There was a muffled series of sounds, that indicated that the Grey Men were about to try something - perhaps attack them.  Only the Lupino Cross was keeping them back at the moment.

Steve Cable recalled the dingy old crystal the Chinaman had given him, and got an eyeful. 

Brother Clary prayed, and was rewarded with a green glow, emanating from the cross; but since he was the faithful, only he was able to see what it showed. 

Marianne was stuck in darkness, but rummaged in her purse for the vial that White had given her.

Looking through

"We're still on Earth. Cab is 6 feet to right."

Steve fired at the closest grey on left, interested in the effect and sure bullet would hit granite.

The eye went dark dark.

Brother Clary spoke up.  "I don't know 'bout you folks, but I kin see the cab.  We need to git to it NOW!  Somethin's not right about Gruber."  He began to quicken his pace even before the shot rang out.

"I'll say, he looks more like he belongs raiding henhouses than airplanes. He either ain't human or been altered."

Steve stopped when they bumped into the cab.

Marianne didn't even waste time talking, just ran to the cab. "Drake Hotel!" she told the cabbie, getting in. "Make it quick, and I'll make it worth your while."

Once in the cab, Brother Clary looked at Cable.  "You saw 'im, too?  What about you Miss Marianne?"

Marianne nodded. "I knew something was wrong. He was able to disappear into thin air, and see all sorts of magic creatures. He told me about being lost in the forest when he was a child, and that it changed him. I just didn't realize how much. Maybe that's why he never drank from the fountain." She was looking at Brother Clary as she said this last, and then frowned. "He looked as if he was badly in pain."
This message was last edited by the player at 07:31, Mon 09 Feb 2009.

The three manhandled Gruber, if indeed that was who it was, into the cab and with Brother Clary's directions as the shotgun seat, got away.   Mr. Blank apparently couldn't shoot worth diddly, as his next two shots only pinged off the door and the sidewalk.    The light flooded back, as if someone had turned on a switch, but the cabbie was nervous.  "I don't know what happened back there, it was like I was havin' a stroke or somethin, everything went black," he said, nearly wiping out an old lady in a crosswalk.  She shook her cane at him.


In the backseat, draped across the floor, Gruber started to stir.  His features filled out into the familiar ones they knew, and he relaxed, as if the pain was ending, but he was still gone.  The cab pulled up at the Drake Hotel just as he started to blink.

"Nothing, just a solar eclipse. Early 4th of July celebration too....... Jeez Buddy, those Sears & Roebuck licenses can be revoked."

Seeing the old Bat.

"What's at the Drake and what about Dr. Moreau here?" Thumbs Gruber.

Steve checks out the chassis next to him, now that danger is past.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:01, Mon 09 Feb 2009.

Marianne looked a little shaken as she put the vial back in her bag. This tiny little thing had rolled back the darkness? Or was it just a coincidence? "Did you see that? The vial? It's something powerful."

She cleared her thoughts. "Nothing, really. I just wanted to get away from there. And we needed a place to speak freely. You promised me answers, Mr. Gruber," she reminded the German who was just waking up. "How are you feeling?"

Gruber blinked, winced, and climbed out of the cab as if every muscle was sore, looking once again like the too-thin, scruffy German they had seen before. "Jah, jah, answers," he muttered.  "Like someone danced on me all night, that is how I am feeling, thank you very much."  Then, once full awareness had returned, the changeable eyes went from face to face, and his expression hardened as he realised that they knew something about him now - apparently something he'd planned on keeping from them.  For an instant, it looked like he might bolt - and the German had a good pace on him - but then he just stood there.  "Jah, all right.  You have captured me fairly and I am bound to answer the truth."

Marianne paid the cabbie and gave him a tip that was even more generous than the last, since the poor guy had had to drive through bullets and darkness.

Once they were upstairs and away from prying eyes and ears, she asked the first question on her mind. "Who are you? Are you really Hans Gruber?"

Gruber looked at her for a moment before answering.  "If you mean am I the Hans Gruber that flew you and your companions to the Fountain of Youth, yes, that is true.  About thirty years ago a young boy of your race came into our forest.  We accepted him and I took his form, because I had business to attend to in your world.  You call it, Changeling, or killcrop.  I have been Hans Gruber for a long time."

"A Doppelganger.  Why do you fall asleep all the time in danger, that must be inconvenient in a dogfight?"

"The Grey Sorcerer knows what I am," Hans Gruber replied.  "So he can craft a spell to put me down.   I knew it was a risk to approach his lair, but I had to try to help you.  I did not know that I would be the one needing help."  Then he bowed, deeply and gracefully.  "For which I thank you."

"So this grey sorcerer, tell us about him. I noticed he was enraged when refused. What's his Achilles Heel?"

"I am not a mage, so I cannot answer beyond what I know," Gruber replied. "His body is frail and old, it is his mind that is his greatest weapon and advantage.  He has his army of constructs, and can control the minds of humans.  The Grey Men can kill, but they are not intelligent.  He will most likely try to steal the Morning Star tonight, at the Grand Ball, by causing you to see nothing but darkness.  But he will have a backup plan.  He is a great one for plans."

"Can the constructs be killed or just by the preachers cross>"

"I still can't believe Sultan Rashid would show it with all these threats around," Marianne grumbled again. It was truly incomprehensible the way men's minds worked. She turned back to Gruber with a suspicious look, still not sure she bought that he truly was the same person. He had never seemed normal, exactly, but this was a little strange, even for her.

"If you are Hans Gruber, did the pirates see who you really were? What happened that day with the evening star? And when you broke the scepter? And what is your relationship with Ben White and with Jasmine?" The questions shot out one after another.

"They can be destroyed, if they are damaged enough."  Gruber told Cable. "I sneak up behind them.  He has made them immune to bullets, but cutting them, or punching them, can cause damage."

Under Marianne's rapid-fire, he cringed.  "My glamourie is good, which is the small magic I use to appear human," he said, "But they knew I was not a normal person.  That is one of the reasons they trust me.  The Evening Star, "  he paused to take a deep breath.  "I am charged with recovering the star gems and the message in the Sceptre.  But there is a provision.  I cannot steal the items myself; someone else must do it, then I may take it from them.  I took the Evening Star from Ben Weintraub, five years ago.   I knew him from Arkham; he used to drive whisky from Canada, and we would trade for rum.  When he jumped from the plane, I had already taken it, and when I crashed, I hid it in the sand until I could reclaim it.  And I didn't really break the Sceptre, I just opened it to look for the message.   And Jasmine - she -"  red flooded his ears and the blush quickly spread.  "She is in love with me.   And - I have feelings for her, and I am also ten times her age, and I am not human, and her father is an old friend of mine, so there is a lot of trouble there for me."  The way he said 'trouble' was vintage Gruber.  "She was the one that told me you were at the hotel."

The volley of questions continued, though slower as her suspicions eased. "Message in the scepter? Was it instructions to harness the gems' power? And who charged you with recovering them?"

"The message was instructions for the gems," Hans Gruber replied. "Ayesha was to have entrusted them and their power to her female heir, but she did not produce any female heirs - that was the agreement.  I am sent to reclaim the gems and the message by my King, as I am also tasked with finding other lost treasures and returning them."

Marianne grinned. "It isn't surprising that Mr. White sent me to find you after that. So you're handicapped in a way, when it comes to getting the gems. You need our help."

She had trusted the German with her life many times over, and he had never let her down so far. She believed his story. All the pieces fit with what he had told her earlier. "So far we have the Fox, the Englishman, Grey and White that we know of after the gems, is that right? Perhaps we can 'help' one of them steal the gem and then turn it over to you? Or steal it ourselves." This last was said with a certain amount of thoughtfulness that belied the twinkle in her eyes.

"How about we don't. Does it ever occur to anyone stealing is wrong? How about we kill these supernatural freaks, slam the Gates of Hades shut and tell them thanks, but no thanks, Keep Out!"


"I spent all night battling HP Lovecraft's pantheon, I returned the jewels to their rightful owner and got payed ande I got a contract put on my head by Satan. Why again do I need add thief to my credits?"

The insulted, otherworldly repo man folded his arms and scowled.  "It isn't stealing if you take it from a thief - there are different moral codes beyond your own, Mr. Cable.  I have to follow the rules.  And so many people want the gems, they'll be tripping over themselves to get to it first.  And - "  he stopped to think, something that Marianne knew might take a while, "It will be dangerous.  Soloman Grey will be the most dangerous, but then there is the Englishman, who will try for it.....I need a plan.  I am not so good with plans. It took me years to think of how to get Ben Weintraub to Algiers to steal the Evening Star."  There was another pause.  "And I don't know who summoned the Afrit, and if they will try to summon it again.  I only know of the one Djinni - the Djinni of the Ruby Ring, the one that the Sultan's Aunt wears."