Battle at the Farm's Nexus 

 

01/20/2009

 

Chicago: pg327, Martina & Martin are the twins.

 

 

 

Daniel Notes

 

A few things you would notice during the "down time" about Daniel:

 

1. He has approached each of you at some time about getting assembled a "battle outfit" of sorts - this would include the vest, appropriate boots, etc. so if we are going on a hunt he is prepared

2. He has traded in his .45 for a Glock

3. He has had made some Escrima Sticks (Korean martial arts sticks) in both wood (sharpened, of course) and carbon fiber - both are laced with silver

4. He has approached both Carter and Gordon about some "friendly" fight work-outs fully geared up.  To both of their surprises, after the first half-hour of not being used to the gear he does very well and it is obvious that he is a studied martial artist, just unaccustomed to fighting in boots and the like.

5. He has taken a small part in a local play which you all get free tickets to.  The story is about vampires and werewolves and, to everyone's perplexity, a lot of the facts are true (DUN DUN DUM!)

6. He has been gone several times in the evenings.  If asked he says he is "going to the bookstore"

7. He seems to have made some significant improvements in his magical abilities - some subtle and some not so

 

 

 

 

Carter Notes:

 

2 weeks after the vamps were taken, Hendricks calls and says that they have escaped, and is trying to find out how. He tells Carter he will keep him posted when he figures out. Carter is kind of flustered about coming back to the garage he is managing to find there is always something "new" there that Gordon has bought and left there. The shop itself has been busy with many cars being brought in.

 

 

 

Gordon Notes

 

During a physical of Gordon, they find some items in his skull: an inch long 1/4" wide-hanging between both hemispheres of his brain. There is an object the size of a baseball lodged in his chest, but it doesn't look solid.

 

Gordon also has a pulse, but his cells seem to have some necrosis to them. This indicates he isn't completely dead, nor does it explain his thirst for blood or the quick regeneration after being shot.

 

 

 

Michael Notes

 

Michael has been doing research around town, looking into some local werewolf packs and making at least one good contact. Michael is still staying at the house because the node is close and he enjoys the free housing.

 

 

Michael is awakened as someone is moving outside, there is a noise, and it wakes him up. He immediately begins to make his way down to Gordon, shifting into near-wolf form as he goes.

 

 

 The Story Begins

Gordon, listening, thinks he hears what he thinks are kids outside as they pry open a basement window.

 

He manages to get a window open, but even that far away, Gordon can hear it. Michael looks at Gordon as Gordon turns off the light. Michael, looking into the spirit realm, can see a spirit watching them. He is a man, mid 30's. As Michael activates the sight, he watches as the spirit, who couldn't get past the wall, crawls through the window with the kid. At that moment, Gordon reaches over, grabs a pistol stepping off to the side and absolutely vanishes. Even Michael is not sure what to do, he shifts into wolf form and hides as well.

 

This very skinny kid drops in and looks around. There is a light on in the room since Gordon was there, but he doesn't see anybody.

 

"Come on, it looks clear, let me help you down..." says the kid.

 

"I wouldn't exactly say it is clear..." says Gordon

 

The spirit was looking at the Lotus, then immediately looks over at Gordon as he speaks.

 

The kid, screaming, falls dropping the kid he was helping down as one is half in half out ofthe window.

 

"Ahh, nobody was supposed to be here."

 

"Nothing good happens at 3 in the morning, what are you doing in my house. You know I could shoot you and nothing would happen to me?"

 

"Uh...no, it's just that someone rich lives here and we thought there would be lots of cool stuff in here"

 

"Hey, I'm stuck, help me."

 

"There is somebody in here..." he yells back "You don't need to call the cops"

 

"Well, you broke into my house. I can either call the cops or shoot you."

 

The other kid pushes himself down and turns around "well thanks alot for the..." and then he sees Gordon "...oh"

 

"I thought you said there wasn't supposed to be anyone here"

 

"I'm not the only one here...Michael..."

 

Michael, wanting to get closer to the spirit, jumps out and growls and bristles as he watches the spirit.

 

 

 

The spirit comes up and looks at you, then goes and whispers into the second boy's ear.

 

The kids are stammering and stuttering trying to come up with something to say.

 

The boy seems to understand the spirit and looks at you for a second longer.

 

"Let's go upstairs, now" says Gordon, the boys stammer again for a second.

 

The spirit whispers something to them again.

 

As they move, the one boy knocks over a lamp but they catch it before it falls. But watching them, Gordon seems to think they acted oddly, he's suspicious. Gordon reaches down, grabs both of them by the clothing, and lifts them up. As he carries them up the stairs, they complain but don't flail about much.

 

The spirit stays down stairs, looking at you. Michael stays there, watching the spirit.

 

 

 

When Gordon and the kids  are upstirs, Michael changes into Urshul (near wolf) form

 

Once they get upstairs, now the kids start flailing around, trying to get loose. They can't get free, but they start knocking things off shelves and such.

 

Jon Goranson: oh, you see me.  werewolf.

 

Jon Goranson: it's too late

 

Jon Goranson: and he runs and starts climbing out the window

 

Tony Pine: Yes, as you see me. Too late for what spirit....{I draw my dagger and attack}

 

Jon Goranson is typing a message.

 

Jon Goranson: (it was partially open.  enough for him)

 

 

 

The kids pull out a cell phone, one drops his, the other opens his but Gordon closes it and knocks it away. Michael attacks the spirit. Gordon draws his gun and tells the kids to stand still, as soon as he moves, they try to leave through the back door so he grabs them. He hears some cars outside and calls for everyone with his cell phone.

 

 

 

Jon Goranson: you hit it pretty solidly.  It pulls it back down into the room

 

Jon Goranson is typing a message.

 

Jon Goranson: It opens its mouth, unnaturally large, and screams.  (2 points bashing)

 

Tony Pine: I will pull the knife back and stabs it.

 

It screams in pain..and dies. It's last dying breath it says "my master will see to you!"

 

 

 

Michael closes the window in the basement and try to seal it, then go upstairs if I don't see any more spirits in the room (in case something came in while we fought).

 

 

 

As Michael comes upstairs, the back door is open, propped open. It smells like the 2 kids went out this way. It doesn't smell like Gordon went outside.

 

 

 

"Gordon?" yells Michael

 

"Come up to the attic"

 

"Did you prop the back door open?"

 

'No! close it."

 

Michael pulls out an ink-pen that is holding the door open and closes it as he heads upstairs.

 

He hears a shot from the other room before he can get there.

 

 

 

Gordon hears a noise and goes over and sees someone trying to go out a window. He aims and shoots from the hip. He is sure he clipped him, but with the bulky sweater and jeans he can't tell how bad he is hurt.

 

 

 

Carter pulls up to the house just in time to see Gordon come flying out a 3rd floor front window. As he watches, Carter see's Gordon firing as he's falling, hitting the ground running, and runs around the back of the house, obviously in pursuit of someone. The guy drops to the ground hard. Whatever he was carrying is dropped and rolls out in front of him.

 

 

 

Carter watches this, but then see's a car down the street start up and start to move. They are not moving fast, but they have not turned their lights on yet. Carter, realizing it is 3am, decides to take a shot at the car. Instead of a killing shot, he uses a tracer round that will leave a transmitter on the car. It lands, and he nods to himself as the gets out and goes to see what is going on.

 

 

 

Michael rushes up to a window to leave, remembers he can't exit that way, and rushes to the front door to get outside. He is already out of the house before any thought of scaring the neighbors in his near-wolf form. He gets around the house and stops at Michael.

 

 

 

Trouble? says Carter

 

"Yeah, break in, some kids broke in the basement as a distraction while this guy got in the attic and stole these items..." as Gordon says this the body begins to smoke and bursts into blue flames and the body incinerates itself. It only takes about 3 seconds, and nothing is left.

 

 

 

A spirit is there and visible to Michael. It is just standing there and walks up as if it is listening.

 

Michal points at the spirit and pulls his dagger "What are you doing here"

 

Jon Goranson: You notice a chain, indicating servitude on him

 

Gordon asks some questions to ask of the spirit.

 

The spirit goes to the house and says "I'm trying ot cross over"

 

Just stay there says Michael, as he informs the other, the spirit starts to run and Michael chases after him. Michael hits him with the dagger trying to stop him and does hit him.

 

The spirit turns as his hands are now claws and does 2 lethal damage to Michael, then turns and runs away again. Michael chases him again to try and attack.

 

He slashes again at Michael, doing 3 more lethal damage as he stops and is now turned to fight with Michael.

 

Gordon rushes out to help, and can see the claw marks ripped through Michael but not what he is fighting.

 

 

 

Michael goes into full Gauru form, and his claws rip through the chain it was wearing as the spirit explodes in a burst of light.

 

 

 

Michael then spins around. For a split second, he doesn't recognize Gordon, then he does. but michaels senses are totally overcome by the fear coming off carter. with a howl, he takes off at a full charge towards Carter, howling.

 

 

 

Carter is trying to work on the code to the secret compartment with the grenade to change him back into human form. Just as the compartment opens, Michael reaches the car and rips the door off the truck trying to get at Carter.

 

 

 

Carter manages to turn the timer on the grenade and toss it at Michael.

 

To Michael, a bright light goes off and suddenly things make sense as he is back in human form. The damage done from the spirit makes Michael almost pass out as they carry him back to the house.

 

On the way, Gordon tells them about the 2 spirits. He asks what was stolen.

 

 

 

Gordon tells him "A wand, some glasses, some other miscellaneous things."

 

Michael heals himself as they carry him into the house knowing he can use the node to get back his essence.

 

 

 

Carter decides to wait in the car as he checks the tracking device. Once it is certain that Michael is ok, they decide to go find the car. They inform Carter they want to go find it.

 

"Wait," says Carter, "They were really close, only a few blocks away. The moment we decided to go follow them, they just took off."

 

 

 

Daniel uses an ability to check if the party is magically being spied on. They are. So he magically sends a message to all the group letting them know. Carter yells "WHAT" as the voice sounds in his head.

 

Everyone jumps in the car to go.

 

 

 

Immediately, an alarm starts in the car as Carter goes "oh" pushing some buttons, disabling the supernatural alarm detection and prevention system that had just activated.

 

As the group gets away from the house, Daniel can tell the sensing was at the house and not on an individual. Michael suddenly asks "is the car a distraction like the kids were?"

 

Gordon rolls his eyes as he says "take me home. Daniel and I will wait for Steven"

 

Carter and Michael continue the chase.

 

 

 

Catching up to the car, Carter does some fancy driving, even with some quick turns and jogs. After about 15 minutes Carter is able to maintain his following, but they do become aware of the pursuit.

 

Eventually ,the people stop in a train-yard leaving the car across some tracks. By the time Carter and Michael can see through the glass a clock on the dashboard...counting backwards.

 

"Bomb on the dashboard, back-up!"

 

 

 

Carter puts it into reverse, floors it, and stalls the truck! Michael looks at Carter and opens the door to run.

 

"Oh give me a second...." he says as he starts the car and backs up. As the bomb goes off, it can be seen that it wasn't and explosive but more an incendiary device. Carter looks and says "can you track it?"

 

"I can try" says Michael.

 

 

 

Michael was able to get 2 distinct scents, but can also tell they must have gotten into another car, as the scents suddenly vanish. Michael has a good idea of the scent though, if he should smell it again.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, back at the hall of Rayne....

 

 

 

Daniel tries to figure out what the magical listening was, if it was from the dropped cell-phone, or some other object. He finds outside the house a focus that is used for spells, and can tell it can sense any voice within five meters of it. Deciding he can't bend it to his will, he crushes the magical item.

 

 

 

Doc shows up and asks what has been going on. Gordon fills him in.

 

"Wow, so this sounds like it was really organized. Can Hendricks track them?"

 

Carter calls him and asks him if he can do the tracking, he said he'd be on it.

 

 

 

"So, how the hell did they get in here?" asks Carter

 

"Yes, didn't we nail and seal the windows?" says Doc

 

"The guy on the 3rd floor opened the window and I followed him through" says Gordon.

 

Steven goes into detection mode and starts going through the house, checking the defenses. All the nails are missing from around the windows, as they have been pulled out. He can tell they put iron next to the house and used it as some sort of dispel from the outside. Steven begins to repair the damage as he looks at what they did.  Steven thinks it probably took them a 1/2 hour or more to open up the basement window.

 

 

 

Daniel is looking over Steven's shoulder and suggests liquid nails. Steven answers back that aluminum nails might be a good idea. By now it's about 5am as Doug next door opens up the grocery store.

 

 

 

Hendricks calls back "I've got some information about the two guys that changed cars at the train yard. They doubled back and are in a residence at the university of Chicago. it's been there for the past 15 minutes, I'm running the plates, it's registered to jon smith. Even the house is registered under jon smith. Infrared shows that one of the people was at room temperature."

 

 

 

The group decides to go to the house to check it out.

 

It is a brownstone house, fairly open and not something that would be easy to sneak up to without being seen. Gordon suggests going over to another house and climbing over to the house in question.

 

 

 

It is about 5:30, giving about 45 minutes before daylight.

 

 

 

Everyone goes to the next door building except Michael who waits out front for anyone to come that way. They move over to the house unseen, and Carter picks the lock on the back door. He opens the door quickly 90 degrees and stops, to make certain the door does not creak.

 

The party, using tazers and other non-lethal weapons, move into the house.

 

An update on Carters PDA indicates the two are upstairs and probably sleeping. The vampire is nowhere that anyone can see.

 

Daniel uses Sense Consciousness - he can sense the two human upstairs and he can also sense there are two vampires downstairs. Daniel uses hand signals to let the other three know.

 

 

 

The party sneaks downstairs to take out the vampires first. On the way down, they see two cots against the far wall. They almost make it downstairs as Steven trips on something on the floor, making a sudden noise. The vampires start moving at the noise. Gordon unloads with his pistol hitting seven times. One of the rounds pounded a vampire in the head and he falls back to the ground. The second one grabs a shotgun from next to the bed and shoots at Gordon, striking him. Steven shoots at the second vampire and hits him in the head. He also drops to the ground.

 

Daniel pulls out two steaks and rushes a vampire and tries to steak the first one, holding it in place. The first stake goes in, but does not go deep enough to reach the heart.

 

 

 

Carter, seeing the other two have the vampires well under control, heads upstairs to take out the humans. Michael, hearing the gunshots, rushes to the house and pushes through the front door. He see's Carte r heading up the stairs and follows behind.

 

Before Carter can get up the stairs, a person appears at the top and shoots at Carter with some sort of weapon, missing in the darkness. Carter doesn't stop his forward movement as he avoids the damage, grabs the guy, and throws him down the stairs into Michael who throws him the rest of the way down the hall and into the wall. He already looks dazed, as if he is about ready to pass out.

 

 

 

Gordon shoots the first vampire again from point blank range.

 

Daniel can sense a consciousness leave the room as the first vampire becomes an expired vampire.

 

The second vampire rolls off the bed into the corner and shoots the shotgun again at Steven, hitting him solid twice.

 

Steven unloads with his shotgun, returning fire to the vampire. The vampire does not survive the encounter as the vampires head vanishes in a pulpy explosion.

 

Daniel senses the second consciousness leave the area.

 

 

 

Michael elbows the guy at the bottom of the stairs, knocking him out and moves upstairs. Carter is at a door and motions Michael to open the locked door. Michael doesn't even slow as he charges the door and causes it to shatter open. The woman inside is screaming into a phone at the site of Michael. Carter moves in and aims a pistol at her head saying "Shut up, drop the phone. Who were you calling?"

 

"Ttttthe police. what did you do to my boyfriend?"

 

"Shut up. Put these cuffs on." as Carter throws her some handcuffs. Carter then looks over at Michael and says "Can you go downstairs?" as they move past him and head downstairs.

 

She again begins to scream again as Carter is yelling at her to shut up.

 

The others came up from downstairs, ask what is going on.

 

"On awake, one knocked out."

 

"Are they the ones from the car?" asks Gordon

 

Michael can sense one of the vampires and the guy are definitely the ones from the train tracks from their scents. He tells the rest of the group about the scents. They search and tie up the guy, finding another wand that the guy was trying to use.

 

 

 

Carter call Hendricks to give his report. As he is talking the woman is listening in and calls out "why are you talking about mortals as if you aren't one?"

 

"I told you to shut up."

 

"But you said vampires, did you really say vampires?"

 

"You shut up or I will go get the chloroform..."

 

Her eyes are huge, but Michael can sense the fear leaving her as the sirens start to get closer. Then suddenly, as lights are appearing outside, the lights go out and the sirens go off as the cars keep going. Her fear reaches a fever pitch as she jumps up and tries to run outside after the police. Carter grabs her and throws her back down, showing her his military ID and saying "this is a military matter, just calm down." She does sit back down and start taking deep breaths, realizing the there isn't anything she can do.

 

 

 

Daniel, seeing she is starting to calm down, tries to use a mental ability to calm her further.

 

 

 

Once she is calmed down, Daniel starts asking questions.

 

"Who are you, how do you know this guy, who are the guys in the basement."

 

"I'm a student, he's my boyfriend, they are friends of my boyfriends. If you are going to question me, can you take these cuffs off."

 

 

 

"Have you noticed any odd behavior in your boyfriend recently?"

 

"No, he's a TA for the history professor. I was asleep when he got home today. I heard him get in but didn't look at the clock."

 

"Well, he is under investigation..."

 

A voice appears in Carters mind as Daniel asks him to question about the history professor.

 

"He is a visiting professor from Europe, that's all I know."

 

The group suddenly all wonders if this is the same European speaking person they have already met.

 

 

 

 

 

Carter un-cuffs her and tells Michael to take her upstairs to get changed.

 

He doesn't stop watching her as she angrily turns her back to him and changes into jeans and a T-Shirt.

 

 

 

Downstairs, having already gone through his wallet, Carter wakes up the Jon Smith.

 

"So Jon, what were you up to tonight."

 

"Were you one of the ones that followed us?"

 

"I'm asking the questions here, what were you doing tonight.'

 

"I was supposed to test some defenses, magical defenses, at a house."

 

"Who told you to do this?"

 

"It was a job, from a visiting professor. His name is Allen." as he suddenly starts to get his senses back and stops cooperating.

 

Carter starts to try to intimidate him, but it isn't working well.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, upstairs, the girl picks up a phone and starts to dial.

 

Michael walks over and grabs it away from her.

 

"I can at least call a lawyer!" she yells.

 

"We are not cops. No lawyer. Sit down and be quiet....please."

 

She folds her arms in front of herself and sits down on the edge of the bed, her initial fear of Michael having faded somewhat.

 

 

 

Eventually the group yells for Michael to bring her downstairs, having given up on interrograting the mage.

 

 

 

Steven used supernal vision to look at the two humans and can tell that she is a sleeper and that he is a mage.

 

Hendricks team finally shows up and takes the two away, leaving the group to ponder about the  European Professor.

 

 

 

 3XP - Group

 

 

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