It’s been a week since the group broke into the morgue and discovered the mysterious symbol, “The Pentacle of Solomon”, Saorshe found out what it means and what it did to Cherice. She did let the others know what her research uncovered, and even returned to The Mutiny to attempt to glean more information about the person or thing attacking these women. Unfortunately she could learn nothing more than what she did from Cherice.
It would seem that the group is growing apart lately. Cherice has not been heard from since that night. Justin is still not answering his phone and no one knows why. He has not attempted to call anyone and they are starting to seriously worry about him. Liam has not heard from Intel about his werewolf connection since he’s been completely preoccupied with his DJing gigs. Saorshe has concentrated on work and preparing a few new spells to help her out in the future.
Kayte, on the other hand, has been busy with filling out police reports, being interviewed by the media and routine hospital visits to see her injured teammates. Earlier in the week she heard that the re-opening of the roller derby will be pushed back a whole month to allow the authorities to perform a thorough investigation of the incident that occurred there.
Currently Kayte is at the hospital visiting her teammate Anna Heim Steamroller, whose back was severely injured during the pile up at the UIC Pavilion. She’s on powerful painkillers so she’s barely conscious, but that doesn’t stop Kayte from being the loyal friend that she is. After staying to watch over Anna for a few hours she is told by a nurse that visiting hours are over, so she leaves.
As she reaches the front steps of the hospital she is hit by a massive migraine headache, a symptom of her telepathic abilities. As she clutches her head in pain she can distinctly hear a menacing voice saying, “All will be lambs to the slaughter. All will perish.”
She is in such pain that she nearly collapses on the steps, and a paramedic named Jack Kaneshiro (player Noy) that was getting into his ambulance with his partner Larissa in the front parking lot sees her and rushes over to help. He picks her up, puts her into a wheelchair that his partner had fetched for him and takes her back inside.
Upon entering the hospital he notices that the halls are empty. There’s not a doctor, nurse or patient to be found. He calls out for help, but none comes. It’s very unsettling.
Kayte is hit by another wave of pain and doubles over screaming. Larissa rushes in with the medical kit from the ambulance and starts to check on Kayte’s vitals. It’s just then that the Jack hears strange noises coming from the room directly behind him. As his partner checks Kayte out he opens the door and looks inside.
He sees an old, pale woman on a hospital bed, and a young, slender woman by her side.
“What’s going on here? Where are the doctors?” he asks. He gets no response. As he heads into the room he notices that all the vital monitors are off, the patient is barely breathing and the young woman is looking at him as if he just interrupted something important.
“What’s going on here?” he asks. As he steps closer the woman she, in a flash, moves from the patient’s side to behind him with a curved knife at his back. Jack instinctively lashes out at the woman, but he over swings and falls to the ground. She stabs at him, but he rolls out of the way and gets back to his feet. A few well-placed, powerful jabs knock the woman back, and as she rushes in to attack he lands a punch that collapses her face. She falls dead to the ground.
“The pain! It’s gone!” Kayte says as she enters the room with Larissa. They see the corpse bleeding on the floor… and then the blood starts moving. It slowly creeps across the floor, up the legs of the hospital bed, across the bed sheets and into a wound on the lady’s arm…a wound big enough to have been caused by the knife Jack was attacked with. The corpse of the young woman dissolves into nothing once all the blood has left her body.
Completely freaked out, the two paramedics step back as the color returns to the old woman’s face and her breathing starts to return to normal. Just as they exit the room they notice that the doctors and nurses have returned to their duties, and a nurse rushes down the hall and into the room they just left.
“I need a drink. You coming?” he says to Kayte and Larissa.
Saorshe is at work at the library, placing DVDs back onto shelves when Sissy comes up behind her.
“Marcy just called me at the front desk. She wants me to tell her if I think you’re ready to come off probationary status or not. I’m headed up there now to give her my full report.” Sissy says with a slight smirk on her face.
As she heads off to Marcy’s office, another of Saorshe’s co-workers, David, walks past with a cart of his own that’s covered with books from the history section. “Don’t listen to her. She’s just mad because some girl from Kansas dropped a house on her sister.”
“Heh. Yeah.” Is all she can muster in reply.
“So, umm, if you don’t mind my asking… what did happen in the Occult section a couple of weeks back? We usually work opposite shifts so I never had a chance to ask until now.”
“Oh, it’s a long story.”
“I have some time. Meet me in the break room later and I’d love to hear all about it.” he says.
“Okay.” She answers, blushing a little.
Sissy walks past looking slightly pleased with herself. “Marcy wants to see you.”
Saorshe opens the door to Marcy’s office to see her boss sitting at her desk looking very professional; perfectly erect posture, hands folded on top of the desk, look of annoyance, etc. “So I just received a nice little progress report from Sissy in regards to your probationary status. Naturally she told me that you’re difficult to work with, rude and very unfocused.”
“Naturally.” Saorshe mumbles to herself.
“That’s what she says. I’ve been watching you after our last discussion and still find you to be the most diligent and consistent person on our staff. You know I respect you, but I couldn’t let you slide by so easily after that Occult section incident. It was for your own good. And even after I demoted you, you still continued to work your hardest regardless of what degrading task Sissy assigned to you. Therefore I’m lifting your probationary status and promoting you to the Operations Manager position, effective immediately. Which essentially means that you’re taking over my job.” Marcy says with a smile.
“What?” Saorshe asks completely taken by surprise.
“It’s about time I retired. I’m almost 70 and I’m not getting any younger. Congratulations.”
Liam is working on the custom refrigeration unit he’s been commissioned to build, and it isn’t going so well. He’s distracted and for good reason; Intel hasn’t called with any information in regards to Jasper’s werewolf connection and it’s only 10 days until the next full moon. In his eyes time is running out.
His boss, Big Mike, is out for the afternoon in an attempt to scrounge up some business across town and all his co-workers are out to lunch, so Liam is in charge for the moment. The front door buzzer goes off. He has a walk-in customer. He makes his way over to the office and sees a gruff man standing in the waiting area. He looks unkempt, grizzled and none-too-nice.
“Do I talk to you about a custom job?” he asks.
“Uhh, yes. You can talk to me.” Liam responds.
“I am looking to get three individual pieces made. I have schematics. I would like them done within the week. Cost isn’t an issue.”
“May I see the schematics, please?”
The man hands them over. They are ratty and beat up, but Liam can plainly see that what the man wants him to construct isn’t too complicated. He could easily hand it off to another machinist in the shop and have it ready in time. Liam hands the man the forms he will need to fill out.
“I’d like this done off the books if possible.” The man says. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a wad of hundred dollar bills, tossing three of them onto the counter. “Like I said, cost isn’t an issue.”
Liam is conflicted. Sure he could use the money, but he doesn’t like the idea of stealing materials from Big Mike and using them for profit. But on the other hand, he gets to keep all the cash with no middleman and no taxes taking their cut. After mulling it over for a few moments he takes the three hundred dollars off the counter.
“It will cost $3000. Half now.” Liam says.
The man counts out the money and places it on the table. “Within the week, then?”
They shake on it.
Kayte, Jack and Larissa enter SubTerranean. They head straight for the bar and begin chatting amongst themselves about what just happened at the hospital. Drinks are flowing freely and Jack orders a few too many Jack & Cokes, as does Kayte. Within the first thirty minutes they are almost fall down drunk. Larissa, being the sensible one, stuck with water.
After the first hour Larissa looks at her watch and says, “Sorry folks. I’m outta here. I have a thing.”
Just then Intel walks in and sees Kayte at the bar. “Hey kiddo. How you doing?”
Smashed beyond belief she replies, “ACES!” and drunkenly introduces Jack and Larissa without drooling all over herself.
“Had a few too many, I see.” Intel says.
“Well, if you saw blood with a mind of it’s own you’d be drunk too.” Jack slobbers.
Intel looks around wondering if anyone heard that. “Let’s take this downstairs.”
“Sorry, I gotta go.” Larissa says as she heads out the door.
Intel, shrugging, leads them into the Green Room. “So what happened?”
Kayte manages to tell the whole story in a semi-coherent manner, and surprisingly remembers a lot of the details.
“Sounds like a Shlosher Demon.” Intel says. “They look human, but are anything but. They can also cloak themselves from their surroundings so no one can watch them feed, which involves draining the life force from a person along with all their blood. When you killed her, everything she took from the victim returned to its rightful place.” He looks at Kayte. “Because you were able to hone in on her thoughts you must have gained an immunity from the cloaking spell and passed it along to anyone who touched you.”
“I knew I was special!” Kayte exclaims a little too loudly.
Saorshe is at home relaxing with a bottle of cheap wine, celebrating her promotion alone. Her cell phone rings and she looks at the name of the caller… its Cherice.
“You watching the news?” Cherice asks bluntly.
“No. Why?”
“Another body was found, same as before. Same as me. Get the others. I’m done with this waiting game shit.” She says before disconnecting.
Saorshe, shaken up, calls the others. There’s still no answer from Justin. And since Kayte is already at SubT all she has to do is wait for the rest to show up.
Liam and Saorshe walk into the Green Room a few minutes apart and are hastily introduced to a blitzed Jack by an equally shitfaced Kayte. Intel manages to let the two new arrivals in on the little supernatural episode at the hospital since the two drunks are in the middle of a random laughing fit.
Cherice enters looking frazzled and off her game. She has forgone the business attire she normally be wearing in favor of a simple t-shirt and jeans, although her poster case is still slung over her shoulder as usual. She also looks a lot paler than before, almost completely devoid of color.
Cherice cuts to the chase. “I take it you’ve seen the news, or heard about it from Saorshe; another victim, same M.O. They had a picture of her on the television. Guess who she looked like?”
“I wish I knew who was doing this, Cherice, but all of my contacts are at a loss. I’m sorry.”
“Keep your apologies. All I want to know is where I can find this thing, and before I cut it’s fucking head off it’s going to answer a few questions.”
“I do have some info on the Pentacle of Solomon.” Intel interjects. “Well, a pentacle is basically any magical talisman inscribed with a symbol or character, like a necklace or a ring. The Pentacle of Solomon doesn’t sound very familiar, but then again there are so many.” He reaches into his sachel and pulls out his iPad. He taps a few commands on the screen and brings up some information. “All I have is some info on Pentcles, which is that a Pentacle is one of four elemental ‘weapons’ or tools of an Adept. These weapons are ‘symbolical representations of the forces employed for the manifestation of the inner self, the elements required for the incarnation of the divine’. So it sounds like your attacker is using this Pentacle of Solomon to attempt to bring forth some sort of Godlike entity through his victims. But that’s just me. Don’t quote me on it.”
“And because the brand on Cherice wasn’t complete the spell didn’t work. Her soul returned instead of this… entity.” Saorshe says.
“So why are the others dying?” Liam asks.
“I don’t know.” Intel says. “But I know someone that might. He’s… a demon, who can possibly lead you in the right direction. Only thing is that in order to talk to him you’ll have to pass a series of tests.”
“What kind of tests?” Kayte asks.
“Depends on what’s on the the menu.” Intel respods. Everyone looks at him confused, especially Jack who is at a complete loss. Intel writes down an address on a piece of paper and hands it to Liam. Above it the name “Gil” is written.
The group heads to the address, which is located in the heart of Oldtown, a wealthy area of the city nestled between Wrigleyville and Lincoln Park. It looks like a crowded suburb rife with shops, restaurants, clubs and lots of snobby scarf wearing hipster types. According to Intel it also has the highest “friendly” demon concentration in the city.
They arrive at the address with Jack in tow, mainly because he couldn’t take the hint that he wasn’t invited because of his level of intoxication. The place is a restaurant funnily enough called “Gil’s”. They step inside and and immediately notice that they’re seriously underdressed. It’s a suit and tie type of place, and women are wearing some really revealing dresses and expensive jewelery. Basically they look like homeless people compared to this crowd and Cherice is a little pissed.
“Of all the nights I decide to leave the business suit at home…” she mumbles.
The Maitre d’ steps up to them, but doesn’t react the way they’d expect him to. “Intel, party of five. Right this way.” He leads them to the back of the restaurant, and as they follow him they all notice that the other patrons aren’t paying them any mind… it’s as if they’re invisible. They are led to a table next to a wall encompassing fresco and are seated. The maitre d’ hands them menus and says “Your server will be with you shortly”.
As they look around the restaurant, completely taken aback by the fact that no one is paying attention to them except the staff, their server approaches with another following close behind who looks rather annoyed.
“Hello, my name is Kenton, and I will be your server tonight.” He steps aside to allow him to introduce the other server. “And this is my trainer, Monty. Tonight is my first night serving here at Gil’s, so please bear with me as I learn the ropes. That would be great, thanks. So, can I interest the VIPs in a beverage? A glass of wine or something from the bar while you look over the menu?”
“What a wiener.” Jack says a little too loudly.
Liam orders a beer, Saorshe a water, Jack and Kayte get Jack and Cokes and Cherice just waives Kenton off.
“Very good. And since you’re guests of Mr. Intel, your meals this evening are free of charge at the insistance of the management. Our specials tonight are a lovely organic spinach and arugula salad with locally grown strawberries tossed with a light homemade balsamic vinegrette, a delightful sushi pizza…” he holds his hand up to his mouth to block the other server from hearing him say “it’s as nasty as it sounds. A creamy and rich lobster risotto and a traditional duck confit.”
“What do you recommend?” Kayte asks, still a little tipsy.
“I highly recommend the duck confit. It’s superb.” Kenton replies.
Kayte orders the duck confit, Liam a “rare” prime rib, Saorshe the salad, Jack a burger and Cherice a plate of “Fuck off, will ya!”
“Very good, I will return with your dinner shortly.” Kenton says before he walks away to the kitchen.
The drinks arrive and Jack tears into his. The others begin to chat amongst themselves, but Kayte seems a little disturbed. She is looking at the painting next to their table that takes up the wall. It begins changing.
“You guys seeing this?”
“What are you talking about?” Liam asks.
“The painting. It’s changing.” She says.
Saorshe looks at the painting, but doesn’t see anything like what Kayte is describing. She uses her magickal abilities to see past the illusion the painting is giving off, and the façade fades away revealing a long dark tunnel that looks like it’s part of a medieval dungeon. Saorshe and Kayte stand up and walk toward the tunnel, and the others see the two of them disappear into thin air.
“What the hell?” Jack asks after requesting another drink.
“Something’s not right…” Cherice says.
Saorshe and Kayte make their way down the hall, toward a door at the far end. They reach it, but are hesitant to open it.
“You ready?” Kayte asks. Saorshe shakes her head in agreement.
The door opens and they walk into a room that is the complete opposite of the hallway outside. It’s the single most lavish, opulent sitting room they’ve ever seen. It’s so insane that it’s mind boggling. And at the center of the room is one of the fugliest demons they’ve ever seen… even though so far they’ve only seen 3 or 4 tops. The demon is male, maybe. Bright orange skin with dark green bony protrusions pushing through the flesh making the face look like an eerily scary halloween mask. Pitch black eyes, no hair but the scalp comes to a sharp point, like a bony mohawk… and the demon is about 3 feet tall… with the mohawk. And the teal Armani suit… wtf?! It looks like a massive trainwreck of mismatched colors and styles. It’s almost comical. No, it’s very comical. Borderline hysterical.
Kayte snickers to herself at the sight of this bizarre demonic rainbow. Almost instantly she fades and disappears. Saorshe looks concerned, but the demon speaks…
“Congratulations! You’ve passed my tests.” It says.
“What tests?” Saorshe asks.
“Well, first there was the test of Mutual Respect. You treated Kenton, your server, like an equal even though he was awkward and new to the job. Second, well, you failed the second one. Cheated in fact. It was about Trust. Kenton gave you his recommendation for dinner, but you didn’t trust his taste. You’re lucky… that magick of yours sort of bypassed that one. Lastly was Self Control. Sure, I know I look completely ridiculous in this getup. I don’t need you asshats rubbing my nose in it. You’re lucky I’m a good guy. Some of the dudes in my clan back home would eat your spleens just for making eye contact.”
He snaps his fingers and the suit disappears, and is replaced by a Mötley Crüe t-shirt and a pair of worn blue jeans. “That’s more like it. Oh, and I’m Gil by the way. Nice to meet you.” He reaches out and shakes Saorshe’s hand.
“I’m Saorshe Riley. Nice to meet you too. Your ‘tests’ weren’t exactly what I was expecting.”
“What, did you think I was going to have you walk a plank over a sea of fire or something? That’s only on Christmas and certain bank holidays.” He stops to wait for a laugh that never comes. “Tough crowd. I try to teach my clients lessons on top of helping them out with whatever they need. I just gave you three skills you’ll need to survive in this new world you’re discovering a little more about every day.”
“Ahh. Thanks? I guess. Anyway, I’m here to ask about…”
“The Pentacle of Solomon.” Gil interrupts. “Its sole purpose is to prevent someone’s soul from returning to its body after being forcibly removed by black magicks. You see, some of the most powerful and forbidden black magicks aren’t as long-lasting as you might think. Tearing out someone’s soul in some cases can result in said soul eventually finding it’s way back to it’s body, thus reviving it. The Pentacle of Solomon is used when you want to completely put the kibbosh on the chances of that ever happening. Why? who knows. It really depends on the deal of the person, or demon, that’s using it.”
“And why would someone use it?” Saorshe asks.
“Personally, I’ve never seen it used, or know anyone that crazy or psychotically malevolent enough to use it. I mean, that’s just not cool. But, I will say that I’ve heard talk of a new player moving into town. Real old school. Real nasty SOB too. Only thing is… no one knows what it’s name is. And it’s suspected that it brought an entourage with it. Like it’s own personal Four Horsemen deal. And his arrival coincides with the Pentacle killings.”
Just as he finishes speaking the electricity in the room starts to flicker, the lights dim and a gust of wind blows through the room. The lights completely go out and it’s dead slient.
“I think I just peed a little.” Gil whispers.
The lights come back on just as quickly as they went out.
“Maybe it was a blackout?” Gil asks no one in particular.
“I don’t think so.” Saorshe says while backing up.
Floating in the center of the room is what she can only describe as a “slight discoloration” in the air, almost like something is camouflaged and it’s hovering right above them. When they move they can make out the outline of something large, but no details.
Gil starts to cry uncontrollably. And not girly crying. We’re talking in fear of your life crying. He’s pertrified. He runs to his desk and grabs a letter opener. He holds it like a knife, threatening whatever it is in the air.
A feeling of dread and uncertainty overcomes Saorshe, and she feels weakened just enough to not be able to stop what happeens next…
Gil starts crying again, runs and huddles in the far corner, covering his face screaming “I’M NOTHING! I’M NOTHING!” over and over again. Then he stabs himself in the throat with the letter opener, tearing open his neck like a ripe fruit.
Unable to react in time, Saorshe runs over and picks up the bleeding demon and runs for the front door. She makes it out into the hallway as a massive gust of wind kicks up behind her.
She exits the dungeon and appears rght where the others last saw her… her seat at the table. She materialized out of nowhere just as the painting closes up behind her.
Kayte is back at her seat looking just as confused as the others.
“What the hell is going on here?” Kayte asks. “What happeend to the disco godfather?”
“NO TIME! RUN!” Saorshe screams.
The invisibility spell seems to have worn off. The patrons of the restaurant can see the group, as well as the bloody demon Saorshe has in her arms. Panic sets in and people are screaming and running out of the restaurant. Some are being trampled on the way out. It’s chaos.
They make their way through the confusion as quickly as they can without hurting anyone, and just as they reach the front door they can hear the sounds of tires screeching and cars crashing on the other side. They walk through the doors to see a massive 9 foot tall beast standing in the middle of the street… and it’s staring each of the Champions down with it’s bright red eyes. Drivers are attempting to swerve around the beast, but the street is narrow and there’s already a pile up forming. Some slam into the beast, but it’s built like a brick shithouse and the cars buckle upon impact. Others crash into more cars, some hit people, storefronts, fire hydrants, you name it. Before they can take another step outside there are cars piled up on each side of the beast, boxing them all in with it.
As it takes a step toward them, Saorshe brings the barely breathing Gil back inside and hides him behind the Maitre d’ stand. When she exits once again she brandishes her blessed quarterstaff. Liam holds his sword at the ready. Jack, still a mite confused, takes out his boot knife just to part of the cool crowd. Cherice is attempting to get behind the beast with her katana in hand. Kayte only has her fists to defend her.
The beast advances, and so do the Champions. It’s think, scaly hide is quite resilient to their attacks, and it is able to absorb a lot of damage without showing signs of pain or weakness. Saorshe fires a bolt of Light at it, but it only pushes it a few feet further away due to it’s increased bulk. It’s a slow swinger, and even thogh the others are quick to dodge it’s attacks, it does manage to land a few powerful hits on the Champions. Some end up being hurt quite badly.
It continues to advance, not at the Champions, but at the restaurant. They can hardly stop it from making it’s way into the eatery, and once inside it quickly administers a lethal stomp to Gil’s head, crushing it to a bloody pulp.
Enraged, Cherice dips her katana into a pool of gasoline coming from the nearby crashed cars, then runs at the beast, scraping the tip of her sword along the pavement. The sword sparks, igniting the fuel and setting her sword aflame. She jumps into the air as the beast exits the restaurant, and as she falls back to the ground she slashes the beast from it’s left shoulder down through it’s torso. It stops in it’s tracks, looking at this pale woman with a flaming sword as she lands in before it like a ninja. She stands just as the top half of the beast slides off the rest of it’s body, and it falls over dead.
In shock, but still a paramedic to the last, Jack runs in to help his injured comrades as best he can. Cherice walks over to the remains of the beast and sets both halves of it on fire with her sword. As it burns she says to herself, “I never got to ask you any questions, you fucker.”
“I have some answers!” Saorshe says as she puts her staff away. “But we need to get out of here now!”
“Why?” Cherice asks beligerantly.
“You want to explain this mess to the cops?” she says while pointing into the distance. The sound of distant police sirens can be heard over the screams and the twisting metal.
“I say we bolt. And I mean now.” Liam says as he puts his sword away.
“Sounds like a plan.” Kayte says as she starts running in the opposite direction. The others follow, but Cherice stays behind for a few moments more. She stares at the burning remains of the beast, then spits on them.
“This isn’t over. Not by a long shot.” She turns and runs after the others.
