
> 
> *




Dangit, I must be getting slow.  The arm injury causing that didn't even occur to me fenzer.  Of course your right.  *bangs own head*  I can't believe I didn't notice.

Well done Zub.  I guess I just get complacent when reading story hours sometimes.  Better remind myself to pay closer attention.

"Hay you!  Yeah, you.  Pay closer attention!"


----------



## fenzer (May 12, 2003)

No worries Lela, your point is valid regardless of any injury Karen may have.  Remember, "Hell hath no furry like a woman scorned."

I think Tupalik needs to watch his "p's and q's" or look out!


----------



## Lela (May 12, 2003)

fenzer said:
			
		

> *No worries Lela, your point is valid regardless of any injury Karen may have.  Remember, "Hell hath no furry like a woman scorned."
> 
> I think Tupalik needs to watch his "p's and q's" or look out! *




Definitally.  If he really wants to treat a body like a that, then he should find one of his own worshipers to do it with.  They'd not only be honored to have him in them, they'd have the same basic belief system and "wouldn't mind so much."

He's out of line.


----------



## Zubkavich (May 20, 2003)

*Session Seventeen continued...*

Irritated, she stomps around the bookstore for a bit and heads into the kitchen. She’s quite surprised to see Buzzard there, drinking some coffee and reading a newspaper. He looks up at her as she enters, and she can instantly tell that he doesn’t recognize her.

“Um, hi...” Karen says, unsure of how to start the conversation.

“Hello.” says Buzzard, with no trace of his old accent or attitude.

“How are you feeling, Mr... um...” she stammers.

“William. You can call me William. It was written on all the ID in my wallet.” he says with a slight grin.

“William? Your name is William. How weird...”

They talk for a bit about his recovery. Buzzard thinks he’s in some sort of casual recovery center and that everyone there is a doctor or nurse. Karen doesn’t go into any details about the reality of things, and walks away feeling sorry for him.

Sandra comes by soon after to talk to her. Karen asks if Sandra can psychically hypnotize Buzzard or if there’s any other way they can bring back his full memories and find out more about Morfuseid’s plans.

“The human mind can be quite fragile when it’s been traumatized psychically. We can’t push that along too fast or he’ll just retreat.” indicates Sandra.

“You can’t help him to see that, to remember his encounter with the Shadows?” asks Karen.

“Think about it. There are studies showing that people have heightened mental illness and stress during times of war, disease or economic trouble. Now imagine we convince him that there are spirits, ghosts, monsters that take over people’s bodies and that the world may be destroyed by invaders from another dimension. How do you think his already wounded mind would deal with it?”

“Point taken.” says Karen.

Sandra changes the subject and explains to Karen that Evan’s been doing some extensive research on the burned writing they found in the alleyway before their fight with the fire-breathing dogs. He’s found symbols and letters from all sorts of different cultures and time periods, including some Babylonian and Aztec connections.

“These Shadow-Borne seem to have been here before, maybe a whole bunch of times.” Sandra says.

“Yeah, Sedrick mentioned that they’re on some sort of ‘cycle’, trying to shift their dark god over to Earth each time. You know, Evan should work with Sedrick. The two of them putting their heads together could make some serious inroads into this stuff.”

“Well... I know that Sedrick kind of freaks out Evan a bit.” says Sandra sheepishly.

“Why’s that? Sedrick is one of the nicest guys I know.” says Karen with surprise.

“Except that he’s dead and all...” whispers Sandra.

Karen indicates that Evan has to get over his fear of Sedrick. Before all of this happened, Evan was used to being just an observer, but now he’s involved lock, stock and barrel. Everyone has to pull together and find some way to stop the Shadow-Borne permanently. Sandra agrees and when they see Sedrick, they indicate to him that he should approach Evan and research together.

Figuring this is as good a time as any, Karen asks Sedrick some important questions about their battle with the Shadow-Borne.

“Okay Sedrick, I know that your group wasn’t successful at permanently stopping the Shadows, but I’m curious… how did you delay them in the end?”

“Good question, my dear. The Shadows are building up power, preparing for a ceremony to bring their god over to this side. I didn’t know exactly what they were planning to do, but we did find ways to disrupt their flow of power, hurting key individuals or wrecking their ability to organize for that final ritual. It cost me my life in the end, but stopped their progress until recently.”

“Okay sounds good, any idea how to stop them permanently?” she asks, hopeful.

“I’m afraid that I’m still searching for that.” he replies, sheepishly.

Leaving Sedrick to his studies, Karen starts to get antsy about the amount of time Onan’s been gone. Grabbing Setakawa, they drive to Onan’s house to see if he’s still there. When they arrive, Karen doesn’t see any of the lights on in the house or any movement. Then, after creeping around to the back yard, she sees him. He has a shovel and looks like he’s getting ready to dig a hole.

“Burying evidence of some horrible deed?” she asks with a smirk.

He turns, surprised.

“Nice. No... I’m digging something up. I need some more advice and figured I’d try to contact a powerful spirit.”

“Which one?” she asks, her curiosity piqued.

“Owl... one of the avian lords. His sight reaches far and his knowledge is vast.”

“Y- you’re not gonna have to chew on something like Tupilak did for Snake, are you?” she asks him, grimacing. 

He laughs.

“No. An owl died here last winter and I buried it in the backyard. I’m going to talk to the bones.”

Digging for a few minutes, he finds a small leather pouch where he had put the bones. Karen watches as Onan carefully pulls them out and places them on the ground in a small circle. Concentrating for a few minutes, Karen listens carefully for any changes in the air or tingle of spiritual energy. Then, Onan’s eyes widen in horror.

“They’re gone.” he says, flabbergasted.

“Who? Owl?”

“Owl... eagle, all of them... the avians are gone! It’s just an echo...” he says in a harsh whisper.

Onan is obviously quite disturbed by this and Karen does her best to console him. Onan shakes, afraid of the forces that could cause the avian spirits to flee or be destroyed in such a way. The protectors of the sky are no longer present, and Onan explains to her that without them, things could get much, much worse. Karen tries to understand, but isn’t sure what she can tell Onan to make him feel better. Leading him back to the car, she reminds him that they’re all going for dinner, hoping that it’ll distract him a bit. Onan tries to be calm and smile a bit, but it’s obvious that this revelation has affected him quite a bit.

Heading out for her meeting with Mr. Finley, Onan is disappointed that he’s going to be having dinner with Setakawa instead of Karen. Karen laughs it off and tells them to keep their eyes peeled for anything suspicious. Surprisingly, the transaction goes off without a hitch as Karen talks to Finley about jewelry making and enjoys a nice meal. Glad to have the emerald in her possession, she bids Mr. Finley farewell and heads back to the bookstore with the boys.

When they arrive, Sedrick is there waiting for them. He seems a bit nervous.

“What’s up, Sedrick?” Karen asks.

“Well, Sandra had some sort of psychic flash, I don’t know the specifics. She immediately headed out... she was in quite a rush.”

“Why the hell didn’t she call my cel phone before she took off? Okay, let’s get Tupilak and Evan and go find her before she gets herself killed.”

Sedrick shrugs.

“Um... well that’s the other thing. Tupilak went with her, knife drawn and everything.”


----------



## Broccli_Head (May 20, 2003)

Zubkavich said:
			
		

> *Session Seventeen continued...
> 
> 
> “Um... well that’s the other thing. Tupilak went with her, knife drawn and everything.” *




No, not with the crazy spirit-dude!

Tupilak on the warpath can only mean more blood and guts....


----------



## Lela (May 20, 2003)

Wow, the Story Hours are just bringing me on the emotional roller coaster tonight.  Good job Zub.

I did note that she _still_ hasn't gotten that scratch taken care of.  You're doing your RBDM thing and keeping her pulled in every direction.  Very skilled.  Very cool. Very Evil.


----------



## fenzer (May 20, 2003)

Lela said:
			
		

> *...Very skilled.  Very cool. Very Evil. *




Agreed.  Zub, this is good stuff.


----------



## Velenne (May 20, 2003)

> Tupilak on the warpath can only mean more blood and guts....




Woohoo!!  BLOOD AND GUTS!  BLOOD AND GUTS!  GOOOOO TUPILAK!


----------



## weiknarf (Feb 25, 2004)

Zuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuub??????


How are things goin'?


----------



## Lela (Feb 25, 2004)

Come back to us.  We _miss you_.


----------



## Horacio (Mar 9, 2004)

What they said, we miss you, Zeb


----------



## fenzer (Mar 9, 2004)

No kidding Zub.  Where are you man?  I had almost forgotten about this little jewel.  Catch us up.  I could sure go or a little Snapdragon Box about now.


----------



## Lela (Mar 9, 2004)

I used the Snapdragon box in my game.  Worked out wonderfully.  C'mon Zeb, at least send a hello our way.


----------



## Dakkareth (Jul 26, 2005)

Ok, so Zub no longer frequents ENWorld, but this SH, unfinished as it is, is still a lot of fun to read  - thanks to the one who pointed it out.


----------



## weiknarf (Nov 5, 2005)

Well, an update on the Zubkavich front.  He is the co-writer of the _Exalted_ comic book.


----------

