Georgina (Brighton Beach) asks, "So, Chris said he was going to be coming back from San Antonio. What do we do when he doesn't get back in time for lunch?" Chuck suggests, "We could all just go hungry. Think of it as rising up above the limitations of our ridiculous, energy-wasting warm-blooded metabolisms!" Bruce (Albert Ferrel) points out, "Or we could all just assemble in Chris' driveway and go to lunch from there." Chris (Titus Greer) jumps up and down, shouting, "But I'm here! I'm standing right in front of you! You're already in my living room! What is wrong with you people?" Patrick (Michael Winters) explains, "I've long since given up trying to figure out the answer to that question. It hurts me too much."
Off in the darkness, Matt (Father Marcus) silently sulks and drifts away. Distinctive bone-cracking and marrow-slurping sounds emerge from his dank pit.
It develops that Albert Ferrel's Sanctum is a miserable basement apartment underneath the MacLucky's Bar and Grill restaurant downtown. The extra tass generated by his Hallow appears as cockroaches and discarded foodstuffs in the dumpster in the alley ("Eat meeee! Eat meeee!").
The characters decide, against their better judgment, to head over to the park to talk to their leader Jacie Sanders. Titus Greer suggests that the characters need to tell them that it's okay if they kill and eat drug dealers, just as long as they are a bit subtler about the process. After all, last time Vickie the sound girl (actually, Jennifer Anderson) was able to catch them at it.
Albert Ferrel walks into the park, rolls his sanctified raven's feather between his hands, stares through the whirling pattern of the feather at the park, chants in Atlantean, drops into an alpha state, goes into an epileptic fit, and falls over. He comes to a moment later. Max looks down at him and asks, "Are you going to actually do some useful magic now?"
Ferrel decides that Max's words are reasonable, so he lights up Peer Across the Gauntlet to see what's around. He finds a pigeon spirit. He demands, "Speak to me!"
It responds, "Crumbs? Crumbs? Can I poop on your head? I'm not just a flying rat!" He recognizes that he is talking to the Pigeon-of-a-Thousand-Faces.
He asks the spirit, "Can you tell me where the predator spirits are?"
The spirit clucks back, "They are on the other side of the Gauntlet, so I do not know. But I can find them for you!"
Ferrel answers, "Please. I would really appreciate it. I'll feed the pigeons in the park every day for a week if you do."
Michael Winters observes what he can of Ferrel's behavior. He asks the others, "And we're all standing here, doing this at night? I keep an eye out for the cops."
Soon enough, a guy comes walking along the path. At first glance, he seems to be approaching to sell the characters drugs, but on second glance he's following the pigeon spirit. Ferrel calls out to the spirit, "Come over here, little pigeon spirit!"
The spirit seems to be in rare form: "Tu-whoo! He gave me Essence! He gave me Essence to bring him to you guys! I've brought you a predator spirit!"
The werewolf is dressed like a biker. He addresses the characters, "I hear you guys are looking for werewolves in the park."
Brighton Beach replies, "What gave us away?"
The werewolf answers, "The pigeon told me. He's a stool pigeon. He said that the Big Rat was around. That must be you..." He pointedly looks at Ferrel, who responds by scratching behind his ears with his foot. Titus Greer shudders.
The characters finally establish that they are mages and want to meet with Jacie. The werewolf pulls out his cellphone and sets up a meet at Chez Garou tomorrow evening. Brighton Beach knows the place: it is a swanky restaurant near the park.
Ferrel exclaims, "I know that place! They have the best garbage!"
Michael Winters chats with the werewolf. The creature's name is Cal. He's dealt with some other mages in the past, including Mama Lucy's people and a group of mages who drink a lot. Winters agrees, "Yeah, you wouldn't believe how many mages are like that. Half of them drink like fraternity boys, the other half drink like PTSD-ridden Vietnam vets."
Brighton Beach prepares for dinner at Chez Garou by picking out his finest suit and matching Italian shoes. Titus Greer pulls out his fine white linen suit and his matching silver-bladed (anti-werewolf) knife. Albert Ferrel washes and shaves, explaining that he does this once a year, "Whether he needs it or not."
The characters arrive and are immediately escorted to a private room by the maitre'd. There are six place settings, enough for all the characters plus one. One setting is occupied by a woman, whom the characters take to be Jacie Sanders. Cal is standing behind her, looking uncomfortable in a cheap suit.
Titus Greer sits down next to Sanders, so he can stab her easily if he needs to. Everyone else announces that they are sitting in the corner, with their backs to the wall. The waiter observes this strange display of paranoia with no apparent dismay. The characters are forced to admit that there must be a high incidence of mental illness among the customers who rent private rooms.
Jacie seems confused. She tells the characters, "Cal told me that you were mages, but it looks like only two of you are."
Brighton Beach admits, "We're actually just retainers. Is that a problem?"
"No. But I'll bet at least one of you has a silver knife hidden on you, just in case things go wrong."
Titus Greer responds, "I don't think anyone is hiding their silver knives."
Michael Winters asks, "Are you familiar with what's been happening with the mages recently?"
"No. I've heard nothing. I've talked to Mama Lucy a couple of times, but really she hasn't mentioned anything out of the ordinary. Generally, my crew and the mages keep out of each others' ways and things just work out."
"Have you had trouble with any Russians? Or Chechens?"
"No. Not at all."
"Not even the interior decorators?"
"What on Earth are you talking about?"
"How about the Tibideaux family?"
"I've made some money watching their real estate investments. That's about it."
"Okay. So the only other business is that we've got word that some of your people have been molesting the local hard-working drug dealers."
"That'd be some of the younger members of the pack. We organize these little get-togethers so they can work out their aggression."
Max adds, "Yeah, but the trouble is that mundanes have been spotting them."
"That's not good, but the problem will be dealt with. By the way, I'm a businesswoman and I'm accustomed to dealing with things. I've even dealt with your people in the past. For example, my people will often do things for Mama Lucy in exchange for Essence. Perhaps if you were to do a favor for me, I'd be able to do a favor for you as well. By the way, I don't have anything to do with missing prostitutes."
Michael Winters replies, "Yeah. We don't have anything to do with them either. What kind of favor?"
"The werewolf Brian has something of mine. I want it back." It develops that Brian has Jacie Sanders' little sister. She's sixteen years old, is plenty rebellious, and just turned into a werewolf. She's been out in the wilderness for a couple of weeks, and may want to come back. Sanders understands that Brian isn't the sort of guy to have cable, Internet access, or a phone, so she's probably very bored. Brian could stop her from leaving, but her own sense of grievance is more powerful.
Winters answers, "That's it? That isn't very embarrassing. I was thinking that you were going to say that he has your dia…"
Titus Greer cuts Winters off, "That's quite enough of that. There's no reason to bring any other wacky hits to the website. We'll see what we can do, but no promises."
And then there is dinner. It's just like the dinner at the beginning of Ravenous. Mmm... meat!
Once dinner has been reduced to bloody shreds and gibbets, Ferrel asks, "What's her name?"
Jacie replies, "Kitten."
"Kitten?"
"Kitten."
"Kitten?"
"Kitten. What do you want? My parents were hippies."
Titus Greer cuffs Albert Ferrel, "What the hell is wrong with you? You asked her name, she said 'Kitten', and then you repeated what she said like eighteen times! As least we've got a name to work with that we don't have to have spelled out for us."
The characters hatch a clever plan: they will deliver a bag full of feminine hygiene products to Brian, claiming that they're for Kitten. He won't want to look into the bag, so he won't see the pre-paid cellphone inside. The only problem is that none of the characters want to actually purchase the products. Ferrel proposes, "I'll send the rat! Or I can use my Streetwise to hire a derelict crack addict to do it!" The others actually consider this idea, until Greer proposes getting Jennifer Anderson to do it.
Well-equipped with guns, armor and hygiene products, the characters head to the park. Albert Ferrel is easily able to guide them to Brian's compound by calling up the local spirits and asking them about "The Bad Place" where they refuse to go.
The characters see a wooden cabin in the forest. They sneak up. Ferrel sends Scamper around to check the situation. Scamper heads out, then comes back to report, that there is a camouflage entrance to a cave twenty yards behind the cabin, on the other side of the ridge. There are a couple of guys up there with rifles. They say they see the big ugly guy (Greer), but none of the others. There is also a big, ugly spirit there, but it ignored Scamper. Either it is full, or it didn't see him.
Max asks the fates, "Are we about to be ambushed?" The fates tell him "No!"
Titus Greer takes the bag and walks up to the cabin. Max goes with him. Greer knocks on the door. Brian calls out from inside, "What do you want?"
"I'm here to deliver a message. I want to talk to Kitten."
"What do you know about her?"
"She's sixteen years old, she's out in the woods, some people are worried about her, and we just want to see how she's doing. And we've brought some stuff for her. You know, woman stuff."
"Leave it on the porch."
"We'll do that, but we need to talk to her also."
Greer is able to hear muted arguing. Then the door opens. Brian is standing there. He's a beat-up middle-aged guy in a flak jacket. Kitten is standing behind him.
"This is for you."
Kitten asks, "Who the hell are you?"
"You don't know me. But your sister sent me."
She grabs the bag. "I've got nothing to say to Jacie! She's my sister, not my mom! I'm going to be seventeen next year, and I can do what I want! Did you see The OC last week?"
"No, but I heard a commercial saying that next week's episode was going to be incredibly special, better than drinking unicorn giggles. And you totally missed Smallville. You'll never guess who they killed off!"
Kitten strikes Brian, "You said you'd have the satellite dish in this week! Bastard!"
Out in the distance, Brighton Beach mentions, "Aha. So it's that kind of relationship we're dealing with."
The characters start to leave, having decided that they'd rather not kick in the door on a werewolf village. But then Kitten says something unfriendly to Brian. She steps past him to ask Greer and Max, "What are you people?"
Max replies, "I think you people call us willworkers."
"I've never met a mage before"
Max shrugs.
"What's it like? Can you, like, throw fireballs?"
"Oh, heck no."
Greer stands behind her and gestures to see if Max thinks he should take her out now. Max just looks confused.
"Can you tell my future? Will I find the perfect guy?"
Max does his best to phrase appropriate questions. He manages to pull up a vision of Kitten living inside a cabin looking aged and miserable. There are a couple of kids hanging off her coat and she's trying to decide whether to blow her brains out, or to shoot the kids. Max decides to tell her the truth. Everyone else gets very nervous.
"I knew that! I knew you would come! Thank you for protecting me! I gotta get my backpack!"
"Let us go with you. I'm concerned that Brian might not take the news so well. Okay, Titus, let's go."
Greer looks up from playing with the cats, "Us? Well, okay. Let's go."
Kitten breezes out the cabin door, chirping out to Brian as she goes by, "Too bad, so sad Bri. No cable, I'm outta here."
Brian responds, "What?" Greer can tell that he's not that attached to her, and is almost glad she's leaving, but that it was worth it to him to have her there because it annoyed Jacie.
On the way out of the forest, Ferrel chats with the local spirits. He concludes that the forest is full of really passive-aggressive trees with serious identity issues. Kitten spends the trip talking to Max. Brighton feels resentful that she's not paying attention to him.
On the way out of the park, the new Hierarch Jackson Pollard calls to say that he must meet with the characters that evening.
Jacie has a nice penthouse apartment overlooking the park. She looks at the characters standing on her doormat and asks, "Do you people normally dress like this?" The characters just hand back Kitten. The reunion isn't totally without conflict. Jacie asks Max if he used any Mind magic to bring her along. Max just explains the truth. Ferrel helps out by describing how learning Mind magic has an effect on your thinking processes: the most skilled Mind mage in the city reacted to a threat by forgetting that he was a mage. Greer tells her to make sure that Kitten doesn't get back to the forest, because she would have been miserable. So even if Jacie has to lock her in the broom closet and beat her with the rubber hose, she should do it.
"I like how you think. Would you like to join the club? Here's my number. You know, just in case you want to be possessed by a spirit."
Greer curses, "Oh fuck, I forgot. I thought she was coming on to me."
Max answers, "She was, just not in the way you were hoping. You should try it: your life would be so much better after you were possessed by a predator spirit."
The characters answer Jackson Pollard's summons to the stately Elderwood Hotel. They notice that the White Queen and her cabal members have been dragooned into sentry duty.
Jackson tells the characters, "I need your help tomorrow night. You do own suits, don't you?"
Michael Winters groans, "Again?"
Jackson continues, "I need you to be my entourage, at the airport. It's a rare event that happened. Every year or so the Hierarch and the Prince of the Vampires and the leader of the local werewolves meet at the airport to talk. We go there because they've already got metal detectors, plus lots of sleepers around."
Titus Greer points out, "So the only ones who can do anything are the werewolves?"
Jackson is silent.
Then he mentions something else, "Can you guys tell the werewolves? I haven't been able to get into contact with them." Winters agrees that he might be able to arrange something, then calls Jacie Sanders. She agrees to show up.
Step one is to prepare the scene. Albert Ferrel arranges this by creating a Spirit Road in the parking lot. He steps through carrying a backpack full of guns and a spare Kevlar vest. He leaves them in the spirit world version of the men's room next to the restaurant where the meeting is supposed to happen. Then he heads into the airport and repeats the process to pull the weapons out into the men's room. This takes him a total of nine hours.
On the way over, Albert Ferrel explains to the others, "The guns are in the washroom. Ceiling panel, third stall over."
Greer speculates, "What are we going to do when some terrorists pick those things up before we get to them?"
The werewolf contingent includes Jacie and Kitten plus two more werewolves. The vampire contingent is much larger at six strong, including one female vampire who announces herself as Lilith, the Herald of the new Prince, Adrian Thomas. Thomas appears to be in his late 30's or early 40's. He's wearing a nice suit, but his tie is only half-tied and he appears to have a serious addiction to his cellphone. He tells the others that this is a social function, and that they should mingle. Mingle! Or else!
Max and Brighton spend their time mingling. Max finds that Kitten attaches herself to him instantly. He doesn't mind that much: she's quite picturesque. The people in the room include:
Max tries to talk to Jacie and the vampires about science and business. He can see that Lilith and Eddie are both working the crowd. Eddie is very interested in computers: he's been involved in the subject ever since ENIAC.
Michael Winters decides to chat with the attractive women in the room. He walks over to Lilith and tells her, "Uhhh... Duhhh... You're so pretty! You're really keen!" She spends the rest of the evening twisting him around her finger. She's totally entranced him. By the time he staggers away, he doesn't trust werewolves at all and thinks she's the most wonderful person around. Along the way, he does manage to learn that the vampire Andrew is a misguided religious fanatic.
Lilith goes around talking to the rest of the characters. She has known Brighton's mother since she was knee-high to a grasshopper, and is suitably bemused by the fact that Ferrel has a rat following him around. Along the way, she is able to convince Titus Greer that he should help figure out why prostitutes are vanishing from the streets. She explains that they serve as her "farm team", and she is very concerned by the fact that something else seems to be preying upon them.
Michael Winters asks a couple of male vampires about Lilith. They both tell him that she is a villain and a whore, but he's too deep in entrancement to really respond to their warnings.
Max talks to Andrew about the other vampires. Andrew tells him that Anton is a fucking agnostic twit, and the former Prince's enforcer. He's still got the job, but nobody listens to him. Jake is a psychotic devil worshipper.
Max goes over to talk to Jake. He notices that the fellow has a very tough manner to him, and wears several occult medallions. He guesses that Jake is a member of the Circle of the Crone, a group of vampires who follow voodoo-like practices. He gets the clear notion that the only reason Jake is being nice to him is because he knows he's a mage and hopes to be able to learn something from him. Jake is also very stuck on himself.
Max finds that Anton is Asian, blonde, and middle-aged. But then he knew that as soon as he set eyes on the guy. Anton tells him, "Yeah, with the new Prince its going to be a rough few years for us. It seems like a I trust you, but I don't know why. Old Prince Gustav made a law requiring that when vampires needed to feed from other vampires, they had to go into Torpor. And he followed his own law. Adrian was one of Lilith's followers. The elders didn't want to put someone competent into the job of Prince, so we picked him instead." But now Anton is stuck enforcing any of the lame dictates that Prince Adrian might choose to utter.
Max agrees, "I know what you mean. We only barely avoided a similar problem in our community." He walks away convinced that vampiric society is completely disorganized and spends most of its time working at cross-purposes.
Max turns around to see a pale-skinned woman in a red leather cloak, red leather boots, a red leather corset, red leather pants, and a red leather hat step straight through the wall. She opens up her hands and throws two grenades.
The explosions set Lilith on fire and spread chaos through the room. The characters run around like panicked lemmings while the grenade-throwing Red Woman steps back out through the wall.
Albert Ferrel gives himself Spirit Sight and picks up a resonance of pure hate and revenge on the patch of wall the Red Woman just stepped through. Max speculates, "I bet she's a vampire, and she's definitely got some issues."
All the vampires except for Eddie, Anton and Prince Adrian all vanish. Lilith, Andrew and Jake all vanish with Obfuscate. Except to Ferrel, who discovers that Spirit Sight lets him see them. Within a couple of moments, each group is deeply involved in trying to blame each other for the incident.
Brighton Beach runs out into the corridor after the Red Woman. He gains on her rapidly, exclaiming, "Huzzah! I will touch a woman this session! Just not in the way I'd prefer!" The Red Woman turns about and puts her hand on Brighton's chest. He thinks, "Now this is the way things are supposed to go... aaaaauuugh!" Brighton feels three points of Willpower flow out of him. The Red Woman is no longer as pale as she was. Brighton responds by grappling her. She responds by stepping right through Brighton. And then she pulls a pair of swords out from under her trenchcoat. Brighton yells, "Look out! She's got a Highlander trenchcoat!"
Max takes out his magical tool. Everyone groans. He responds by botching an Acceleration. And then he blows it again. Albert Ferrel notices that Max is swimming in his very own fetid pool of Paradox effects. Michael Winters especially notices, because Max's spell misdirects itself onto him.
Albert Ferrel runs out of the conference room and into the restroom. He fetches his backpack full of guns and scrambles down the corridor after the rest.
Michael Winters rushes to engage the Red Woman, blade in hand. He manages to deliver a glancing blow. Titus joins in, grappling her. He yells in triumph, until she evaporates out of his grasp and drops through the floor. Titus looks for stairs.
Winters, Brighton and Titus all run for the stairs. Max scurries after them, casting spells all the way. And off in the distance, Ferrel runs around looking for the others. "Guys? Guys? I have the guns! Where are you?" He decides that he's had it with getting outrun by everyone else, so he uses Transform Life to give himself the body frame of a cheetah (+2 dice to run) and the claws of a cheetah. He reshapes himself and runs... straight into a security guard who exclaims, "I just can't believe that's happening!" Ferrel makes shockingly little progress.
Titus Greer grapples the Red Woman again. She responds by breaking free. Michael Winters runs after her. Albert Ferrel runs up with a backpack full of guns. Brighton Beach quickly grabs a gun out of the backpack. Max follows suit, grabs a pistol, and shoots the Red Woman. His Fate magic guides his bullet to deliver a serious wound. And now, the cops seriously know that gunfire is going on.
The Red Woman screams and runs straight at Max. Max rather feebly gasps out, "Can I dodge?" Everyone agrees that he can, but it doesn't do any good. She slashes him deeply. He howls out, "I'm bleeding!"
She screams, "I will not be denied!"
Max gasps, "But you haven't even made any demands!"
Titus crashes into the Red Woman, delivering six levels of damage and leaving her stunned. She tries to draw Willpower from Michael Winters, but fails. She starts to cry in mad, psychotic rage. Winters responds by stabbing her. She adopts a dramatic death pose. Brighton Beach puts his gun to her head and shoots. The Red Woman screams in rage, falls to the ground, and shatters into pieces.
Albert Ferrel lopes over to Max and touches him. He announces, "Max! It turns out that all that blood is somebody else's blood! You're fine!"
Titus Greer wraps her swords in his white jacket. He also sweeps up a bit of the dust left behind. Then the characters scatter. Only Max is detained by the police: he was carrying a gun, and smelled of cordite. Even worse, he was carrying four "magic mushrooms." Fortunately, he's still got Superlative Luck, so he manages to get away from the cops after just being detained for a couple of hours.
On the way out, the characters see that some of the vampires' cars are on fire.
After the excitement fades, Albert Ferrel opines that the characters just fought a revenant, a spirit returning for righteous vengeance. Her swords are empowered, almost haunted. They will inflict +1 die of damage (4 dice total) against vampires, Moros mages or Death-magic constructs.
The characters gain two points for a good session, two more for a long session, and two more for the end of a story for a total of six experience points for each character. Brighton Beach announces that he will be going shopping. Max crows, "Now I buy Space 1!" Albert Ferrel mourns that buying Life 4 will cost him 24 points, still 14 more than he has saved up.