The Missing Girl

11/18/2008

The group decides to follow up on the missing girl.  They head to the Stateway Park where the attack occurred.  While there, Stephan tries something new.  He tries to see into the past so they can see the attack.  And he tries to show everyone else.  He tells them to gather around them. 

Michael watches as they are still for a second and then start moving.  Stephan is surprised.  They saw the night before and watched as two guys, looking like gang members, came and shot out the lights in a corner of the park then hid themselves in some bushes in a dark area.  Several minutes later, Brad, their ghost client, and his daughter Felicia come walking down the path.  They are arguing about the usual things, the "other" parent, clothes, boys, school, grades.  They are comfortable on the path and walk into the darker area not thinking much about it and still talking.  One of the men jumps up and shoots Brad several times and he falls.  Felicia screams but Brad yells, "Run!" and she takes off running.  The other man catches her as he was ready for this but she knees him in the groin and keeps going.  The first guy stops the second one from shooting at her, yelling that they need her alive and then gives chase.  They go out of the range of the spell, then, and all but Michael saw it. 

Michael asks what happens and they talk about it.  When shown the area where the two guys waited, Michael goes and checks it out, looking for clues and trying to get the scent of the men.  Stephan starts tracing the route Felicia made.  He tries to watch it and gets strobe light flashes of Felicia running through the park toward a path going under a bridge.  He doesn't make it all the way to the bridge before the spell stops.  Michael catches up and they head to the bridge.  Michael looks all around and finds their scent under the bridge and also finds a cigarette to cover up why he is so close to the ground as he looks.  He then leads them to a parking lot, which he circles once, and comes back to say they must have entered a car here as he can't find their trail.  When questioned by Stephan, Michael says he isn't one hundred percent sure but is pretty sure that's what happened. 

Carter gets on the phone with Hendricks to find if they had coverage in the area as well as street cameras.  They did have some coverage, but it was low and didn't cover it.  Further, several street cams have been shot out, so there are gaps in places.  Hendricks tells him it's going to take a couple of hours to track it down.

They decide to go to the girls dorm and talk to them.  Daniel and Michael go to question here while the others stay outside.  After five minutes, they get the feeling they are being watched by several people.  Daniel and Michael come down, arguing.  Daniel is asking what the hell Michael was thinking, trying to take her work out shorts.  Michael thought it could help track her but is vague.  When they catch up to the group, Daniel calms down and says things were going fine until Michael picked up the shorts and sniffed them.  As even Daniel stared, so did the room mate, and that was the end of talking to her.  Daniel says that they didn't get much from her, other than she was gone and she had been worried. 

That's when the dart hits.  It doesn't penetrate but all of them scatter as they are under attack.  The people who were following them are now attacking.  The group runs and splits up, Daniel and Michael going for the car and the others trying to return fire.  Carter has a silencer on his, so he takes several shots.  Stephan holds his fire as he doesn't have a silencer and they are near an outside common area for the dorms with civilians walking around.  Gordon keeps out of the way as well but at the first opportunity, rushes and attacks one.  He thinks he takes him down but the thing changes and has claws that cause nasty damage to him!  He is shocked and punches him, taking him down again.  After firing several shots back and forth, Stephan and Carter manage to take down the other two.  They drag them to the car as Michael and Daniel drive up. 

In the car, they think they are being followed.  Further, the men in the back start to wake up!  As one is hit and blood spatters all over, it's all Gordon can handle.  The blood gets in his mouth and he tastes it.  His fangs appear and he smacks one down and starts sucking on the other.  Michael, who came back to help, can only stare as Gordon drinks down one and then the other.  At the end, Gordon is healed but covered in blood.  Michael only stares. 

Carter keeps driving to loose their tail.  He manages to do it but it's tough as he wants to make it seem like an accident that they got away, not that they were aware of what he did.  Eventually, an opening like that comes and he manages to get away.  They go to the military base for treatment. 

When the medic, who has worked on them before, tries to help Stephan, who got injured in the fight, the drugs hurt him.  He starts feeling pain from them.  The medic is surprised as he has done this before.  They end up not using drugs and patching Stephan as best they can.  Meanwhile, Hendricks chews out Carter for using his gun with civilians around.  He threatens to take all of Carter's guns away and still hold him responsible for protecting people.  In the end, Hendricks lets him go with the strong warning. 

As this is done, the analysis of the cameras is done and they think they have a lock on where Felicia is being held.  The groups gets ready to go rescue her.  Once they find the building, Carter and Gordon laugh at the security.  It's some gang and they have multiple holes in their perimeter.  The group is able to sneak in without being seen.  Once inside, they subdue a few of the gang members and then go to where Felicia is being held. 

There is a quick fight but the gang members don't stand a chance with Michael, Carter and Gordon attacking and Daniel and Stephan using magic to support them.  They rescue Felicia and get back out the way they came in, with no more problems.  They take Felicia to see her father so he knows she's okay and then drop her off with Julie, so she can take Felicia in officially. 

Notes

• The characters don't know about Michael but the players do.  So, it was funny to see the characters see if they could figure it out. 
• I am getting detailed about Chicago, perhaps a bit too detailed.  And I forgot to use the sourcebook on it, which is better as it's high level, so can't bog us down in trivial details. 
• I actually read up on Chicago and used the street level maps to find a place to fit the house.  In the end, though, I picked a spot and then changed it to fit what was needed.  That's always the better choice.