The Nexus of Shadow (Inactive)

Game Master DireMerc

You go over to Maria's house and knock over and over but there is no answer. Looks like she isn't home.

"No 38. I only had cash for 7.62. Sure, we don't have to fight werewolves with silver cutlery." He replies to Joey thinking other missions.

Alisha pulls out two runestones out of a pouch on her belt, "These would be two of the fanes. They were feeding magical power to the vampire but now they have been disabled. They still have some uses however and I hope to make use of them to strengthen my defenses against the supernatural. Unfortunately it takes an 8 hour ritual to tap into such power and time is of an essence so that will have to be accomplished at a later time."

"No 38. I only had cash for 7.62. Sure, we don't have to fight werewolves with silver cutlery." He replies to Joey thinking other missions.

Joey glances over at Jim as they drive. "7.62? You packing an AK, Jim?"

Alisha pulls out two runestones out of a pouch on her belt, "These would be two of the fanes. They were feeding magical power to the vampire but now they have been disabled. They still have some uses however and I hope to make use of them to strengthen my defenses against the supernatural. Unfortunately it takes an 8 hour ritual to tap into such power and time is of an essence so that will have to be accomplished at a later time."

Joey frowns. "Why is time of such an essence right now? Harvey made it sound like the sky was falling, but it doesn't seem so bad. The werewolves are getting taken care of and the vampire's sitting in his castle. What's going to happen if we take too long? I mean, Dracula over there obviously knows we're coming. It makes me twitch to go running straight at him."

"Nothing Russian. An HK, a G3A4." Jim replies patting the duffel.

"Sorry folks, I'm slow. Besides the vampire, who're we fighting? Are we're shooting werewolves?"

"Nothing Russian. An HK, a G3A4." Jim replies patting the duffel.

Joey chuckles. "Nice. I've got a shotgun in back, but no heavy firepower. I carried a SAW in the Corps. They started switching them out for the M27 a couple of months before I got out. You know it? It's an HK. Nice gun. Nothing on the SAW, but not everybody could hump one of those bastards all day." He glances over at Jim again. "You serve, Jim?"

Roy frowns and shakes his head. "First, let's save the gun talk and backstory for the hotel, gents. Second, time's important because of what's going on. We've got townies who have very little time until they're lycans forever, at which point they're gonna run a suicide assault on the castle. We've got a missing woman that Dom and I would very much like back. And we've got Dep Seven crawling over everything for miles--the sooner we get rid of them, the better."

He takes a look at the house. "I'd have thought she'd be back by now. We try and find her at the fane, or look here first?"

Jim listens intently to Roy. When he finishes, Jim concludes that they have no current plan nor a reason to be quiet, so he replies to Joey, "Yeah, 12 years. Rangers. You?"

Sorry for any confusion. The gun talk is occurring in the truck during the ride to the house. No one else is present. I can spoiler the text so you don't have to read it.

Joey glances over at Alisha. "I thought you said the curse was being taken off the people? So there are still werewolves out there?" He looks back at Roy. "Except for the werewolf curse thing becoming permanent, none of the other two sound like a time constraint. I get wanting to get your friend back, but running in there and dying is going to be at least as bad as going in late."

He gestures at Alisha. "I'm just saying, if she's got these magic rocks and can use them to help us out, why can't we give her 16 hours to do her thing?"

Roy shakes his head. "The woman's been bit by the vamp, and she's gonna become his 'bride.' I figure you've seen enough sh*tty Hollywood movies to get an idea of what that means. Besides, magic's almost as bad as bloodsuckers."

"Reena's a friend. We don't abandon them if there's still a chance to save them," Dom admonished lightly.

Then Dom sighed. "I don't like Maria not being here. I think we should check out the swamp fane. Anyone have any objections? "

-Posted with Wayfinder

Maybe she is just taking more time to clear out the swamp thingy. I mean we had us and that hottie from Dept. 7 to take down the mountain fane. Of course, she might be in over her head and need our help. Maybe we should go looking for her. Anyone watch some Bear Grills videos on how to survive in a swamp?

Alisha nods to Domingo and says, "Indeed it is a pressing matter to get the Swamp Fane. If we are going to defeat a master vampire, the more we can weaken his power the better off we will be. As for Maria we had best keep an eye out for her considering she also might be in danger due to this situation."

BTW as we went back to my car and drove back to town assume that I have all my gear back. In addition if we stop off at the hotel she's also going to clean herself up, take a shower and wear some new clothes as she is still water logged from the river.

Joey nods. "I can't imagine that biting somebody on the neck and turning them into a vampire is going to take longer than driving from the hotel to here, but okay." He shrugs in response to Xannder's question. "I've just got the basic survival course. I don't know anything specific about swamps."

He gestures at the house, looking at Alisha. "Who's supposed to be here? Is she another, uh, wizard, like you?"

With all the talk of werewolves and vampires, Jim takes out his rifle from his duffel bag. He pockets the spare double magazines and stows the empty duffel in the cabin of Joey's truck. He puts the shoulder sling over his shoulder and readies the rifle.

Roy shrugs and taps the grip of his revolver. "Yeah, let's get moving. Everyone's got a gun or two, right?"

That sounds about right Mr. Bond. I think the only enemies we have are the Vampires at this point. Now that you mention it, most people have been super friendly given the state of things. We did run into some zombies being fought off by King Arthur, but he turned out to be friendly as well. Wonder if he found the holy grail yet...

"The sad thing is Xannder's only half kidding about that last part. This has been a very weird case."

Looks like we're all in agreement. Swamp fane it is.

-Posted with Wayfinder

"So Xannder, you're the funny one then." Jim replies flatly.

Roy flicks his eyes to Xannder, then Jim. "He's the new guy. Saved Dom, though, so he isn't all bad."

I think we had another who said he was joining I was kinda waiting for him to jump in, sent him a message to see if he's read if I don't get a response soon I will move on without him.

"That'll teach me to leave my unicorn at home." Joey chuckles and shakes his head. "Are we going from here or are we driving again? Where's there a swamp around here?"

Alisha says to Joey Konani, "Yes, Maria is another practitioner of the Arcane art. But she is far more experienced than myself. I have spent years studying magical theory and arcane lore but only recently did I get my hands on some real spells. The few I have at hand are more of a defensive or enhancing nature with some ability to detect. I would not call myself an equal to Maria however who has wielded the true art for who knows how long."

There are no roads that leaves the city to go towards the swamp if your going your going off-road.

A man in a black trench coat and mirrored shades walks out of the building, confident swagger in his steps green bottle of soda in one hand "took you all long enough, Ashlyn told me I'd find you here, didn't say when"

We're standing outside Maria's house. Was Carson inside?

The big Hawaiian man- standing next to an equally big but older man toting a military grade rifle- in a battered Mariners hat arches an eyebrow. "Who's Ashlyn?" He glances at the others, then back at the man. "And who are you?"

yes, yes he was, The man in black chuckles "I am Special Agent John Carson, Ashlyn is my boss, happy?" He asks with a grin.

Joey shrugs. "I used to have to call my boss 'lieutenant,' but if yours likes being called Ashlyn then whatever, I guess." The huge man grins back at Carson. "So do we call you John, then? I'm Joey." He puts out a hand roughly the size of a dinner plate for the agent to shake.

"She prefers it to being called "boss lady"" he says chuckling "and I don't think she can here me out here, but one can never be sure," he pauses at one can assume to be a joke before continuing "sure, John, agent carter, captain stud, I'm not picky"
he thinks he's funny

"Is Ashyln a "hottie" from D7? That would put a name to a description for me." Jim asked with an irreverent smirk on his face. He's the older man toting a military grade rifle next Joey.

Dom passes a look to Roy that clearly says, keep an eye on him. He then backs off and pulls out his walkie-talkie.

"Ashlyn, you sticking us with a babysitter? I got a guy here claiming he's one of yours."

-Posted with Wayfinder

"I do believe there are things to appreciate about the forms of all ladies, but that is in fact her place of employ"

Roy scowls under his bandana at the new arrival, but doesn't say anything. He catches Dom's look and gives a slight nod, however.

"Right. Deppie, if you're with us you do what we say--we being Dom and me first, then Joey and Jim here, then Alisha and Xannder. Us folks don't like the department, you don't like us, we both know it, so let's not deal with it. We're going to go check the last fane--I assume your boss has kept you up to date on that situation--but before that I wanna hit a convenience store. Grab some extra batteries, and a pair of sunglasses. Mirrored if they have them, the rest of you might want 'em too."

The Hunter taps his revolver again and swings his pack around, opens the main compartment, and pulls out a few walkie-talkies. "And here, I've got four of these. Now the signals seem to be up again, we should try and keep in contact at all times."

He snorts "I assume by deppie you mean me, unless there's someone else you're talking to as you look at me, in any case, Sunglasses I got, walkie talkie too, and I wouldn't say I don't like you, I've just met you guys, you sir, however are not making the best first impression"

Joey chuckles at Carson's response to Roy. "Hey, I like everybody. I guess I'm just a people person."

He nods at Roy. "I've got a couple of walkies, thanks. Just tell me what channel you're on and we should be good." Joey hooks a thumb over his shoulder back in the direction of his truck. "I've got sunglasses, too, unless there's a reason we need mirrored ones."

"So we're rollin' to the 7-11?"

"Well for one, mirrored shades are just plain cooler, 20% cooler at least"

"I sent you one of my men to serve as a liaison of sorts. He should be a good help to you he is a department trained magic adept and he has other talents too. I'm sure Alisha will like him. Anyway remember we need to get those people back from the werewolves before the full moon tonight, I've mobilized everyone I have just in case this deal of yours doesn't work out. Tonight we deal with the werewolves and tomorrow at dawn when my backup gets here we take out the vampires."

Roy smirks at Jon's comment on mirroring, although he doesn't let it show above his bandana. "We've been facing hags, and we'll be going against a vamp. It's not perfect, but even a little protection--mirrored lenses, polarized if they have them--might help a little."

He frowns at Ashlyn's update over the radio and nods to his bike. "Let's get moving."

if my walkie talkie is on the same frequency as the one Ashlyn just spoke on he makes a big show of pressing the button on this walkie talkie and speaking into it while the entire group could eh ear "are you satisfied now or do I have to do some magic tricks or something"
if it's on a different channel he just waves jauntily before speaking

Joey shakes his head. "I don't think I get what you're saying about the mirrored sunglasses, uh, Roy. You mean hags like a, uh, a whats-it, a medusa? I don't think mirrored shades would help. The mirror in that story, he had to look into it, right? At her reflection in it. It was so he wouldn't be looking directly at her. If you're wearing shades and looking straight at a medusa the shades aren't gonna do anything. We'd be better off buying hand mirrors or using our phones cameras to peek around corners."

The big guy shakes his head and looks at Carson and Alisha. "I mean, you guys would know. Are mirrored sunglasses going to do anything to help keep Dracula from hypnotizing us? I feel like we'd be better off stopping by the closest Catholic church and getting a bunch of water out of the font."

Once everyone starts moving to their vehicles, Joey follows suit.

I supposes it would be on the same channel.

"I sent you one of my men to serve as a liaison of sorts. He should be a good help to you he is a department trained magic adept and he has other talents too. I'm sure Alisha will like him..."

Dom sighed.

"Translation: You told your bosses about us, and when they finished having a conniption they ordered you to keep an eye on us. I'm not feeling the love, Ashlyn. I thought we had something special."

"Are you satisfied now or do I have to do some magic tricks or something."

He sighed. "Dom out."

He turned to Roy, and shrugged. But under his breath he muttered, "Roy's never going to let me hear the end of this. He's going to hold this against me til the grave."

To the rest of the group he said, "Okay. Let's get moving."

Roy frowns again. "It's not great, but it's something. And a mirror is a mirror."

"Hey they have mirrors at the gas station convenience stores, we'll get some of them too while we're at it, and a slushy too, because I just can't pass those up"

"Hey D7, besides slushies, do you know where to find Maria or the swamp fane? Those are the two targets, right? Does anyone know where to start looking? If we only had a topo map of the swamp, we could identify the high probability locations and grid off a search. Anyone got one?" The gruff ranger asks the group trying to chart a plan of action.

"Well I wanted a personal helicopter but I was told that was "too conspicuous"" he scofs "but then we can always try google maps" he says pulling out a laptop.
if google maps isn't a thing we can use he instead mentions that the convenience store probably has maps,

Joey grunts. "It's gonna be hard to find anything that's not conspicuous as a m****r-f****r on satellite imagery. I've got a road map, but that's not gonna help." He looks at Alisha. "Do you have some magic way of finding the fane?"

I'm going to point out that the fane is obviously not on any map. You know it's general location tough. In the center of the swamp.

"Considering how dark magic usually works, finding it won't be too hard. The hard part will probably be not dying."

I'm guessing we'll use survival checks. I have a compass which adds a +2. Whoever has the highest modifier can certainly borrow it.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Alright so you go as far as you can using the vehicles and arrive at the edge of the swamp. In most places you can find some dry land to walk on but at several point it's impossible to proceed without stepping in water. Most of it is shallow but at some places it's waist deep.

The area is overgrown with trees that make it quite dark here even on broad daylight. A few beams of light come down here and there but the area is quite dark.

As you travel you begin to notice a flickering light that goes in and out while floating around the group.