Send In The Clowns

October 9, 2014 

"Are they gone?  I didn't think they would go!  The pounding on the doors kept going and going.  Are they gone?"  

"Yes, Irene, they are gone."  

"I thought I heard something in the basement," says Louisa, to no one in particular.  

"Someone go check it out," replies Marina.  "In fact, everyone not wounded, go check it out.  I will stay with the others."  The women not wounded, or at least able to stand and move on their own, head out.  Marina grabbed the talisman, a wand made of oak with a green gem in the hilt, and a carving of an asps' head at the tip.  She held the wand over her wrist and chanted.  

Surge Domine in serpentem, et sument ex eis, qui me ita vulnerati, ut facias.

The asp head's tongue flickered out of the body, caressing Marina's skin, and then the asp struck, plunging its fangs into Marina's wrist.  As the blood pumped into the asp, its eyes took on a red tinge.  Marina almost gasped at the feeling but held it back until the asp was done and let go.  Its eyes were blood red now and Marina nodded.  Marina took the wand over to Gia and whispered serpentum.  The asp plunged its fangs into Gia's side but Gia didn't flinch.  She didn't even move.  Marina was worried that wouldn't be enough.  The asps' eyes slowly go from crimson back to looking like oak.  When the asp was empty, it released Gia and returned to its normal, inanimate shape.  Marina slumped a bit but then felt for a pulse.  Still weak.  They would have to chance moving her.  

Irene, Louisa and the others came back.  "They break the furnace to try and start a fire.  We got it stopped and the fire it did start put out but the furnace is broken now.  We will have to get someone to repair it."  

"No," said a weak voice in a whisper.  

"Beatrice!" cried Marina and moved to the matron of the coven.  

"We must leave," she croaked, the bandages on her throat not helping her speak.  "They will probably return and we mustn't be here.  Gather up what we need."  Beatrice paused, her hand feeling the polished wood floor beneath her.  "Then start the fire again."  

The other girls gasped in shock as Beatrice said that.

"Are you sure," asked Marina.  

"Yes," said Beatrice sadly.  "We were beaten in our place of power.  We-, I, got too complacent and it nearly cost me more than the house."  Beatrice looked around at the faces staring at her and then at the ones on the floor with her.  "We must be gone as soon as we can."  Beatrice coughed after so much use of her voice.  Several came forward to help her get to a sitting position on the stairs.  "Thank you, my dears.  Now, go and get ready."  

"Where will we go," Louisa asked.  

"Marina knows what to do," Beatrice continues, still whispering.  "We have talked about this for years and I was foolish not to do it before now.  We might have to chance one last ritual.  Hopefully we have the time.  Now, go.  Marina?" Beatrice said, looking at Marina, who nodded and started telling the others what to do.  

***

The group has been busy.  It takes a few days for all of the weapons and armor to be transferred to their base.  While Roger, Bobby and Abraham are busy with that, Mike and Cameron are busy with patients.  Gang violence is up over four hundred percent, according to the news.  Cameron is wondering if he should keep his own records for statistics but doesn't know when he would have the time.  He's not even sure how many doses of Dex he has had, as he gives himself another; he just knows that his patients need him.  Roger is amazed at the ordinance they found.  He hasn't had a chance to look at how to program the special guns.  It took a day to modify the weapon area to be able to hold everything they found.  At least they shouldn't have to worry about ammo for years.  Well, regular ammo he amends in his head.  

Roger talks to Father Cain during this time and asks about resources.  Unfortunately, it would seem that Father Cain misspoke when he said he had resources, or at least misled Roger about what they were.  Sure, books will eventually help, but Roger was hoping for more support in the field.  Father Cain doesn't have any.  Roger, an Darryl, know that there is another group of the Long Night in town but Father Cain doesn't seem to get along with them.  They haven't asked why.  Maybe it was all of the thinking Roger did, but Father Cain then called.  He tells Roger he has sensed something . . . unnatural at the Navy Pier and was hoping Roger would go check it out.  Roger agrees.  

It takes another hour before Cameron is able to get his last patient out.  When he's finally ready, they head out.  Cameron, who didn't like combat, seems excited about it.  He has his tranq gun and apparently created several different types of loads.  They get to the pier to find that an early carnival has set up and is going.  Even in the cold, hundreds have been attracted to it, perhaps ready to get out.  Yet the group doesn't understand that as they get out of the van.  The shadows seem too long, hiding something with claws, or worse.  Darryl blesses the group and Cameron is still amazed that he can tell a difference.  His reaction is just a bit faster, his aim a bit better.  It's tough not to dismiss it as coincidence anymore.  

As they are completely packing all of their weapons, Darryl leads them around the edges of the carnival to the back of a tent, well tent and partial building, where he can feel the corruption.  Darryl wonders for a moment how strong Father Cain must be in his Faith to have felt this from miles away!  As they are going to the back of the building to check it out, some clowns come around the far corner of the building.  They hide their guns . . . until the first clowns grin turns into something too wide to be human and long, sharp teeth.  Of course they have claws because why wouldn't they have claws?  

The fight wasn't so bad.  Their new armor definitely helped but these demons were not affected until they had taken so much damage, that the body finally collapsed.  Darryl did slip into the collapsed tent, it's a good thing no one saw Abraham and Mike collapse the tent but it did stop the people from seeing things.  Darryl found a room in the back where a demon was but he didn't know how.  The demon looked nine feet tall in a seven foot tall ceilinged room!  It spit and snarled at Darryl but he stood fast and sent it back to hell or the abyss or wherever it should be.  When Darryl got back outside, there were still a few clown demons fighting the rest but they were soon dealt with.  

They go back to the base and Cameron sews himself up from a claw attack.  In the middle of the procedure, he falls asleep and the group leaves him there.  Cameron might have slept all day but his pager goes off and when Mike answers it, finds out more are coming.  He wakes Cameron up, who takes some Dex, and then goes to work.  

After they are gone, a man shows up at the Chop Shop, asking for blood.  Mike is not happy about it, nor Abraham, and both are trying to push him out.  The vampire is persistent, though, and asks Cameron if the Chop Shop is neutral ground or not?  The others say not for vampires but the man keeps asking.  Eventually, Cameron agrees to help him, again as long as he can pay.  The man says he can't at the moment but will come back with it as soon as he can.  The only reason they relented is the vampire, Vince, says he wants to see other vampires dead.  However, they did knock out Roger before he found out they might help a vampire and when he woke up, he wasn't happy.  

Vince comes back later, pays them for the door, and says he will help them if he can.  He explains a bit about the vampire societies, but it's haphazard at best.  Nothing they can really use at the moment except to understand the complexity of vampire society.  He says he found out about some corruption happening from some Nosferatu and the group is interested, so he says he will find out more and let them know.  Good at his word, he calls them with an address.  Turns out a hospital with a large children's section has the corruption.  They again get into the van and go there.  

Cameron is able to get them into a side door and they go to where Darryl feels the corruption.  It's on the basement area, behind some doors.  The windows show only blackness beyond, the light barely penetrating into the hallway.  Cameron can tell this is probably an admin ward, so minimal patient type rooms, if any.  He then rushes off, saying he will be right back.  The rest of them open the door and put on their NVGs.  Mike sees the person standing in the hallway via his NVGs.  He walks forward a few steps but then stops as she turns to look at him.  He's not sure what he's seeing.  She looks alive, the others are reacting to her, but she's not moving.  At all.  Just standing in the hallway, looking at them, in a hospital robe and gown.  

"Come . . . here," she says to Mike, and he can feel something behind it.  Power?  Will?  He's not sure what but he goes for the kill, slicing her head off with his sword.  It stays in place on the body.  Mike doesn't think the strike was that clean, so hits the head with the sword and it finally rolls away.  And keeps rolling.  Twenty feet or so later, and the head disappears into darkness.  Abraham rushes forward and finds that the head floated onto the shoulder of another patient, this time male.  Where the female might have been alive, the male definitely isn't.  His pale skin is almost grey but otherwise there are no other marks on him.  They aren't doing anything to them, unless you count creeping them out and seeming to suggest they come forward to them.  It's not convincing to the group.  The group dispatches the two of them and keeps checking out the hallway.  

The hallway is still dark and they are glad for the NVGs or they wouldn't be able to see very far at all.  And then Cameron comes back, pushing a crash cart, with his flashlight on it.  They wave him back as they keep going forward.  Further down the hall, they find several doors.  One is locked and Abraham steps up to unlock it.  As they check another door, they find demons.  Real demons.  Even Cameron isn't phased and instead comes forward with his crash cart to zap them with the defibrillator.  The others use their guns and blade to take out the demons.  It seems they were just biding time for their master.  As the group finishes the last demon, Abraham opens up the door to reveal a summoning circle, a demon within the circle and the summoner in the room.  

To be continued . . . 

5 xp

GM Notes

• We had a lot of fun, even if we were down a player, who couldn't make it.  
• I did make the change that the FX points for all get one roll per day, so they don't come back quickly.  As they don't have a fight every day, that shouldn't be too much of a effect on the party but we will see.  
• Otherwise, we didn't change much from last time in the rules, just some clarifications, and everything seemed to work well.   
• Cameron riding the cart and zapping people was quite fun!  
• The players have started a counting board and I will have to post the updates it has weekly here.   

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