Game Night Tales from around the gaming table

 

Continuing from Episode 3 and adding 3 new players.

 

The Warden finished his investigation of Heinrick's involvement and cleared him of any wrong doing.

 

3 weeks after the warehouse, Aaron was finally okayed to go back to work and surprised to find out that he'd been promoted into Special Investigation and met his new partner -- Inspector John Mason.

 

Maysuyo landed in Hamilton over two years ago -- as a stowaway on a cargo freighter from Japan.  On trying to leave the ship, he was attacked by a Red Court -- he beat the crap out of it, but it just kept coming.  Just as it was about to eat him, a rain bullets tore it off him.  Constable Mason then walked up and calmly put another entire clip into its head -- smashing it to a pulp "Only way to make sure," he explained.  More gunfire erupted and John swore and ran off to help and Maysuyo took that cue to leave.  Now, in his new persona of "Tamori Ichiro," he worked at the Phoenix Dojo as head instructor -- a mere 4 blocks from 52 Division -- S.I's and Inspector Mason's offices.

 

John Smith was always a wall flower, but there was one thing he was good at, the family business -- Insurance.  Soul Life was built by his parents and a few close partners.  In his teens, his parents died, but there was enough money left to him to keep his home and finish school.  Now, he was an underwriting manager for the firm.  Recently he took up an offer that the HR department made with the Phoenix Dojo to improve his health by learning martial arts.  If that was all that John was, he would barely be worth noting -- just another human running on the wheel of life, but he had a minor talent that singled him out -- he could see the dead... and they could see him!

 

 

 

 

John Smith was going through the Kata with the rest of the class.  He stayed in the back, so that he could concentrate on his form and avoid being noticed -- by the mortals and the ghosts alike.  Ichiro was putting up with an annoying student at the opposite side of the class -- Guy Lebuff, Marketing superstar of Soul Life and all around office jackass.

 

At the same time Aaron and John Mason were being briefed on their latest case, a missing person.  Nels Wilhelm, was a young Historical Occult Scholar from a moneyed, old world family, from Sweden.  For those in the know, he was also Toronto's current Warden of the White Council.

 

It seemed that the last anyone saw of him was yesterday evening, on 5 seconds of footage from a traffic camera before it shorted out.  In it, he was outside of the Phoenix Dojo fighting off 5 black clothed ninja-like assailants.  The 911 calls made at the time were a confused jumble.  What was made out of them was that he was thrown through the Dojo's windows, as large water spouts picked up and tossed the ninjas, but in the end he was knocked out and dragged away.  His only currently-known associate was one Heinrick Von Klinsburg, a chemistry student at the University of Toronto.  That was the meat of the brief, other than that he was mostly a non-entity.

 

Inspector Mason decided that the best place to start would be the Dojo, after that they would look up the student and see if he knew anything.

 

Ichiro was back in front of the class and starting a new set of kata as Mason and Aaron entered the Dojo.  He saw them and could tell that they had guns under their jackets -- 'The family's found me and sent Gaijin Hitmen?' he thought to himself as he moved into the students to gain some cover.  Mason saw someone who looked like they were in charge and headed toward him.  Ichiro continued moving away and toward the back exit, but he needed an edge to get out the door without getting killed.  Just then Guy started messing around again, giving Ichiro the perfect weapon.  He slowed down to make sure they would be in range as he finished closing with Guy -- that when he made his move grabbing Guy by the gi and hurling him over his shoulder and into the hitmen.

 

Mason saw the blur of motion and moved to get out of the way -- so did Aaron who grabbed him and pull them both aside -- to watch Guy crash into the floor.  Mason's gun and badge were in his hands and directed at Ichiro before Guy stopped moving.  Ichiro saw them -- and because of his lifetime of training, recovered in the blink of an eye -- as he turned to follow his student, "Guy, you must always be aware of your surroundings."  Looking at Mason, "Good afternoon officer, how can I help you?"

 

After a brief exchange, Ichiro invited them back to the office to talk privately.  Mason asked him a slew of questions, but as he wasn't here during the attack and the witnessing students weren't either, he got next to nothing, except that the owner had left the Dojo in his care for the next two weeks.  When asked for the students’ contact info, Ichiro declined until he could contact the company and request their approval.

Mason and Aaron headed over to Heinrick's apartment to question him next.  When they got there, they found out that he was at the University.  Once there, they found that he was in a Chemistry class, and Mason recognised the professor's name.  This was not going to be a fun meeting -- he had created an explosive in a lab which had gone off by mistake, burning the professor's eyebrows and a large patch of hair off -- "Patches" had hated him for that.  Sure enough, when Patches answered the door, a "Mr. Mason" greeted him, followed by a look of shock when they presented their badges. "You became a Police Officer?!" was plain on his face.

 

They asked to see Heinrick, and after a loud cajoling from his classmates he exited into the hall, and looked questioningly at Aaron.  Mason went through his list, but Heinrick couldn't answer most of the questions, without filling him in on the Accords and Fae.  Mason could tell he was hiding something -- so he put him on his list of suspects.

The next day, Heinrick got a call from the White Council.  Apparently, he was to find out what happened to the Warden.  With that news he headed out to the Warden's home to see if he could find a lead.  Nels had given him a token to bypass the wards when Heinrick had begun to train with him.  He took the bus out and entered through the kitchen as he always had.  The house was a mess -- at least to Nels' standards -- there was a partial cup of tea on the counter and a cold pot on the stove.  The front doors were blown off the hinges.  To keep the place safe, he picked them up and, with spell magic, welded them back up and permanently shut -- Nels could fix it properly when he got back.  He searched the rest of the house, including the spell room and hidden study.  He didn't find much, but what he did find could probably run a tracking spell.

 

As he left the house and came out of the gate, he was stopped at gun point -- it seemed that the Bridle Path's residents were a nosy bunch that called the cops when they saw a stranger -- and the cops, all 8 of them, had responded in force.  He was thrown to the ground and cuffed.  When they ran his ID it sent up a flag that sent a call to Mason.  The cops were told to secure the place and wait for Mason and the CSI team.

 

Mason and Aaron showed up, pulled Heinrick out of the squad car and took a tour of the house -- again Mason felt that he was holding something back and since he was found leaving a crime scene, he had reason to hold him.

 

Mason got one of the other officers to drive him to 52 Division.  He also got Aaron to canvas the neighbours just in case they saw anything else in the last few days.

 

John Smith was working away at head office when he got a call from one of his contacts; it seemed that a long standing customer had been burglarised.  When he looked up the name on the account he recognised the name -- Nels Wilhelm -- from yesterday at the Dojo.  Since the account was a large one, he decided to check it out himself.  He took a cab out.  The police were still there, but after talking with the sergeant he was allowed to look around the outside only -- the CSI team was still working on the inside.  As he did however, he saw an inordinate amount of ghosts.  These ghosts were different, they all had the look of ones that didn't know they were dead and they all looked horrendous -- with ripped open throats and disembowelled guts.  As he saw them, they saw him, and they followed him, begging him to help them.  He started to run and they followed, he almost ran in front of a bus, but luckily for him the driver thought he was running for the bus -- he got on, and so did the ghosts.  For hours he rode the buses and they followed -- which was odd, as ghosts normally didn't travel this far from their foci.

 

He finally escaped them by going into a church -- The Cathedral Church of St James -- but they stayed outside and waited for him.  He finally gave in and went outside to talk with them.

Mason returned to 52 Division and interrogated Heinrick a bit more, but couldn't get him to crack and decided to let him go -- maybe he would lead him to some more clues -- so he gave instructions to wait a half hour then release him.

 

Mason headed back to the Dojo -- he had remembered where he'd seen Ichiro from and wanted to question him more about ninjas and also what happened 2 years ago on the docks.

 

As Heinrick left the station and was walking down the street, he caught a glimpse of a van speeding toward him and on instinct he dropped to the ground and threw up a defensive shield just as automatic gunfire splashed across it.

 

Mason had just arrived at the Dojo when he heard gunshots outside -- both he and Ichiro, moved into the street and could see the aftermath of the attack just 6 blocks away.  Mason jumped into his car and rushed to the scene.  Ichiro ran the distance in a flash and arrived in time to help with the injured.

 

Heinrick was at the scene and it pissed off Mason enough to arrest him "for his protection" and tossed him into the car as emergency services showed up.  Afterward, he drove him back to the tank at 52 -- three times he had been involved and that was one too many for Mason.

Ichiro showed up at 52 Division an hour later with the promised list of contacts.  Mason came up to the front desk and escorted him to his office, so that he could go through the contacts and to question him.

 

Since Heinrick was stuck in the tank with only a few others, he decided to take the time to work the Tracking spell on Nels.  He moved to the back wall and began.  It took a few minutes, but in the end his crystal started to glow and slowly spin -- after a moment it pointed West.

 

The demon outside had been waiting for the little mageling to cast something, so that it could pinpoint which of the flickering souls was his.  Now it knew and it could finally feed on him.

 

Heinrick heard someone coming down the hall and quickly pocketed his work -- it would last 2 days before he'd need to recast the tracking spell.  The wall behind him cracked and the room shook as if an earthquake had happened and he dove for the archway in hopes that it would hold up better.  The next impact dropped the wall into the room and everyone could see outside where a large demonic creature clung.

 

With a flaming growl of "Now you die Mageling!" the thing started to wriggle through the hole.

 

Below Mason and Ichiro heard the impact and without a thought Mason dove past Ichiro and went for the stairs to find out what the hell was happening.

 

The screaming started then, when the demon smashed a prisoner flat -- everyone, including Heinrick started, some calling for help, some praying, and some just uttering a primal bellow.  The demon revelled in it, seeming to feed off their fear.  Heinrick used the commotion to use Air to pop the lock on the door and get out of there.  The demon roared its anger and started smashing its way through the others to get at him.

 

Heinrick was halfway down the hall when he was stopped by the arriving police  -- just as the demon squeezed into the hall with another cry of "Wizard! You are MINE!", it was also shrinking in size.  The cops stood there with their mouths hanging open -- their brains just couldn't cope with what their eyes were showing them.  Mason arrived moments later, and saw the nearest cop get skewered by one of its massive hands and torn asunder. The demon laughed and started to lap at the blood covering its hand.  Mason didn't waste a second more, with a shout of "Fire!" he started shooting it, every other cop there followed suit, but the bullets just danced off of its armoured hide.  Ichiro, who had moved into Mason's shadow, saw the Oni and knew it would take iron or steel to kill it -- that's when he saw the fire axe.

 

He smashed the glass -- setting off the alarm systems -- took up the axe and started towards it.  The SWAT team had also arrived and two of them managed to do more than gape -- they didn't even blink at seeing Ichiro with the axe. The three approached it as the demon continued its ponderous squeeze down the hall. The first SWAT member went screaming at it -- only to wind up as a bloody splat mark on the ceiling.  The second yelled in hatred and cried "Grenade!" as he tossed it right into the things gaping maw, but the damn thing just swallowed it with a burp!

 

Ichiro sprinted in and smashed the axe's spike into its hand.  It roared in pain -- took its eyes off Heinrick for the first time -- and looked down at Ichiro, sniffed, and growled, "I have your scent now human, never will you escape me.  I will hunt your spawn until your entire line is gone and then I will eat you!"  Ichiro simply looked up at it, reversed his axe and slammed it into its throat.

 

Heinrick, seeing that no one was looking at him, called up another concentrated ball of fire and used it to destroy the closest sprinkler head to the demon -- running water grounded out magic -- betting all of their lives on the chance that it would also wash away the demon's powers too.  Ichiro continued to hack away at it and was making good headway.  Before the water got to Heinrick he pulled off one last push of magic to banish the demon back to the Nevernever -- but it came with a cost.  A tear opened up in the middle of the demon and sucked in everything around it -- even ripped away parts of the building.  When the tear snapped shut, there was a 30 foot tall by 3 foot wide disc sized hole going through the floors above and below.

They made it out of the building along with everyone else -- after all was said and done, the casualty list was 5 cons from the Tank and 2 policemen.  Heinrick hoped that the Council wouldn't blame him for any of the deaths -- luckily he had living witnesses that could confirm that the demon had killed them and not anything he might have done.  They passed through the gauntlet of paramedics and were given the green light, but told to wait around for a debrief.

 

They were leaning against a cruiser when Ichiro and Aaron -- who had also been inside -- saw something moving on the rooftops above them just as an old medieval dagger, with the fancy red tassel, whistled down and punched through the hood of their cruiser, causing them to stare at first it and then to the dark skies above.

 

They could see two forms moving across the rooftops towards University Ave. and gave chase.  They managed to get ahead of them and ran into a hotel and got to its rooftop in time to see the 2 black clad figures leap to the next rooftop.  Ichiro ran after them and made the jump, but had to turn around and give aid to the slower Mason.  When they turned around, their suspects were already two rooftops away.  Aaron phased and dropped to the street through the building while the others -- after a stunned moment of seeing him just disappear -- ran back into the building and took the elevators down.

 

Once on street level, they heard people yelling.  When they got there they found a cabbie running around his destroyed cab trying to hit a man with a tire iron.  Ichiro recognised him as John Smith.  Mason and Aaron intervened with a show of their badges.

 

Their 2 attackers were now long gone, but Ichiro still had the dagger they'd thrown.