The Musings of Rob the Eternally Lost Zeppo

Harper Blaine is a small-time private investigator trying to earn a living when a low-life savagely assaults her, leaving her for dead. For two minutes, to be precise.

When Harper comes to in the hospital, she begins to feel a bit…strange. She sees things that can only be described as weird - shapes emerging from a foggy grey mist, snarling teeth, creatures roaring.

But Harper’s not crazy. Her ‘death’ has made her a Greywalker - able to move between our world and the mysterious, cross-over zone where thing that go bump in the night exist. And her new gift (or curse) is about to drag her into that world of vampires and ghosts, magic and witches, necromancers and sinister artifacts. Whether she likes it or not.

I mainly bought Greywalker to get myself in the mood for the ‘Dresden Files: Streets of Seattle’ game, since it was an urban fantasy novel set in the very same city. I had no expectations of the book being anything more than an average read before I got it, but at the very least I thought it might give me a feel for the setting I would be playing in. I’m glad to say though, that I was pleasantly surprised once I got started.

At its heart, this book is all about the normal, everyday life of an ordinary private investigator being turned upside down after a near-death experience gives her the ability to perceive both the normal world, and the world of the supernatural. Harper’s struggle to accept this new reality is really the driving conflict of the entire novel. The quote on the front of the book says, ‘enough paranormal complications to keep you on the edge of your seat’, and for much of the book, that’s all that the paranormal stuff really amounts to. Complications to Harper’s life, which she tries to ignore while carrying on with business as usual. But its inevitable that she will be drawn more completely into that world, and the signs of this are seeded throughout the book, until the point is finally made clear to Harper herself about midway through the book.

Another thing it says on the front quote is ‘non-stop action’. Well, there is action in this book, but Harper Blaine isn’t really an action heroine like the protagonists of some of the other books from the contemporary and urban fantasy genres. The emphasis in this story is, for the most part, on leg-work and following the clues, good old-fashioned sleuthing. If you’re looking for a supernatural action block-buster, this isn’t it. When the action takes place, it’s usually short, brutal and painful, much like in real life. If you like your supernatural thrillers grim and gritty, you’ll enjoy this a lot. If you’re looking for an action movie in print form though, you might want to find something else.

Even the paranormal world itself has a sense of gritty realism to it, added to by the pseudo-scientific rationale given for the world of the Grey and the things that inhabit it. Ben Danziger presents a theory to Harper about things existing on different energy states to the one we inhabit, and Mara doesn’t strongly disagree with the theory. It gives a feel of credibility to the phenomenon Harper is experiencing which melds it more comfortably with the harsh reality of the human world presented to us previously in the story. The theory might come across as a bit New Age-y for some readers’ tastes though.

There’s a cast of wonderful and loveable characters in here. There’s Harper herself, a tough, but not unsympathetically hardened female detective, who loves her pet ferret and comes across as a very human and vulnerable protagonist. She’s also very intelligent, and resolves both cases that she faces in this novel by doing lots of research on the situation and then setting a plan in motion according to the intelligence she’s gathered. Then there are the Danzigers; the model of a normal happy couple, and yet Ben’s a man of science and Mara’s a witch. Their relationship, the rational and the supernatural living together in (almost) perfect harmony, are the best tutors Harper could ask for in adapting to her new condition. They’re also adorable, even if Mara as an Irish witch is a bit of a cliche. Then there’s Quinton, Harper’s very own Q. He’s eccentric, perfectly amiable and brilliant at what he does, and yet there’s an element of mystery to him, things about his life which are hinted at but never revealed. It should be interesting to find out more about him in the later books.

Now, I’ve gone over what I liked about the story, so here’s where we get to the things I didn’t like so much.

First off, the way in which Harper meets the new network of contacts that will be of great aid to her in this story and the ones to follow seemed a bit too convenient. The doctor that Harper consulted about her ‘hallucinations’ after her assault happens to be a bit unconventional - perhaps even having some experience of the paranormal himself - and points her towards the Danzigers for answers, whereas another doctor might have recommended counselling or psychiatric treatment. The locksmith that repairs Harper’s office door after a break-in points her towards Quinton, tech-whizz extraordinaire, and there’s another thing about Quinton that’s just a little bit too conveinient for my liking. The love interest of the story, at least, didn’t turn out to be in the know about the supernatural, and so Harper’s love life was complicated by her ‘gift’. But there are no other friendships or connections which are complicated by Harper’s condition. Nobody to be concerned that she might be losing her mind. The emphasis is much more on the dangers of Harper accepting the new reality of the Grey than on the implications of her becoming more open to it, which takes away a potential source of added conflict from the story.

Then there are the vampires who closely associate themselves with the Goth scene. The suggestions of sado-masochism in their dealings with humans. Sound familiar anyone? That’s right, this book features some of the same old vampire cliches we’ve seen time and time again. It’s not a major failure on the book’s part, but it is just a little bit disappointing.

If you’re a fan of the contemporary and urban fantasy genres, then I recommend giving this book a try. It may or may not be to your tastes, depending on how much blockbuster-style action you like in your thrillers, how willing you are to let certain conveinient plot points slide, and how tolerant you are of the somewhat cliche portrayal of vampires. In my own humble opinion though, it’s well worth giving it a shot, and I’ll definitely be picking up the next book at some point in the future.

Overall Rating: 8/10

Okay, the combat from the end of last week’s session is told rather succinctly because I was working from second-hand accounts, since I had to leave early the previous week. I’ve tried to keep everything else fairly detailed, and embellished a few points to make things flow better. The GM, Dan, was quite pleased with the way I’ve been translating the session logs into story, though he did have to correct me on one ‘small’ detail. Turns out I’d written that Alexander was carrying a cannister of mace, rather than the big ‘ol medieval mace he was actually swinging around. Whoopsie! Thanks for the correction, Dan. ^^;

Anyway, without much further ado, here’s the continuation of ‘Dresden Files RPG: Streets of Seattle’:

—

   The bear-like roar came from Bethany, because she had in fact, at that moment, transformed into a bear. Something I may have forgotten to mention; Bethany was a werebear. Kinda like a werewolf, except she transforms into a big grizzly bear instead of a wolf. Also, she has a bit more control over the change than the traditional werewolf. So far as I can understand, she can change at will, and I don’t think she has to worry about the phases of the moon, though I don’t know all the details. I try not to pry, people can be understandably touchy on the subject of their supernatural hang-ups. Anyway, Bethany went all ursine, and tore one of the men in cleaning uniforms to shreds with her jagged claws and teeth.

   The other five guys were taken so off-guard by this that they couldn’t react quickly enough to what everyone else was doing. Deacon let loose with his .45, taking down two guys in about as many seconds. Alex swept forward with his mace and smashed two others to the floor, and Sidney charged the last guy and punch him out stone cold.

   With the battle done, I stood up from behind the crate I’d been using for cover and walked forward to where the others were standing over their defeated foes. The only obstacle between us and the roof now was a somewhat narrow access stairway. Alexander was busy crossing himself, uttering a prayer to the big guy upstairs, and I hoped someone was listening. I looked over the men lying on the floor. One guy was a bloody mess of torn flesh and fabric; Bethany’s handiwork. The two guys Deacon took down wouldn’t be getting back up again. Ever. The guys Alex had smacked about with his mace were no better off. Big spiky balls of metal don’t really do good things to the people on the receiving end. The last guy, the guy Sidney had punched out, was groaning on the floor, starting to stir a bit. I headed towards him, as he was the only of the faux cleaning crew in any condition to be questioned. At least, I would have been able to question him, if Deacon hadn’t gotten there first, taken a smaller calibre pistol from his harness, and drilled a hole through the guy’s head.

   “Damn it, Deacon!” I snarled at him, unable to contain my outrage at this display of cold-blooded murder, “We’re supposed to be the good guys, remember?”

   I heard Bethany sigh from outside my field of vision, evidentally having shifted back to human form, “Uhm…anyone have a jacket? Please?” I was too angry and too busy glaring at Deacon to really register the words though. “Guys?” Deacon held my gaze for a long moment, then nodded mildly, putting the pistol away. I glanced towards Bethany, Alexander had taken off his somewhat beaten jacket, which the young werebear was wrapping around herself, “Thank you!” She said, somewhat snippily.

   “You take that off before changing again.” Alexander warned, “I mean it. It’s the only one I’ve got.” I caught Alexander’s eye as he glanced between me and Deacon. He was concerned about what had just happened, and so was I. I hoped Deacon could keep a more level head in future. I couldn’t work with him if I had to worry about his itchy trigger finger.

   I sighed and turned back towards the now dead assassin in cleaner’s clothing, giving Deacon another disgusted glance before crouching down to search the man’s body for any clues as to who he was, or who might have sent him and why.

   “We should move it.” I heard Bethany say from behind me.

   Deacon shrugged, “Nine guys so far. Big crew.”

   Much as I’d expected, the man had no identification on him, but the uniform he wore had a tag on it from a commercial laundry service. Also, catching a hint of some ink, I rolled up one of his sleeves to finds a tattoo his forearm. The tattoo was an image of three serpents coiling around each other, over and around a rather stylized meso-american ziggurat. Underneath the tattoo were embossed the words, ”Tres Serpientes de Dios’. As I understood it, it was Spanish for ‘Three Serpents of God’. Meso-American symbology and serpents again, ‘Ohhhh…I hate coincidences…’ I muttered to myself.

   Alexander headed for the stairs with Bethany and Sid following close behind. He hadn’t heard me, but he had heard Bethany, “Yeah. We need to stop whatever’s going on. I’ve got the feeling they’re not far from done.”

   I knew what he meant, the overwhelming feeling of wrongness I’d picked up on earlier was much stronger now, almost painful in its intensity.

   “Lead the way, Alex.” I said as I stood up from the corpse, and strode after them both to catch up, “And keep an eye out for…snakey types…” Deacon fell into line next to me, his .45 drawn from its holster once more. I spun on a dime to look back at the dead assassin once more, and burned a hole in the back of Deacon’s head with my eyes before continuing to follow the group.

   “I really don’t look forward to what we’ll meet up there…” Sidney said, clenching and unclenching his fists, and I had to agree with him. I wasn’t looking forward to it either.

***

   Sidney’s instincts were bang on. The scene on the windswept roof of KYOU was chilling, to put it mildly and not just because it physically cold in spite of the warmth of the summer night. The old tranmitter tower, no longer in use, still stuck up into the air like a skeletal finger of iron, almost obscene against the glare of the throbbing neon lights spelling the letters ‘KYOU’ in glaring red over the city’s skyline. The roof was rather large, large enough that there was a helipad on the far side of the roof from the tower and sign. There was no helicopter there, however. Instead, the attention might be drawn to the swirling, greenish, grey-edged hole in the world that pulses at the base of the transmitter tower.

   “That…doesn’t look good at all.” Bethany muttered.

   Standing near the tower were four men in black suits, each holding a compact, modern, and very deadly submachinegun. With them was a woman in stylish business clothes. Facing us, with their backs to the tower, were two…things. Both were shorter than a human, had two legs like a human, but were broader, with heads vaguely like those of crocodiles. Both were holding two bundles that looked disturbingly like babies swaddled up. Deacon stared at the scene in grim silence.

   “Beth,” Alexander said to the girl next to him. “we gotta get those kids.”
Beth nodded in agreement, “How do you propose we do that?”

   The businesswoman turned and looked at us, and hissed an order to the guncarriers, as she clutched a rather ornate wooden case to her side. Then, moving with inhuman speed, she moved to the edge of the building’s roof. Another snake-guardian?

   Deacon ignored the supernatural nasties, and dropped one of the gunmen with a bullet to the head. Meanwhile, Beth slipped out of Alex’s jacket and started to shift into bear mode. As for myself, I took aim and fired on one of the men with my 9mm Glock, hitting him clean in the chest, causing him to drop out of sight with a grunt of pain.

   One of the crocodile-headed things stepped back, into the hole of the world, causing it and the two children it held to vanish from sight. The other one dropped its two bundles unceremoniously to the ground, and moved towards our group, deadly claws extended.

   “Deal with the one here…” Alexander called to Beth, who was now in bear form, “I’ll get the other two.” Then he rushed forward, towards the hole, while Bethy-bear gallumped towards the one heading for us, meeting it halfway. Meanwhile, Alexander vaulted over piping and AC units, determined to see those babes out of whatever part of the Nevernever the portal led to unharmed.

   The air shifted at Sidney’s call and the woman with the box snarled in frustration as she tried to leap off the side of the building, but was thrown back onto the roof by the gust of wind buffeting her, which died out as quickly as it had started.

   The two remaining gunmen opened fire, one on Deacon, the other at the huge bear. Both wise decisions, but both with little success. Deacon moved with unnerving calm, almost seeming to know where the man was going to fire, and arranging to be somewhere else, like he was just stepping between the bullets. He then shot his attacker, frowning slightly, as though he was reacting affrontedly to the man’s miserable attempts.

   The Bethany-bear was a disturbingly agile target as well, and reared up to put the smack down on the croco-demon. The crocodile headed beast threw up its arm, only for said arm to be torn up something nasty. This is why people don’t get on Bethy’s bad side.

   I opened fire on the last of the gunmen, but he managed to duck behind an AC box, avoiding the bullets that pinged off of the metal appliance.

   The beast confronting Beth hissed, its claws ripping at her fur, but Beth saw the claws coming at her in time and jinked to the left a little bit harder to avoid the attack.

   Alexander had reached the hole in the air by this point, and steeled himself, before taking a deep breath, and lunged through the portal. Now there’s taking a leap of faith for you.

   Sidney rushed forwards through the chaos to get to the rather irate woman, while I noticed almost too late that the gunman isn’t quite as pinned down as I had thought, and rolled to try and avoid getting perforated. As it was I managed to roll behind some ductwork, but not without a bullet tearing a bloody, but thankfully quite shallow crease in my side. Barely a flesh wound.

   Deacon turned and shot over my head, taking down the last gunman, and reloading smoothly as he searched for more victims.

   Bethy-bear renewed her assault on Crochead with an almighty roar and clawing at Mister Crochead, mauling him into submission, sending him fleeing headlong back through the hole in the world.

   Meanwhile, as Sidney got up close to the woman, she dropped the box, and hissed, revealing hideous fangs, which she then attempted to sink into his throat as she leapt at him. She wasn’t a serpent guardian; she was a vampire, of the Red Court variety, at a guess. Bullets work well enough against vampires, so I took aim and tried to shoot the woman, but she tilted her head back sharply and the bullet must have whizzed straight past the tip of her nose. Sidney took a swing at her, cracking her square in the face as hard as he could, but all it seemed to do was piss her off.

   Deacon looked at the vampire, then at the hole, weighing his options. He must have seen Bethy-bear running for the hole, shifting to human form as she jumped through and decided that Alex and Bethany had the portal covered. Eventually he decided to take a shot at the vamp’s head, and started to line up a shot.

   I wasn’t as much of a marksman as Deacon, so I just took aim and fired again, just as the vampire swung a fist at Sidney, trying to knock him off balance with a backhanded slap of inhuman power. In a blur of movement, she both avoided my shot, and rocked Sidney back on his heels, putting him off-balance at the edge of the roof.

   Deacon took his shot at the vampire, and frowned as she managed to duck. Deacon doesn’t miss all that often.

   Seemingly unconcerned by our gunfire, she hissed and went for Sidney’s throat again. He wobbled back from the teeth, barely managing to keep his precarious balance.

   Seeing that shooting wasn’t getting me anywhere, I started trudging across the cluttered roof to help draw the woman off of Sid. As I negotiated a route across, I noticed the hole in the air seeming to shudder, as it started to close in on itself.
I needn’t have worried about Sidney, however, as he drew back a fist which crackled with lightning, and thunder echoed as he drove it into her jaw. The black clad bloodsucker howled as she went flying off the roof, and into the night.

   And the portal to the Nevernever continued to close and finally shut before my eyes as I skidded to a halt on the rooftop.

TO BE CONTINUED…

I had to do a slight retcon from where things left off last time, as we started the second session off with us still in the alleyway. Also, it cuts off a bit before the actual session ended, because I wussed out and had to go to bed. Transatlantic chat gaming sessions: fun, but exhausting. I’ll try and fill in what was missed in the next write-up. For now, here’s session two of ‘Dresden Files: Streets of Seattle’.

—

   So there we were in the alley behind the Java Junction, bathed in light from Alex’s truck, the body of Billy Liang lying twisted and broken not far away as we recovered from our brief encounter with the serpent guardian.

“We…shouldn’t stand here….” Bethany said, finally. I tended to agree, which was in no small part due to the sound of approaching police sirens getting somewhat closer. 

   Alexander lifted himself up off the ground, picking up his heavy mace and putting it behind the passenger seat in his truck. “You two head on inside, if you want. I’ll deal with the cops.”

   “Thanks.” Bethany said as she ducked back inside, looking more than a little afraid.

   I simply nodded at Alex, and went after Bethany. Inside the Junction, there was a small mob of customers crowding around the bar and the door into the kitchen. Bethany frozes in place and stammered, “Uh…” Beth and myself were soon besieged with questions about what happened out there. I couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps the police might have been an easier interrogation to deal with than the coffee-maddened habitues of Java Junction. Bethany looked desperately for an avenue of escape, while I just grumbled quietly as I dodged questions and the people asking them. My experience with the press had taught me well. I helped Bethany get out of there, and we disappeared into the night, leaving Alex to face the police and their questions. We headed for my office.

***

The office of Reyes Investigations wasn’t anything fancy. It consisted of a small office and small antechamber where my receptionist would hold court during business hours. This late, the building was mostly empty, only a janitor doing his rounds, and the night security guy, a man in his 60s. Bethany and I stood in my office with the outer door locked, and the lights on. Vince’s rather dilapidated envelope lay on the desk before me as I sat pondering it.

   Bethany finally spoke up, and asked the big question, “So what’s that?”

   I fidgeted with the package, “I don’t know. Something my uncle wanted me to keep safe…”

   “So what’s in it?”

   I glanced at Bethany, then at the package, and after a moment’s hesitation, I tore the seal on it, “Let’s find out.”

Bethany watched quietly as I emptied the contents onto my desk. Three things fell out The first was a small set of glossy photographs held together by a rubber band, slightly creased, probably by whatever battered the envelope. The other two items were a finger sized chip of obsidian, and the memory card from a digital camera.

  ”You have a card reader?” Bethany asked me.

   “Yeah,” I nodded, “hang on…” I booted up my desktop and waited for it to warm up, then I inserted the card.There were a lot of files on it, mostly still photographs, but there were at least two lengthy video files, both from two nights past.

   “Let’s see the videos.” Bethany suggested. I nodded and double clicked one of the video files. The first video was pretty risque…it involved a fairly handsome man who looked like a young executive, judging by his clothes, and from the looks of it he kept in good shape. He’s pretty much having a party with three women in lingerie. It appeared to have been filmed through a false mirror or the like.

   The second video involved the same man, lying shirtless on the same bed he was partying on in the earlier video. A variety of symbols had been painted on his chest, forehead, arms, and hands. Three figures, each dressed in rather shapeless, cowled, green robes, bedecked with feathers and skulls, stood over him.

   “Oh…that can’t be good….” Bethany muttered.

   The man didn’t seem concerned, he just lay there calmly. He didn’t even flinch when one of the figures plunged an obsidian knife into his chest, and removed his heart with several deft movements. I winced and flinched away in disgust, while at my side, Bethany gave a startled little half scream. The blood, oddly, simply flowed upwards from the wound, and gathered above the scene…the camera shook badly at this point, then settled back on the macabre ritual, just in time to see one of the figures open a black wooden box, and take out a chip of obsidian, which he then dropped into the bloody hole where the man’s heart had been not long ago. Then everything went fuzzy, and seconds later, there was only black. Once it was all over, I glanced uneasily at the obsidian chip from the envelope which was currently lying on my desk.

   “What the hell was that?” Bethany asked, ashen faced.

   I recongnised the ritual from the same Meso-American lore I recognised the Serpent Guardian from. We had just witnessed the final stages of a voluntary ritual of merging, an orgy, followed by death, at which point some preternatural horror was summoned to inhabit the now vacant body.

   “At a guess,” I swallowed back my lunch as it threatened to climb out through my throat, “the first video was a last hurrah for this guy, before he let himself become host to…I don’t know what…” Then I thought about it some more. Maybe I did know. The serpent guardian was a creature from the Nevernever riding a mortal body, after all, “…but I’m guessing maybe something like our snakey friend from the alley…”

   Bethany shuddered at the thought, can’t say I blame her.

***

   Later that evening, I sat at my desk, examining the photos from the package, while Bethany slept on the couch of my outer office. My cell phone rang, and I fetched it out of my jacket pocket from the coat stand at my door, “Reyes Investigations, how can I help?”

   “Hey Mick.” Alex said, from the other end of the line, evidentally having been released by the cops, “Bethany there with you?”

   “Yeah, she’s here.” I confirmed, glancing out at the young girl on my couch.

   “Good. Meet me at the little diner out in front of the KYOU building, something big’s about to happen.”

   I sighed. That could only mean one thing; Alex had received a message from God. As one of the mortals who knew of the supernatural, I was official part of the White Hats Brigade. I had a responsibility to stand with others like myself and fight back against the forces of evil. You know, that old schtick. “Right…see you there.”

***

The little diner was actually called Joe’s Diner, and it was rather crowded. Normally it would be a bit sparse at such a late hour, but tonight half a dozen men in dark clothes were sitting at two booths - other Disciples of Father O’Shea, the group Alex belonged to - and Alex, Bethany, myself, and two others, Sidney and Deacon, were at a booth in the corner.

   Bethany had an expression rather like a frightened rabbit right now, intimidated by all of the men there, and the distinct lack of any other women, “What’s this all about?”

   “I don’t know.” Alexander replied, oh-so-helpfully. “All I know is we need to get up to the top of that tower.” He pointed across the road from the cafe at the KYOU building, standing fifteen stories high, with the roof dominated by a big neon ‘KYOU’ sign. Like most big radio stations, its actual transmitter was off-site.

   Deacon grinned, muttering to himself. Deacon had been raised to consider the Catholic church as the bride of Satan in the world, and there are a lot of armed crucifix-wearers handy.

   “Sounds like we’re in for quite the night, then…” Sidney commented.

   “Where exactly are we suppose to be going?” Bethany asked.

   “The roof of the KYOU building.” Alexander told her.

   “When?”

   “Now.” And with that, he stood and headed out of the door, his eyes fixed momentarily on the glowing KYOU sign. Bethany sighed and reluctantly rose and followed Alexander.

   Deacon frowned, then smiled a bit cynically, and followed at the same time I did. “Now we know why the crusades were such a rousing success.”

   Sidney joined us, “Maybe this’ll make up for this quiet month.”

   “I like quiet…” Bethany complained, “what’s wrong with quiet?”

   I sighed tiredly, “Um…how are we going to get to the roof? It’s not like it’s a public building…”

That earned me a nudge from Sidney, “Minor details. It’s open to us, I assure you.” Deacon fell quiet as we crossed the street, checking his .45 and watching the shadows. Then Sidney added, “At least, it will be. I’ll see to that.”

   Once we had crossed the street, it became fairly apparent that we weren’t the only people there. A bright smear of blood was on the floor of the lobby. The front doors were locked, however.

   “Oh…that’s blood..that’s not good..that’s not good at all!” Bethany said.

   “Quite so.” Sidney agreed, “Adventure abound, folks!”

Alexander took a silvered shield from the Disciple carrying it, the dim light from the lobby reflecting off of the ornate surface.

   “I think I’m gonna throw up.” Bethany said.

   “Probably best to get it over with.” I sighed, grimacing, “I doubt this is the worst we’ll see tonight.”

   “Hardly holds a candle to snake gods, or whatever that guy was.” Alexander pointed out.

   Sidney nodded to himself as he stepped up to the door, rubbing his hands together, “Right, right…”

   The other disciples exchanged a look, and split into two groups of three, one group moving off down either side of the building. while they did that, Sidney pulled a strip of cloth out of his pocket and wrapped it around his hand. He visibly gathered his will, and then… punched the glass. It shattered into a million tiny shards, leaving a sizeable hole for us to walk through. Sidney stepped aside and bowed lightly, a grin on his face, evidently quite pleased with himself.

   “What if the cops come?” Bethany muttered.

   “Very sorry cops.” Deacon said with a shrug, “At least till they set up a proper perimeter and get heavy backup.” I rolled my eyes.

   Alexander lead the way through the doors, “Why, Beth, we’ll just politely explain that God told me to be here, and you all were insane enough to follow me.”

   “I’m going to kid jail…I just know it…” Bethany whined.

   Sidney waited for the rest of us to follow. “Heh, there’s already blood everywhere. I doubt anybody will be too worried about a broken window.”

   Deacon just chuckled, “Nah, I’m pretty sure we’ll leave enough bodies behind us you’ll be tried as an adult.”

   Bethany shot him a deadly look in response.

   “There’s gotta be an elevator around here.” Alexander thought aloud. We found one soon enough, and as we did, Alexander’s phone buzzed and he answered it, “What’ve you found?

   At about the same time, I got the feeling of…I don’t know. Something really, really wrong from far above us, I looked up towards the ceiling sharply and shuddered. Out the corner of my eye, I noticed Sidney shifting uncomfortably and pulling on his fingerless leather gloves. Had he sensed it too?

“Secure the floor,” Alexander instructed whoever was on the other end of the phone, someone from one of the two teams of Disciples, no doubt, “make sure nobody comes up to put a knife in our backs. We’re heading to the roof.” Alexander hung up a moment later and pushed the button to summon the elevator, “The boys found the get away drivers standing over the bodies of the guards.”

“How lovely.” Sidney murmured.

***

The elevator arrived at the floor just beneath the roof, and the doors opened to reveal a largish storage area. On the other side of the room was a roof access door.

   “I have a bad feeling about this…..” Bethany whispered.

As Deacon disappeared fairly efficiently into the various junk in the room, Alexander pulled the mace from his belt, glancing around the storage area warily. Sidney stretched and kept loose, hands balled into fists, and I drew my handgun. Bethany just stuck close to Alexander.

   There was the sound of several rapid shots back in the junk, and then all heck started to break loose. Six men, in cleaner’s uniforms, rose, with handguns ready to fire. I ducked behind cover, firing a couple of shots at the ‘cleaners’. And then a bear-like roar echoed in the room…

TO BE CONTINUED…

Tune in for session three next week, same blog-time, same blog-channel!

Converted into a first person narrative in the style of the Dresden Files series of books themselves, here is the first play report for the ‘Dresden Files: Streets of Seattle’ game I’m playing in on Magicstar with the Shackled Horizons crew. Enjoy!

—-

   Life, in my experience, is just one surprise after another. Most of them unpleasant. One minute you might be enjoying a nice, quiet coffee to yourself, and the next you’re in a back alley about to get torn to shreds by a hideous writhing monstrosity from the pits of hell, or somewhere very much like it, at least.
    Let me start from the beginning. There I was, seated in my regular booth at the Java Junction, chilling to the sounds of the flamenco guitar being played on stage by Bethany St. Claire, one of the cafe’s regular acts, and quite popular with the locals. I’d just delivered a background check to a client, and had decided to make use of some of my hard-earned cash to get my caffeine fix for the evening, as well as my dinner. Dinner tonight was a Junction Function, one of the best sub sandwiches in Seattle, one of the reasons I loved the place. That, and I liked the atmosphere there, there were a lot of talent musicians who played certain nights of the week. Nights like this one. As you might imagine, I go there a lot, and there are disadvantages to being a creature of habit. You get predictable, people know where to find you. That’s not always a problem, I like company as much almost as I like the quiet. It depends entirely on the company, of course.
   The person who found me this time, was a familiar, though not particularly welcome sight. A short, stout man, with a face like worn rubber and a laurel wreath of once dark, now graying hair, somehow scrunched himself into the chair across from me. His cheap brown suit crinkled, and his loose tie was looking slightly more askew than usual, and he only made it more so as he wrestled with it briefly while sitting down. “Hey there, Mick.”
    “Hey Vince…” I said carefully, glancing around at the other patrons. Nobody had paid any mind to the man taking a seat across from me. Nobody who would know who and what Vince was, nobody who would use it as ammunition to make business difficult for me. Vince Reyes was my uncle, he practically raised me after my mom died, and taught me the trade of a private investigator. I’d looked up to the man once, but then I found out what hid behind that charming smile of his. Vince was as dirty as they come. He’d squeeze clients for every penny he could get, stretching out investigations as long as he could without raising any suspicions. When he wasn’t doing that, he was working for the lowest scum the city had to offer, getting paid handsomely for digging up dirt on this or that cop for blackmail purposes, tracking down this person so that his clients could have a chat with him.
   I’d told him long ago I wanted nothing more to do with him, but I’d never seemed to cleanse myself of the stain that came with being Vince Reyes’ ‘psychic’ nephew. The air quotes aren’t mine, I know I’m for real. Hell, it wasn’t even my idea to advertise the fact, that was all Vince, back when I still worked for him. Now I’d gone solo, but the reputation stuck, even though I had only sold myself as a vanilla flavour private eye since then. Vince was an unwelcome sight, and he knew it. The bastard grinned at me. “Don’t look so happy.” He looked around the cafe, and lowered his voice, “Need to ask a favor, Mick.”
   I winced as I took a swig of my coffee, but it had nothing to do with the scolding liquid sizzling bitterly on my tongue, “What kind of favour?”
    He chuckled, and took out a somewhat crumpled, taped, oversized mailing envelope from under the summerweight, slightly raveled, sportcoat he wore. “Hold this for me, Mickey. Till I call for it.”
   I scowled and glared at him. I hate it when people call me Mickey. Only my mom ever called me that, and I only ever let Vince get away with it because he was mom’s brother. He’d lost that right about the same time he lost my respect. My glare dropped from Vince to the package as he placed it on the table. My expression grew no less distrustful, if anything it became more so. “What is it?”
   “Ask me no questions, I’ll tell you no lies, Mickey. Just keep it out of sight.” Vince looked around again, tugging at his collar again, a nervous habit of his I’d learned to keep an eye out for during poker games as a kid. He was worried about something, and even if I hadn’t spotted the tell, it showed in his eyes. I didn’t like that. Part of me, the rational part, warned that this was likely something it’d be best not to get mixed up in. Another, less rational part said ‘to hell with Vince’, I wanted nothing to do with the man. But, as I saw the look in his eyes, there was another voice, my mother’s voice, “You’d better help him.”
Despite my better judgement, I sighed and decided to listen to the last voice. Whatever else he was, he was still family. Blood, even bad blood, is still thicker than water. I reached over and slid the packet towards me, lifting it and stuffing it into one of the pockets of my coat, “Fine. I’ll hold onto it, but that’s all. You get me?”
   Vince nodded, and waved over a waitress, ordering a cup of coffee. Once she’d poured it and left, he spiked it wit a goodly amount of whiskey from a pocket flask. That was when the street door opened again, and a youngish asian man, wearing a well-tailored suit, came in and took a seat.
   Oh hell, I thought to myself, recognising the man instantly. His name was Billy Liang, a low level runner and sometime strongarm for Boss Yeung. Also, though it was almost hidden by the suit, he was packing a handgun at his belt. As I glanced away, feigning disinterest, I caught sight of Bethany. She’d evidently noticed my discomfort and was looking in my direction with some concern as she switched from the flamenco to a fiddle and started playing some celtic style music while tapping her toes. She was very versatile, and musical instruments and styles were not the only things she could switch between at a whim.
   “Waste of a good coffee, that.” I muttered. Vince knew immediately I wasn’t talking about the whiskey he’d flavoured his java with.
   He sat back, not showing any sign of discomfort, and sipped his coffee. Then, setting down the half empty cup, he said, “Well, take care of yourself then, Mick.” With that, he got up, and walked back towards the rear of the Junction, heading for the kitchen and the back exit. Liang stood as well, and followed.
    I frowned. If Vince had one of Yeung’s goons on his tail then that couldn’t be good, and if Billy was looking to rough him up, he wasn’t in any shape to put up much of a fight. I sighed, and took one more swig of my coffee, squeezing my eyes shut, before muttering, “Damn you, Vince.” Then I got up and strode urgently towards the back exit myself. As I left, I heard a plink from Bethany’s fiddle as one of the strings broke, and the music stopped as I dashed through into the kitchen. As I passed through - pots, ladles and other implements already swinging from the two that had come through ahead of me - the cook shot me a disapproving glare. I smiled apologetically as I squeezed past him. Then
two gunshots cracked from outside, followed by a rather high pitched, agonized scream. I gulped, drawing the gun from my holster and picking up the pace, slamming through the rear exit and out into the back alley.
   The scene that greeted me was quite grim. Vince was nowhere to be seen, but lying on the pavement was Billy Liang, looking rather…well, broken would be the best way to describe it. His limbs were hanging at all the wrong angles as his smoking pistol rested beside him. Standing over him was a slim figure in a black business suit, wearing, despite the fact that it was after 9pm, a pair of sunglasses. He also had two bullet shaped holes in his suit, but he didn’t seem at all bothered about it.
   The man glanced over and looked at me, stepping over Billy’s shattered corpse towards me, seeming to sniff the air, as he approached. I raised my gun and backed up a bit, “That’s far enough, pal!” I heard footsteps, and caught the familiar scent of Bethany’s perfume as she slid to a stop behind me. She had come to back me up, apparently. The man hissed, or at least I thought it was a hiss at first, as it turned out it was more of a chuckle. “You have no power to deny me. His scent is upon you…but you are not Vincent Benjamin Reyes.”
   “No, I’m not.” I agreed heartily, carefully not giving my own name as I backed off further. This was no normal thug. He might not even be human. I could look at him, really look at him with the Sight to see for sure, but I might not like what I saw, and once I’d seen it I’d never be able to forget it. Instead, I got myself ready to slam the door shut on the creep, with Bethany sticking close behind me. If he so much as took another step I’d pull the door closed and hope it was enough to slow him down at least.
   Suddenly, the alley was bathed in light, as a battered pickup truck, with the words ‘St. Mary’s Church’ printed in fading letters on its side, pulled into the alley, its headlights cutting through the dark of the evening. I could hazard a guess as to who the driver was, and I was right, the odds might just have swung in my favour slightly.

The man took another step towards me, unconcerned by the truck’s arrival, but I didn’t slam the door as I’d planned. I couldn’t leave the truck driver out here alone with this guy, whether it was who I was expecting or not. “Where is Vincent?” The man asked, his voice devoid of emotion, “I saw him, here, before this young fool chose to die for my pleasure.”
    “Not a clue, sorry.” I said brightly, as a largish guy stepped down from the truck, a heavy medieval mace held in one hand. His features were hidden in shadow, as he had left the truck’s lights burning, but I recognised the man’s profile all the same.
   The man reached up, slowly removing his sunglasses. In the harsh glare of the headlights, his eyes were like black spots as he looked at me. “Did Vincent have anything unusual? Much depends upon your answer.” As he held the glasses, there was a glint of silver from his finger. I heard Bethany growl softly under her breath behind me.
“Unusual? Oh great, what is it this time? I swear, it’s always something with that guy…”
   The man from the truck noted the body on the ground, and his grip on the mace in his hand tightened, “Oi! What’s all this then? Where’s Jerry?”
   The businessman’s eyes flicked in the direction the voice had come from, and then suddenly he wasn’t a businessman anymore, but a thing with clusters of snakes for arms, and fangs dripping venom. Even suspecting that he wasn’t human, I was surprised all the same, and before I could make a move I was dragged out into the alley by one of the snakes. Lights exploded behind my eyes and a whiff of copper flared in my nostrils, as I slammed against the alley wall, and slid down it onto my ass. When I looked up, there was no sign of the creature, and both Bethany and the truck driver, Alexander Quinn, were slumped against the alley wall by the exit, themselves recovering after Bethany was slammed into Alex. I pressed my back against the wall and slid back up my his feet gingerly, looking around for any sign of snake guy. The alley was empty except for the three of us, it seemed our assailant had fled. I heaved a sigh and let the tension drain from my shoulders.
   “W-w-what was that?” Bethany asked, shakily.
   Alexander shook his head, clearing it. “Dunno. Probably not a demon.”
Alex was right. Now that I had time to process what I’d seen, I remembered reading about such creatures before. “Snake guardian, I think. Meso-American origin, riding an altered mortal body.”
   “I think i need a drink…..” Bethany croaked.
I couldn’t help but nod in agreement, “I hear that…”
Alexander looked at us both, as if only just recognising us. “Hey, You’re that bear lass, right? Bethany? And Mick? What’re you two doing getting mixed up with the likes of snake guy?”
   “Yeh, I’m Bethany,” Bethany answered, “and I just followed Mick.” In the distance, sirens began to sound, growing nearer. “Oh…we’d better get out of here..there is still a smoking asian to get us in trouble.”
   I shrugged at Alex’s question, “I dunno, I’ll ask my idiot uncle when I find him. Assuming it doesn’t get him first.” Then I looked in the direction of the approaching sirens, and sighed, “We’d better go.”
    As the three of us fled the scene, I considered all that had just happened. Vince had gotten himself mixed up in some kind of trouble again, trouble that a Meso-American snake-thing looking for something unusual that it believed Vince had in his possession, most likely the same something he had left in my care before his exit at the Java Junction. In doing so, I figure he might as well have painted a target on my forehead. Luckily, snake boy hadn’t caught on yet, and hopefully neither had any other interested parties.
    Like Boss Yeung’s organisation, for instance. What was their involvement here? Billy Liang had been trailing Vince, but at the time I’d assumed he was looking to do him some harm. Maybe he had been, and just had the rotten luck to get in the way of something bigger and meaner than himself in the process. Or could Billy have been assigned to Vince as a minder, or to keep a tight leash on him while he did some business for the organisation?
    Whatever the case, I only had two leads to go on: the package Vince had left with me, and the involvement of Boss Yeung’s organisation. If I really wanted, I could probably chase down Vince and get the story from him directly, but until I knew more that might not be the smartest move. The serpent guardian could still be watching me, hoping I’d lead him to my uncle. No matter what he’d done, the guy was still family, I couldn’t risk leading the devil straight to his door.
    I could reach out to Yeung’s camp, try and get their take on what was going on. It’d be risky, they’d just lost one of their own and I wouldn’t want to be in their bad books when they found out about it. I also didn’t know Yeung’s angle yet, could be he was gunning for Vince too, maybe for the same reasons as the snake guy, maybe for something else entirely. Private investigators - especially dirty ones like Vince - make lots of enemies, after all. Other than that, I could have a look inside the package, that might give me a better idea of what was going on.
    Only one thing was for sure, whatever Vince was involved in this time, it was bigger than anything he’d gotten mixed up in before. At least, anything I knew about.

TO BE CONTINUED…

The next game is on tonight, so I’ll write up the next session and post it the same time next week. Stay tuned! That is…if you’re interested…

In what will potentially be a monthly routine from now on, I’ve put together a series of four RPG campaign and/or adventure seeds for the month ahead. For this month’s seeds I picked out the word ‘pitch’ to provide inspiration and then worked from there.

I seem to have come up with only one campaign seed and three adventure seeds, and I strayed a little from the ‘pitch’ prompt with the second seed, but I just had to work Wimbledon into the post somehow. Anyway, enough nattering on, here are the seeds.

[Campaign Seed] Power Play (Working Title) - Supers

When a rugby ball is accidentally swtiched with an alien power source - rather unfortunately similar in shape to a rugby ball - the device explodes during play at the Framsworth Rugby Stadium.

In the aftermath, the underachieving local team - the Framsworth Ducks - having absorbed some of the exotic energy from the blast, begin to exhibit improved competence on the pitch, as well as a variety of superpowers.

However, they’re not the only ones affected by this phenomenon. Their rivals from out of town - the Badbridge Reapers, with whom they were forced to tie against after that ill-fated match - also absorbed the energy, as well as some of the spectators gathered at the stadium. Unfortunately, the Badbridge lot and some of the fans on either side start to abuse their powers for personal gain.

As if all that weren’t bad enough, there’s some kind of conspiracy brewing over other power modules between alien forces, a bunch of Neo-Nazis and the governments of the UK, France and the US.

All the team wanted was to improve their game and make it into the big leagues. But with great power comes great responsibility (not that the Reapers know the meaning of the word), so will our protagonists rise to the call and become more than just sporting heroes? Or is the earth just as doomed with them as it would be without them? Place your bets, mine is on doom…

[Adventure Seed] The Neverending Set - Sci-fi: Doctor Who

The TARDIS crew arrive at Wimbledon to watch in person, but things take an unexpected turn when they find themselves caught in a time loop during the final set of a match. Someone or something is stopping the game from ending, and it’s up to our heroes to figure out who, why, how and stop them. Shouldn’t be too difficult, as they seem to have all the time in the world. Or do they?

[Adventure Seed] Fever Pitch - Anime/Sci-fi: Tenchi Muyo

It turns out that an outbreak of violent behaviour among spectators at the Plasmaball Tournament aren’t as straightforward as meer hooliganism. A strain of Galusian Flu is spreading at the stadium, causing increased aggression in sufferers, and the Galaxy Police must struggle to get the epidemic under control.

[Adventure Seed] Territorial Dispute - Fantasy

A struggling merchant asks for the party’s help in getting back his rightful spot in the marketplace, but the rival who stole it seems to have the law on his side, or rather in his pocket.

—

So, those are my campaign/adventure seeds for this month. If you have any suggestions for a prompt for next month’s bunch, whether it be a random word, a song title, whatever, feel free to suggest it to me and I’ll see what I can do with it.

- Ja na!