Game Night Tales from around the gaming table

 

Continuing from Episode 4.

 

Even though they were under a time crunch, the team decided that it was best to take a few hours to recoup and get some much needed sleep.  16 hours later, they met up and continued their search.

 

 

 

 

Heinrick's spell was still up and pointing to where Warden Wilhelm should be.  The team followed it around the city until it was glowing at its brightest.  They followed it further down into the bowels of Bay Station once Mason got the station manager to open it up.  After being warned about the third rail and to watch out for green signals, they made their way down to the lowest level and pulled out the crystal again.

 

It pulled them straight down on to the rails heading West.  After a half hour of walking and a near miss by a train, Mason caught a glimpse of a foot, or something, getting sucked into the moving train and splashing green blood against the wall.

 

When the train passed, they found the blood trail which led into a hole in the ground.  The hole was chest-deep in water rushing to the south.  They decided the best thing to do would be to head back up and get some much needed equipment so that they could continue.

 

They hit a nearby sporting goods store and quickly returned to the hole -- with hip waders and climbing gear -- and lowered themselves down.  The waterway was low and tight and soon they had to shed their waders as they filled with water.  After an hour of dredging their way through the waterways they came to a dead-end and could go no further.

 

Defeated for now, they headed back to the surface to see what resources and gear they could round up to resume their hunt.

 

Mason called in a favour from a friend on the marine tactical unit, who brought gear and expertise to aid them.  With his aid they made it back down to the natural cistern in a quarter of the time.  He also found a way further down and took them into the watery rabbit hole.

 

When they came out the other side, they found themselves in a cave filled with a cloud of mineral spider webs going from floor to ceiling that totally obscured things, except by the waterslide they’d just come down.  During their swim, Aaron had lost his gun and Heinrick's spell was starting to fail due to all the water mist in the air.  They would need to hurry.

 

They moved through the sheets of brittle rock as carefully as they could, and soon found a pathway to follow.  It led them to a warren.  As they moved into it, three 5-foot tall creatures -- with blueblack skin and a face full of teeth -- attacked.  It took a second, but Heinrick recognised them as Hobs.  With a shout and a charge, they faced off against the trio in a fierce and pitched battle.  Mason fired off his gun, not really expecting much more than a pause in the Hobs' rush.  That pause allowed Heinrick to get off his fierce "Destructive Winds" spell which tossed two of them into the far cave wall and opened the way to the third for Maysuyo and his cane sword.

 

In the end, one Hob lay dead and dissolving as the other two fled down a dark water filled tunnel.  They found Nels' greatcoat, rings and sword after a quick search of the area.  Defeated for now -- as Heinrick's spell only seemed to point at Nels' gear -- they returned to the surface to find another way to track him.

 

Heinrick left them soon after, stating that the less they knew the better off they'd be -- magic was best left to Wizards, even an apprentice.  He had no authority to tell mortals about anything supernatural, in fact he could get into a great deal of trouble with the White Council if they found out.

 

The rest decided that research was a good step, so they split up; Mason and Jones went to look through the police archive for anything they could find while Ichiro headed for the records building at city hall.

 

Ichiro had issues getting info but, after smooth talking the Librarian for a bit, he was able to find out that Nels had signed out an Archive-Only Book on the Laurentian River System and its underground waterways -- a decade ago.  On leaving the records building, he noticed movement on the rooftops -- there were shadows following him.

 

Ichiro headed over to the police station to meet up with the 2 cops and see if they found any more information, only to find out that they were swamped with reports and paperwork.  Mason and Ichiro left Jones with the remainder and headed out to check the fetish club to see if they could find anything more there.  When they arrived, they found the place locked up with a sold sign on the door.  Mason phoned in and got a property check done to find out who owned it now.  Ichiro, not wanting to wait, went around back to see if there was a "door left open" they could go through.

 

No sooner had he entered the alleyway than two shadowy forms from the other night attacked him.  After a few moments and fierce fighting, their identities were revealed as things from fantasy:  Ghouls!  The noise from the fighting drew Mason.

 

In the end, the two of them working in together managed to kill the Ghouls.  The last breath of the Ghoul killed by Mason mumbles something about a "May-sue-yoo" never getting away from them.

 

When Mason told Ichiro about it, he noticed a change in his attitude and confronted him on it.  Ichiro, after a few moments of contemplation, tells his story -- but only after getting Mason to promise never to tell anyone.