Chris (Scarecrow) decides that he'd rather sleep through The Chronicles of Riddick than be subjected to two hours of hyperkinetic Warhammer-esque violence that doesn't make a lick of sense. Tim (Sylvan Sentinel), Chuck (Archangel), Bruce (Sting Ray) and Ernest all emerge from the theater enthusing, "Woohoo! Two hours of hyperkinetic Warhammer-esque violence that didn't make a lick of sense! What a deal!" Paul (Darren Stone) shows up later, explaining that he has already been exposed. He asks, "What is the deal with that planet where the air explodes in sunlight? That movie was big, dumb and loud. Exactly as promised!" As an added bonus, Kemberlyn shows up in an academic capacity, claiming that she is interested in understanding the pathology of the gamer. If she can stay awake. Everyone else solemnly attempts to promise that they won't say anything too terribly insulting.
Everyone who was around last time got two experience points. Nobody seems to have realized this except for Sylvan Sentinel, who announces, "I bought myself a headquarters out in Liberty Park! You want to come over to my Fortress of Sentineldom?" Scarecrow comments, "Hey, that's a great line for a superhero! You should try it on everyone you meet!" Darren Stone looks around the park and comments, "There's a human-scale chessboard here. That just makes me think of The Prisoner. Are we in The Village?" Sting Ray just rolls his eyes and thinks about his nice leather furniture back in Kingston Place.
It has been some time since the characters' initial encounter in Liberty Park. Since that time Archangel and Sylvan Sentinel have moved into Sting Ray's condo in Kingston Place. Sting Ray has been driven to distraction by Archangel's slovenly household habits and Sylvan Sentinel's tendency to drop acorns all over the place. Sting Ray is also getting complaints from the Owners' Association about Archangel eating pigeons on the neighbors' balcony. Finally, the condo walls are getting covered with ivy, and every time the groundskeeper tears it down it grows back even thicker.
Archangel tells the others, "I come bearing a message of our purpose! We are part of a great destiny! There are to be three nature spirits, no wait, maybe five. I think there was something about this in the Wizard of Oz." Sylvan Sentinel asks Archangel, "Did you hit your head on the way down from Heaven?" Archangel admits, "Yeah, I ran into a comet."
Then everyone goes off to the funeral of Darren Stone's friend Marcus White, a promising young man killed by mutant hyenas last session.
The service is being held at a small family-owned funeral home in Lincoln. There are maybe thirty or forty people there. Darren Stone is wearing his one suit and looking suitably grave. Sting Ray is wearing a tailored Armani suit and looking very out of place as one of the five or so white people in the building. Archangel is wearing one of Sting Ray's suits and looking even more out of place as the only member of the angelic host fidgeting in a plastic chair in the back. Scarecrow (whom nobody else knows) is wearing two suits. And a sweater. Every little bit helps him bulk up.
A distinguished black preacher who is a dead ringer for Danny Glover pronounces a blessing over Marcus' Body, then offers Darren Stone a chance to speak some words for his departed friend. Darren Stone does his best to blurt something out. After Darren finishes, Wilson Jeffers stands up to deliver a moving speech about Marcus' life as a life of redemption. Jeffers is a middle-aged local activist who runs the Lincoln Youth Center, a man who has had a tremendous impact upon Darren Stone's life. Marcus had been another of Jeffers' success stories.
After the service, Darren Stone sees his brother loitering near the edge of the cemetery. He walks over. The youngster is giving off attitude. Stone notices with some displeasure that he is wearing gang colors. The younger stone looks up and insolently asks, "What up, bro?" Darren Stone replies, "You like funerals?" His brother shrugs and offers, "Thought I'd stop by." Stone continues on, "You know, when I was in the gang I went to a lot of funerals. For my friends." His brother is clearly unimpressed, "Don't play me any violins. I know you're hanging out uptown with your honky sugar daddy. I'm keeping it real!" Stone sneers back, "Sugar daddy? I live in a one-room apartment and I can barely meet my electric bill. You gotta get a job." Stone's brother stalks off, yelling, "I got something better!" over his shoulder.
Jeffers approaches the other characters and introduces himself. He tactfully ignores Sylvan Sentinel's offer of whiskey, then explains his long connection to Marcus. Darren Stone walks up. Jeffers tells him that his brother is walking with the South Side C's. He hasn't been able to talk him out of it. The gang has gotten a lot of new recruits recently. Jeffers mourns that easy money is luring people into the life.
Jeffers points out that ever since the Hyena's attack in Liberty Park lots of police have been pulled away from Lincoln to protect the uptown parts of the city. It's causing lots of trouble in the hood, now that there aren't any cops around anymore.
At this point, Scarecrow walks up and asks Sting Ray what happened to the young dead man. Sting Ray asks him, "Who the heck are you?" Scarecrow replies, "I've been here all funeral. I work here! And you don't seem to be mourning very diligently." Sting Ray apologizes, "Oh. Where I come from, service-type workers generally don't talk to people." Scarecrow points out, "That's because you've only gone to funerals in the uptight white part of town. You know, it's not often that we see a lad come in with his head crushed." The other characters tell Scarecrow the terrible story of Marcus White's death.
Sylvan Sentinel found a small stone hyena fetish in Liberty Park when he was excavating his hideout. He shows it to Archangel and Scarecrow. Archangel has never seen anything like it before, but Scarecrow has seen something similar from the artifacts of the Nama cult of Mali, a group of dangerous hyena-worshippers. He suggests that he could find out more at the library. He's already tried looking on the Internet, but he just got 1800 animal-porn sites and someone's old gaming summary. But he knows that the old Jamaican guy who works at Old Lincoln Towne Knick-Knacks and Collectibles (more generally known as Leroy's Used Books) will know more.
The other characters do a really miserable job of concealing that they're superheroes from Scarecrow, whom they currently think is just an ordinary guy. Sylvan Sentinel defends himself by pointing out that he's colored green and has leaves for hair. Archangel just acts like Rain Man when he talks about technology.
The characters walk over to Leroy's Used Books. Sting Ray is amazed to see that, despite everything he's heard about Lincoln, he isn't immediately attacked as a white guy.
Leroy's Used Books is located down in the basement of an old brownstone. Everything about the shop is old: old shelves, old books, old smells and an old guy behind the old counter reading a book about ancient German rune magic. Oddly enough, it turns out that the proprietor of Leroy's Used Books is actually named Ezekiel.
Ezekiel looks up at Darren and comments, "Aha! Darren! You have brought some friends!" Sylvan Sentinel shows the hyena fetish to Ezekiel and says, "We found this in the park. Could you tell us about it? Say, would you like some whiskey?" Sylvan Sentinel comments sotto voce that he's been working out ways to please humans, and he's found that giving out booze works well with the winos in the park.
Ezekiel looks at the fetish and tells the characters, "You know, this was on he market very recently." He tells them that it is from the Mali Nama cult and tells the characters some blood-curdling things about their practices. But he recognizes this object: it was sold recently at auction to a museum-sounding place. He is very curious about Sting Ray and Sylvan Sentinel, but totally misses that Archangel is anything but totally normal. He is particularly pleased to see one of the Fair Folk around: "There hasn't been one of those around here for a long time." He flips through a nearby tome and comes up with a primitive-looking rendition of the Sentinel. "The Indian tribes had legends... Welcome to Babylon, my leafy friend."
Sylvan Sentinel takes Ezekiel aside and explains that he can produce all sorts of strange and... active herbs. He offers to be Ezekiel's connection. Ezekiel indicates that he can work something out.
Ezekiel produces a book on the Nama cult. Sting Ray writes a check. He explains that he keeps on erasing his own credit cards, and that no matter how much he complains about Archangel he still needs the guy to pump gas for him.
About this time, Scarecrow pulls up in his used Ford Focus. He sees a sleek black car pull up in front of the shop. Two big guys in suits get out. One of them heads into the shop. Then a lady with long dark hair gets out of the car. She almost looks European in her choice of long flowing skirts. Scarecrow waits for them to go in, then follows.
The woman walks in and starts dealing with Ezekiel. She sounds almost Italian. She sounds very much like a regular customer. Ezekiel produces a rectangular box from under the counter and hands it to her. It contains an old, fancy deck of tarot cards. She pays and heads out.
Sylvan Sentinel asks, "Who is that woman?" Ezekiel explains, "I don't even know her real name. We just call her Lady Tarot. She works... for the Italians."
Outside, Scarecrow sees a nondescript American-made sedan drive up. He sees a lot of people inside and the silhouette of a weapon. He yells, "Holy shit! Drive-by!" and drops to the ground. The goon outside near the car is stunned into immobility. The goon near Lady Tarot grabs her and starts to run her over to the car. Automatic fire sprays across the car. Sylvan Sentinel hears the gunshots and runs outside in time to see the surprised bodyguard take a burst of automatic fire and fall.
Archangel runs out the front of the building, sprouts blazing wings and takes to the air. He blinds the driver of the attacking, who promptly panics. He slams on the gas and drives forwards. Scarecrow changes shape and sprays the gangers' car with a stream of ravenous crows, then leaps straight up onto the roof of his car to avoid being run down. The car takes a hit. Darren Stone steps outside, clothes himself with the sidewalk and brings up an earth elemental for company.
Archangel checks on the downed bodyguard and finds that he is stone cold dead. Meanwhile Sylvan Sentinel rushes the car, boasting that he can lift almost 380,000 lb. He gets hit by the side-view mirror, but hefts the thing anyway. A swarm of gangers piles out into the street.
The gang members start shooting bits off Darren Stone's elemental as the black limo drives off in a squeal of tires. Then two of them start shooting at the Sylvan Sentinel, which doesn't go well for them.
Sting Ray appears from the back of the building and unleashes the Terrifying Aura of Kulkulmectul. Several gang members run screaming. Scarecrow takes the opportunity to run down a fleeing gang member. One of the more stolid-hearted gangsters decides to do something about Sting Ray and hits him with a burst of gunfire at point blank. Sting Ray feels nothing more than a pleasant scratching sensation.
The characters have little trouble cleaning up the rest of the gang members. Scarecrow tells the cowering gang members, "Crime doesn't pay! Unless you work in a hospital! Or own a funeral home!"
None of the other characters even realize that there was recently a fearsome villain called Scarecrow, so everyone is pretty cool with having him around. Darren Stone leaves to take his brother home. Scarecrow explains to the others that he's got some problems with the law, but will talk to the characters in an hour. He leaves and address and runs off. This leaves Sting Ray and Sylvan Sentinel to interrogate the prisoners. This doesn't go as well as it might. Sylvan Sentinel finally wraps a telephone pole around the most active prisoner and leaves him for the cops. Both of them clear out before the cops show up.
Archangel flies off to look for the fleeing limo. He is able to track the limo out to Port Regal, where it stops at a mansion. A mansion with a gate and security guys carrying barely-concealed Uzis.
Archangel returns to tell the others what he has learned, but he is helpless at finding out who owns the place. Sting Ray steps in and checks municipal records. He explains that the mansion is owned by Alberto "Big Al" Driogano. Big Al is the head of the Driogano Crime Family. Of course, he sues everyone who claims that he is. The Drioganos have substantial legitimate holdings as well, including the South Side Palace, the biggest casino on the Boardwalk.
The Drioganos are relatively new as the big Mafia family of Freedom City. The Oliverti Family had headed the Syndicate, but the head of the family got "old" and died... of gunfire. Along with many of his relatives. Since then Don Driogano has been doing very well, and the police haven't done much more than arrest some of his low-level guys.
Jimmy wakes up shortly after Darren Stone brings him home and puts him to bed. Mom is out working her two jobs. Darren tells him, "You're lucky to be alive." Jimmy is still a little bit shell-shocked: "Man, what was that?" Darren explains, "That was you and your friends getting your asses kicked. What were you doing out there anyway?" Jimmy starts to get a bit more defiant. He explains, "Aww... Luther lives in one of the projects and he called us up to say that he saw some of the Italians around, and that we should go teach them a lesson." Darren tells him, "Well, you got taught a lesson. Did you learn anything?" Defiant sheepishness ensues. Jimmy protests, "But Darryl says we're gonna make a lot of money. And I can't work construction like you 'cause I'm too young and I'm supposed to be in school. And there's new product coming into town, we could be making a couple G's a week. It's good grade, they love it, and they pay top green for it. It's Ice and it's like coke but better. Darryl gets it from this guy, and I dunno where but a lot of the gangs are getting it. He's the new head guy, he worked himself up from the street and now everyone does what he says." Darren reminds the youngster, "Well, you get in trouble again and you'll just have to go to jail. And you know what happens in jail."
Darren Stone tells the other characters that Jimmy is hooked up with a gang selling "Ice." Sting Ray looks up a jittery banker and finds out that Ice is "better than coke." He tells the guy he wants some, then sets Scarecrow to tailing him. Scarecrow borrows Sting Ray's car to do it. He cruises around Wading Way, but doesn't manage to see the guy. He thinks about heading down to where drugs are sold, except that he decides he'd rather not get Sting Ray's car impounded. Again.
The address Stingray provided turns out to be a club called Eclipse that caters to the goth and industrial crowd. The place looks like a gothic cathedral inside. Everything is dark and the air is heavy with Bauhaus. And looking weird isn't a problem. The characters (oddly) blend right in.
The other characters hook right up with Scarecrow and quickly decide that they are meant to be a team. They buy a couple rounds of drinks then head out to fight crime. Scarecrow explains, "I'm sober enough to drive. I weight 110 pounds and I only had twelve or fourteen shots."
Darren agrees to learn about gangs and meet everyone else again here tomorrow night at 20:00.
Everyone else goes off to do their own thing during the day while Darren Stone looks for Darryl. He learns that Darryl really is the new leader of the South Side C's, and that he's got a wide variety of hideouts and safe houses. Some of them are just abandoned houses, others are a lot more fortified.
He reports his results to the other characters that evening. "Okay guys, I found out about some of Darryl's hideouts, and some crack houses." Scarecrow, "Great. Let's find one that's not well lit and stake it out. What's Darryl look like?" Darren stammers, "Uuhhh... Lemme go back and check my sources again."
Archangel has an appointment. And some scripture readings. Which I'm not transcribing. One of them is from Matthew. Then he goes through a church directory and finds several Drioganos listed.
The characters head to one of the South Side C's crack houses. Fortuitously, they see Darryl and some other gangsters getting into a midnight-black H2. Scarecrow clings to the bottom of the car, Cape Fear-style. Darren Stone and Sting Ray follow on Darren Stone's motorcycle. Sylvan Sentinel turns into vines and lets Archangel carry him.
The H2 drives into a grimy industrial section of Southside near the airport. They pull into the back of a warehouse. Scarecrow thinks, "I hope the rest of the group is following. It's getting awfully warm here. And the bass from their music is starting to make my ears bleed."
Scarecrow hears doors opening. He launches Obscuration and fills the area with a cloud of blackness, then rolls out and starts slugging people. Roiling darkness surrounds the vehicle. The cloud is large enough that it catches Sylvan Sentinel and Archangel up on the roof, where they were waiting to provide fire support. There is a lot of yelling. Someone runs straight into a wall. Sylvan Sentinel hangs on the ceiling and starts reaching down and fishing for guys. Darren Stone creates some elemental minions to pass the time while Sting Ray stands waiting to see if someone comes out of the building. Someone does. He crackles him.
Someone puts the H2 in reverse, backs over the guy who just got electrocuted, then runs straight into one of Darren Stone's earth elementals, who stops it dead. More earth elementals pile down on the H2. Archangel floats down and attacks the H2, trying to disable it. Sadly, his cosmic power doesn't even scratch the paint.
Then one of the H2's windows shatters as Darryl pops up and fires a full-auto AK burst at Darren Stone. Darren takes him out. It turns out that there is nobody else in the car. Darren Stone has his elementals drop it, then heads back to the rest of the fight.
Sylvan Sentinel sees a white bald biker type finish injecting something into his arm and then peel out. The biker heads out of the warehouse, dodges Sting Ray's attack, and heads into the darkness. Darren Stone attempts to snare him, but he jerks the bike to one side and bypasses the snare.
Archangel flies in to strike at the biker! The biker evades Archangel's attack then blazes away at him with a Desert Eagle to no effect. Sting Ray sends two lightning bolts towards the biker, only to see the fellow, shrugs one off and dodges the other. Darren Stone finally gets him with some stone barricades. The bike stops, but the guy doesn't. He slides twenty feet on the concrete and keeps going. The elemental army rushes for him.
Sylvan Sentinel stretches all his limbs out to thirty feet long and moves towards the biker. Scarecrow watches this performance and reflects, "Damn. I'm going to need therapy after this."
The biker advances on Archangel, snarling, "I'm gonna fuck you up!" Archangel misses his attack, so does the biker. Archangel notices that the biker seems totally whacked out. He reflects that the guy is probably hopped up on goofballs.
The biker and Archangel pummel each other. Scarecrow encourages him "Dodge like a monkey!" Darren Stone tears up a piece of concrete and throws it into the biker and stuns him. He heroic surges and hits him again. Scarecrow comments, "Aha! You hit him in his thinkin' head!" Scarecrow hits him with an energy field again.
The biker starts thrashing and kicking a lot. Scarecrow yells, "He's OD'ing! Quick, kick him some more! Wait, someone might have a video camera! Obscure!" The biker foams at the mouth and dies before anyone else can reach him.
The characters investigate the motorcycle. They find a case containing sealed packets of white powder. The biker had tattoos all over his body, including a wolf's head (a symbol of gang allegiance) and the letters GFBD. Stingray asks the others, "GFBD? What does that stand for? Golfing Feels Beautiful Daily? God Failed Ballroom Dance? Glitzy Fairies Become Ducks? Georgia Freeways Bite Dogs?" Darren Stone explains that the real answer is "God Forgives, Brotherhood Doesn't", and that it is a neo-Nazi slogan.
The characters move over to Darryl. A small amount of rough treatment wakes him up. Then they try to interrogate him. This doesn't work out so well until Sting Ray calls up the Mystic Sigil of Kulkulmectul and mesmerizes him. Sylvan Sentinel tells Scarecrow, "Oh my god, it worked! Here's $20."
Sting Ray is starting to ask questions about meeting locations, safe houses and so on when Darren Stone chirps up, "Hey! I found a ledger in the Humvee with lots of names and dates and amounts, let's use this to take notes!"
The characters leave the scene after a short discussion on leaving tags. Archangel comments, "Hey look! I can write my name!" Sting Ray replies, "You know that stuff eats through plumbing. I've been meaning to talk to you about that."
Each character gains two experience points. There is a certain incentive to have everyone spend it on a handy-dandy two-way watch radio so the group can stay in touch.