Session 02

{{Sessions
 * date = October 3, 2010
 * notes = Post-party, woo!
 * enc  = Bubbles

Celeste

a ferret

a ghoul

a sprite

a vampire
 * log  =

Hobb + Ghoul
Hobb continues his infiltration of the building. It seems to have been intended to be a bar, but that really didn't go anywhere.

The ghoul sleeps in the basement of the bar, near a pile of mostly stripped bones. The meat is decayed enough to suggest it's been using this for a while. There are some IDs and effects from unknown persons... possibly the victims.

Hobb messes with a cell phone on the table near the ghoul, and it rings someone else's phone in the area. This wakes up the ghoul, just as a door to the sub basement (or something else underground) opens up. A well-dressed man, around 6'-6'2" tall, emerges.

They have a conversation. The ghoul demands meat, but the man refuses. The ghoul says that he's done enough to deserve meat, including helping the ferret woman escape, and coming here like she asked. The man becomes suspicious. The man, who is apparently a vampire, quickly rushes the ghoul (who doesn't resist) and drinks him dead.

(Note: Whatever kind of vampire he is, he doesn't reveal his type.)

As the man wanders off, he starts some sort of phone conversation and sets a small fire as he leaves. Unfortunately, the party doesn't hear most of it. There was some mention of Bubbles probably not being involved (he doesn't even know who his allies are, let alone his enemies); also, probably not Vlad (wouldn't act on this side of the river) or Lo Pan(it's his territory, but wouldn't be so openly aggressive). He says that the ghoul was tainted somehow (a ferret woman?).

Hobb follows the vampire underground, but quickly becomes disoriented when trying to follow him, and is no longer sure the place he left is behind him. Hobb turns back before he gets so far in that he can't get back.

Hobb picks up the cell phone, as well as an apron for some dignity. He tries to leave the building, but a sapling has grown out of the floor to hold the door shut, and there are bars on the windows. He smashes a window, drops the apron and cell phone out, then transforms into a ferret to slip between the bars.

Camp
Kate has heard of something like the worm's tentacles in a small godling, possibly either an outsider or connected to one, in the Pacific NW.

Celeste approaches the party on behalf of Bubbles. The police are interfering with the camp in an attempt to find out what's going on, so Bubbles would like the party to find the ghoul -- or at least its body which can be reanimated -- in order to satisfy them. He'd also like them to rescue William, if possible, as he was secretly a protégé of his. Bubbles believes that William is important for the future of the island.

William is not the first to go missing, but he's the first from the camp, and the mummification is a new thing. The others missing are likely taken by the Fae, and hunted by the weres in Forest Park. The kidnapped, who are usually weres and changelings, either die or join the Wild Hunt themselves. Bubbles is the only kidnappee to survive without being taken in some way, which has cemented his rep. The ghoul is possibly a new outside force, and might be connected with the vampires or the Mafia.

Celeste seems to know about William's heritage as a were-goat, but she doesn't want to divulge it. After a quick bout of parrying and social battling, she gives in and tells the party about William's were status. Apparently, William taught himself the ability to change in order to suppress his turning into a Gruff. Most strong candidates to replace Bubbles are taken, interestingly enough, which is why he was kept secret.

The party then meets with Bubbles, who is preparing to go off the the Nevernever to bury his friends. He gives them the task, then moves on. They slip out past the police via an unnoticed barrier.

Troy discovers that the Island is public land, but several business interests would like to develop it or just buy it to get rid of the homeless so that they can "revitalize" the downtown area. One of the interested parties is the Halifax Group.

Structures
The party catches up with Hobb, who brings them up to date... in a somewhat incoherent way. He advises them of the sapling in the door and the bars in the windows.

Ming steps into the Nevernever to see if he can gain access that way. What he sees looks like Boston, but the building is a tree in the shape of a house. All the surrounding buildings look the same. And all of the trees are dead.

Kate manages to wrest the door off its hinges, and the party rushes into the building to recover the ghoul's body. Kate soaks Ming with water, and he runs into the fire to grab the body. After some feeble struggling, Troy jumps in and flexes his muscles to make the task possible.

However, the noise and smoke has finally attracted the cops. They try to wrench a bar off a window to get a back alley escape route, but it doesn't go anywhere. They instead decide to try to flee through the basement, with Kate taking bad mental stress as she pushes herself to suppress the fire.

They flee into the lower levels. The room they find is old, with brickwork instead of concrete. There is a freight door down there, as well as several cut-in doors and some little archways. After a short distance, it changes from brick to dirt and wood beams.

Encounters
The geometry here is deeply wrong. Troy's sense of wrongness is triggered. Ming trusts in the Tao to guide him out through the alien tunnels. The tunnel they follow smells vaguely of opium and women to Hobb. The path Ming follows is generally seedy, but mundane. Hobb picks up on other, more dangerous scents that seem reptilian but unfamiliar. Troy is not reassured by this.

Eventually, they come to an intersection. The way to go is through a room where they can hear the voices of some Chinese men gambling on the other side. They knock and enter. The men there are decently dressed and have weapons.

Ming negotiates with the leader until he asks for a bribe, and then Troy comes up with the ghoul. They balk, but money is flashed, and the guy promises to keep Mr. Blankenship's secret safe.

They stash the body in an alley, leaving Kate to recover and watch the body. Troy goes home to clean up and figure out some handy stuff to have in the future. Hobb rushes off, with Ming following more slowly, to report back to Celeste and Bubbles. They get someone to bring the ghoul's body back, and Kate goes home as well.

Ming follows up on Hobb's off-handed comment of a familiar smell in the tent. When he was a kid, there was a similar incident with the mummification. Unfortunately, he doesn't know much more about what was involved.

Further...
Ming pokes his head on the other side of the accident site. In the Nevernever, this is still connected to the Island, but it's at the summit. It looks darker and stormier, and there are some paths that go off to other places. For the first time, he can see a landform across the water, which looks like Boston.

There are a number of spirits drawn to the place -- minor spiritual scavengers that are eating something, but he can't quite see what. (He assumes it's the mess.) The spirits of the foliage in the area have been pushed out of their plant bodies and are quite a ways back. Ming gives them some water. They saw someone get pulled through by a dark spirit, but they don't know much more. Some gardening sprites might, so he puts the word out.

Two hours later, a sprite comes forth. He and Ming head into the woods a bit. Several of his friends were blown away by the blast; he was lucky enough to be sleeping behind a rock. His clan's spirits were dragged behind the goat-man on tethers, and the sprite asks Ming to bring them back to be buried in their glaive. (pun intended)

Ming wakes up Hobb, and they go off to grab Troy so that they can find Kate, who can take them into the Nevernever together to follow the trail.

Troy hears on the news that Dolores Halifax has been murdered and that the police had cordoned off the Island to look for the suspect. Troy gets kitted out in street vigilante gear, while Hobb has his nail gloves and boots. Ming is just Ming. They drive off to Kate, fill her in, and pick her up. They then sneak back into the Island via the shoreline without detection. }}