You arrived at the intersection in Plaster City, California. Yes, there was only one. You had been driving westward on County Route S80 for a couple of miles since you left Interstate 8. Through an arid landscape of small bushes dotting the sand. When you pulled over on the south side of the road.

Dean had been driving for the past six hours and the temperature had dropped and dropped from the 100^oF peak earlier in the day. Cooler and cooler as evening turned into night and Sunday transformed into Monday. It was about 1 AM, 13 May 2019, when the pickup came to a stop next to the Jade Dragon and you exited the car into the cool, but not cold, California night.

As you stepped out of the luxurious car that Abe had arranged for this road trip, a small black bus, with room for about 20 passengers, turned left in the intersection, and traveled north towards Naval Support Activity Colorado Desert. And it was time for a final break, the final driver change, and the final time to fill up the tank.

There were a couple of lights near the truck stop and the gas station, but the night was otherwise dark. The clear sky sprinkled with stars and capped with a waxing gibbous moon, barely past first quarter. A gentle breeze ensuring that the parking lot smelled like all gas stations do.

A brass bell jingled when you entered the Jade Dragon truck stop and everyone inside looked at you, but most of them quickly returned to whatever they were doing. There was one person behind the counter and 14 guests. Smells and sounds from the out of sight kitchen were proof that others were working in the back too. It was a typical truck stop, not a rare oriental variant one might expect from the name.

As you looked around, you saw a soda machine, a coffee station, two glass door coolers, several square tables with waxed, red tablecloths, a lot of art on the walls, and a flat-screen TV.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:43, Thu 17 Oct 2019.

Dean stepped out of the truck, his sneakers kicking up fine dust as he raised up his arms and yawned loudly. He stretched first this way then that, then tucked his arms in and turned his torso from side to side in an effort to work out the sore spots. Six hours might not have been a tremendously long time, but it was certainly enough for him to stiffen up, and for his body to get a little restless after having been in the truck for so long.

Dean had met the group back in North Carolina with a backpack over one shoulder and a duffel bag in hand. He had dressed for comfort in some gray basketball shorts and a sleeveless blue under-armor shirt, his ruddy face a little sun burned, his meaty calves white as wonder bread in comparison.

After the obligatory selfies and the winch to bed inspection of the amazing vehicle, he had loaded up his things and climbed in with the others.

He was pretty talkative, all things considered. He had grown up in the Coechella Valley (Which was just north across the Salton Sea from where they currently were) but had moved to San Diego around the time he entered high school. His dad apparently built pools there, and made a decent living doing it.

He was big into football, and big into fitness, as quickly became apparent when they started stopping at places for food. He was on a strict diet, even if he seemed to get hungry even two hours. He had also recently won defensive rookie of the year for the Croatan Marauders, something he had mentioned twice during the ride. He seemed pretty excited about that.

He had his own truck, an aging F-150 which he frequently compared their limited run beast of a vehicle too, but no girlfriend. As much as he seemed to want to find one, he had not found one in North Carolina yet.

Other than the other "getting to know you" conversation, he seemed like a pretty normal guy, friendly, and prone to joking about this and that. He also seemed to have a high degree of respect for military and law enforcement, and to be something of a patriot, which had helped smooth things over at that start.

Now, stretched out and getting a little bleary eyed, he entered the Jade Dragon and scratched at his stomach.

"Bro, I'm starving" he said to nobody in particular, and glanced over the racks of gleaming energy drinks and slowly rotating hot dogs before he glanced back over his shoulder. "You guys want to stay and eat? or try to get back on the road?" he asked, and glanced to his smart watch for the time.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:33, Thu 17 Oct 2019.

Climbing out of the BM39, Tom still couldn't believe that they had such an amazing ride back to San Diego. The truck was a real monster, the most expensive vehicle he'd ever gotten close to. He still couldn't believe anyone would trust a bunch of college guys with driving it clear across country.

"I wonder why that bus was running so late," he had said musingly when the black bus had passed through the intersection. "Kind of late at night for a bus to be running up to the Naval base."

Tom was dressed in a t-shirt, cap, and Bermuda shorts, and was wearing Asics running shoes. He had a backpack over his shoulder with some changes of clothes, but he seemed to travel light.

During the trip from North Carolina, Tom hadn't been too talkative, content to let the others converse and chime in from time to time. He had been especially interested in Abe's stories and background. Tom told the group he was majoring in Broadcast Media Studies, but he didn't seem overly enthusiastic about his major, although he did seem to like his shift at the campus radio station. He was also in Air Force ROTC, and he seemed to take that seriously enough, though this might have been because his scholarship rode on how well he performed in AFROTC.

At the Jade Dragon, Tom had initially been upbeat about the possibility of Chinese food, though this far out in the middle of nowhere, he knew not to expect much. When he found that the Jade Dragon's menu was entirely mundane, he had resigned himself to basic truck stop food. He had gravitated immediately to the coffee station and poured himself a large coffee, mixing in a couple of Splenda packets and some non-fat dairy creamer.

"We can stay for a quick bite, I guess," Tom said. He picked up a protein bar and a sack of sunflower seeds and wandered over to the counter. "You have any hummus?" he asked, laying his purchases down on the counter for the clerk to ring them up.

The unshaven, middle-aged guy provided the asked for hummus, registered his wares, and told Tom how much he had to pay for them. It was even more overprized than the other truck stops they had stopped at during the two past days.

"Top secret somebodies," Commented Abe, as he watched the bus turn north.  "Might want as few to see it as possible.  Nobody can talk if nobody sees it.  Or maybe they're just trying to make base security's life harder with a scheduled late-night arrival.  I give it about even odds."

Abe was a marine who had completed the first half of his enlistment doing just that - base security.  He was the one who had secured the contract for transporting the truck, and had given everyone several rules under the general header of Rule Number 1: "Don't be an idiot."  The major points under that were: no alcohol on the trip and if you're tired, say something.

Abe had a fairly full, tightly packed rucksack in the truck, and he was insatiably curious about everyone.  He closely questioned almost anything that was brought up, though he did carefully... and mostly... refrain from the standard interrogation technique of re-asking of every question to see how much people were making up.

When he had found that Tom was AF, there was definitely a bit of ribbing: Abe had Tom how he fit his blankie in the backpack with everything else.  Beyond that, Abe kept his thoughts about the Air Force mostly to himself... he didn't want to make Tom feel too badly about not being a Marine.

When they got to the truck stop, Abe slipped easily out of the shotgun seat.  He spent the last half of each driver's shift there, engaging the driver to make sure they stayed alert.  He got his own rest in the back during the first half of each other driver's shift.

Inside the Jade Dragon, Abe checked his phone for the time even though he'd looked at the clock before they left the truck.  He looked around the restaurant and considered for a moment.  He looked to make sure there was an open spot he could sit from which he'd be able to see the vehicle.  He knew who would be on the hook - likely just for paperwork assuming there was no negligence - if something were to go wrong.  He wasn't paranoid, but he was careful.

He nodded and spoke to the group.  "We are about 3.5 hours ahead of schedule, so I don't see a problem with it if you all want to."  He had tried to be careful about who he invited along for the ride, but he had built plenty of time for stops into the schedule, just in case.

He ordered steak and eggs, with homefries and a black coffee.

The cashier took Abe's order and his payment. He passed the order along to the kitchen on a yellow rectangular note. And waited for the next customer.

After a quick perusal of what the stop had on hand, Dean scooted his way into the booth across from Abe where he eventually ordered the taco salad, no cheese, no dressing and an ice tea.

"Almost there..." he said with a sort of weary enthusiasm as he put his menu back behind the napkin dispenser. The table creaked uneasily as he tried to lean forward, and so he leaned back into the cushion instead. "Are most bases kind of like this? I've been out around Twenty Nine Palms and it kind of has that same feel ya know? a lot of desert, truck stops, a few car dealerships, liquor stores, tattoo places...must get kind of boring." he asked Abe, then glanced out to the truck, admiring it in the bright whhite glare of the truck stops lamps.

Jack, despite his rather rambunctious appearance, was not someone used to the kind of interaction that was necessitated by a road trip. Spending all that time with just three other people, all sealed in a single car for weeks... it was hardly his idea of a good time, even if it meant getting away from his family for a while. That said, it had been relatively pleasant, and he'd yet to have tired of his companions thus far, so at least for the moment, the trip had been successful. And San Diego had been pretty nice, to boot. Especially the girls on the beach, whom Jack had been less-than-subtle about eyeing up.

Jack's attention, however, was not turned onto the men in uniforms on the bus. He didn't know if there were any military bases around, but he knew soldiers didn't generally deploy in the United States itself, and they very, very rarely used the bus. However, he wasn't going to make a stink about it if no one else would, so he just got in line for food.

"Yeah, let's grab a bite. I need something to get me through until we get to civilization proper."

He got a large soda, a tuna sandwich out of the cooler (taking his life into his hands when it came to rest stop food, but anything else would take too much time), and a selection of candy bars to sate his sweet tooth.

"Dunno about the military guys. If they got a mission, they ain't gonna talk to civilians about it, so best to just keep our heads down and not give them a reason to start shooting."

Abe shrugged at Dean.  "I haven't seen most bases, so I can't really say."  He considered the ones he had seen.  "Mostly, from what I've seen.  I mean, you'd have to be dumb or evil to put your military installation near a ton of civvies.  Imagine what would have happened if Pearl Harbor were in the middle of a city."  He shook his head.  "No good."

When Jack spoke up on the topic, Abe raised his eyebrows and slowly, calmly turned to face him.  Staring him straight in the eye, he said in an almost perfectly level tone,  "I know we agreed no drinking this trip, but I thought it was understood that it meant no illegal drugs, too.  But you must be on something to sit at my table and say that American soldiers are out looking for an excuse to fire on civilians, let alone American civilians.  Or did I miss hear?"

"There's always at least one reason for military to shoot at American civilians: trespassing on a military base or other site restricted to the public," Jack says. "Normally they signpost those areas so no one accidentally enters in, but if they hypothetically had some kind of accident while they were, say, transporting something top secret and had to send in military to clean up..."

Jack sipped his soda. "There's also the other possibility that the guys in uniform weren't actually military, but just one of those right-wing militia guys who dress up like they're military because they wanna be tough guys," Jack says. "The Defense Department doesn't have a monopoly on camo, and those idiots will definitely shoot you if you look at them funny."

Tom sat down beside Jack and looks down at his hummus and coffee. Damn, I should have gotten some pita bread or something, too, he thought. When Jack mentioned soldiers shooting, the ROTC cadet frowned. "Seriously?" he said. "I think you're mistaking soldiers for cops, Jack. Kent State was a long time ago." There was that kid in Texas a couple of decades ago, though, he thought. That was pretty messed up. Hopefully he would never find himself in a situation like that, but that was one of the reasons he went Air Force.

The protein bar and the sunflower seeds had been snacks for the road. Tom wasn't about to order a salad in this place, but he did want something a bit more substantial. "The Naval base is basically just the Navy's rip-off of the Air Force's Cheyenne Mountain up in Colorado," he said. "Apparently the base here has a huge blast door and everything. If you saw uniforms in that black bus, it was probably just some troops going up to the base. And they wouldn't shoot you if you showed up, just run you off. Maybe arrest you if you stick around too long and act suspicious."

He took a swig of his coffee, looked as his pita-less hummus, and grimaced. Standing back up, he said, "I'll be right back," and sauntered over to the counter.

"Got any pita bread to go with that hummus?" he asked. "And can you heat it up if you do? Or just sliced bread if you don't have any pita."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:14, Fri 18 Oct 2019.

The cashier, who was the only person working at the Jade Dragon they could see, received Dean's order and his payment behind the counter before passing the order along to the kitchen on a similar yellow piece of paper as Dean headed over to their table. And then it was Jack's turn to pay for his order.

Tom returned to the counter and ordered some pita to go with the hummus and the cashier provided the bread and was paid.

Sometime later, the cashier placed Abe's and Dean's order on the counter and called them out so that the students knew that they were ready for pickup. And as the two of them went to pick them up, a firey vertical gash appeared in the middle of the diner. The gash bulged in the middle and expanded in both directions horizontally until there was a perfect circle bound by this rim of fire.

On the other side of this portal was about a dozen people. They turned their heads and looked over the place. One of them vanished, only to reappear face to face with Dean, where the teleporter bared his fangs. The others rushed through the portal towards the other guests, leaving only one person on the other side of the portal.

The other guests, and the cashier too, started transforming. Fur started growing on hands and face. It spread across the arms, enveloping any clothing. The mouth started protruding from the rest of the face as the teeth elongated and multiplied. The eyes changed shape and color as canine ears grew out of their skulls.

The transformation continued and though it only took a second, the terrifying change from human to bipedal wolfman burned itself into their consciousness.


[This terrifying appearance requires a Fright Check, which I rolled for you at -4. Which means 3d6 compared to Will-4. If the dice is higher than your modified Will, you fail. Only Jack made the Fright Check.

Abe is Stunned for at least 7 seconds, which means he has to Do Nothing until then. You can take no movement, but you can defend at -4.
Tom is Retching for 14 seconds, which means that he is busy vomiting or dry heaving. He can try to do something else, but he will probably fail.
Dean lost 1 FP and is Stunned for at least 4 seconds.]

Jack what do you do?
Tom are you doing something? Moving away/hiding perhaps.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:10, Fri 18 Oct 2019.

To say it was completely unexpected would have been an understatement.

One moment Dean had been looking for utensils, his thoughts mostly focused around hunger, and sleep, and the prospect of seeing family and friends over the next few days.

A fraction of his mind had registered the light, then the heat, and the rational side of him had dismissed them both as the headlights of a big rig turning into the station.

When he glanced that direction however, his mind struggled in vain to make sense of what his eyes were telling it. Any one of these things would have shocked him, disturbed him, and would have changed the course of his life forever. The combination of seeing people where they should not have been people, of seeing a hole in the world, of seeing a man, a thing, in one spot and then registering it in another a fraction of a second late was simply too much.

He shut down, "vapor lock" as some have called it. His mouth hung open slightly, his eyes wide like a deer in the headlights along some lonely stretch of road. He did not so much as breath.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:20, Fri 18 Oct 2019.

Halfway through a mouthful of truck stop pita and hummus (admittedly not that bad), Tom looked up to see the craziest thing he had ever witnessed in his life - a slash in the air like something out of Doctor Strange. Then, even more impossibly, a person appeared, fangs bared like some kind of vampire.

And then everyone in the truck stop except the four Croatan students started turning into werewolves, and Tom vomited up his hummus, pita, and coffee. At first, he could only stare in shock at this scene straight out of Twilight, which made Tom heave even more.

Pushing himself up out of the bench, still puking his guts out, Tom stumbles toward the door.

OOC: Try to run outside. Look for a hiding place.

Jack's brain didn't immediately register what was happening in front of him. It was so insane, absurd and out of nowhere that a part of him refused to even acknowledge the possibility it was happening. However, when the creatures started lunging, his survival instincts kicked in, and he realized he needed to get out, now.

However, he saw his two friends suddenly stuck in place, and realized they'd frozen in panic. Gathering up whatever bit of his mind he had left, he grabbed them both and did his best to drag them out of the diner, and hopefully to some semblance of safety. They weren't that far from the military base, and hopefully they could fight against whatever was happening.

...Assuming that whatever this was wasn't their fault, of course.

OOC: Gonna try to grab Abe and Dean and get them out of the diner, away from the Hell portal thingy.

Abe's brain had no pre-made descriptions to order the current situation.  So instead, he reeled back against the seat he had stood from, and just stood there.  He tried to bring his hands up, but he so very much doubted they'd help against anything that was going on that he really didn't even put any effort into it.

Jack and Tom rose from their seats, Tom was slower and his stomach was still in upheaval. Its contents continuing to spew over his food and the table. And the floor.

Abe and Dean remained unmoving.

The vampire facing Dean shrugged his shoulders, as if saying that this guy wasn't a werewolf after all, but I'm here now so let's do it. His nails extended into razor-sharp claws and he sliced Dean from his belly button up to his manubrium, causing the football player to drop to the ground. Clearly out of the fight.

One of the wolfmen jumped to Dean's vampire, impaled him from behind, straight into the kidneys, and the vampire dropped straight down on Dean.

The other vampires and werewolves were busy fighting on the other side of the diner. Causing no end of collateral damage as they were landing on chairs or tables or using said furniture as improvised weapons to hit or throw at their opponents.

[Abe is Stunned for at least 6 seconds, which means he has to Do Nothing until then. You can take no movement, but you can defend at -4.
Tom is Retching for 13 seconds, which means that he is busy vomiting or dry heaving. He can try to do something else, but he will probably fail.
Dean is Stunned for at least 3 seconds.]

[OOC: In GURPS, your turn is one second of time. So there is a limit to what you can do. Such as moving your Basic Move yards in a straight line. Standing up from a seated position. Making one attack. Just to name a few. I'll make a post with more information.]

[OOC: I'm not going to post how badly Dean is doing. If any of you want to find out, you need to check on him.]



What are you doing?
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:01, Mon 21 Oct 2019.

This isn't happening this isn't happening this isn't happening runs through Tom's mind over and over again, but he can barely concentrate on even forming a coherent thought. He doesn't stop to think that Wow, vampires and werewolves are real or Why is a diner full of werewolves close to a Naval station or Are the sorcerers in Doctor Strange really vampires, too?

No, his thoughts are almost entirely focused on getting out of the diner, but something stops him. The three guys he had made a cross-country trip with weren't close friends or family members, but still, he felt a bit of esprit de corps. Leave no one behind, he thinks. He looks over at Dean sprawled out on the floor and stumbles back to the big football player. Instinctively, Tom reaches down to check for a pulse, though his continual dry-heaving makes this very difficult.

OOC: Move to Dean's side to try to help him. Check to see if Dean is still alive.

Tom moved to Dean and checked on him.

Jack moved to Abe and picked him up.

The nearby werewolf pounced on Jack instantly and savagely ravaged him. Bringing him to the ground unmoving.

Abe was dropped on the ground, still stunned.

Another vampire drifted over to this side of the diner and attacked the werewolf. The shifter easily parried the attack and ripped out the vampire's throat. Cold vampire blood splattered across Jack's face as the vampire's body dropped to the ground and the werewolf tossed the throat across the room. He growled some sort of challenge to the vampires fighting his brethren.

Two more vampires rose to the challenge and quickly made their way towards him.

The all-out melee continued on the far side. Collateral damage having half-destroyed that side by now.

[Abe is Stunned for at least 5 seconds, which means he has to Do Nothing until then. You can take no movement, but you can defend at -4.
Tom is Retching for 12 seconds, which means that he is busy vomiting or dry heaving. He can try to do something else, but he will probably fail.
Dean is Stunned for at least 2 seconds.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:19, Tue 22 Oct 2019.

Such a mad way to die, Tom thinks numbly as his hand comes away from Dean's neck. No pulse. Stupidly, Tom looks over to see Jack probably killed by the werewolf. Abe was probably dead, too. How could any of this have happened? What could he do?

Tom realizes he's probably as good as dead, too, but he shambles toward the outside. Maybe he can get to the truck, start it up, and head to the Naval base for help. Maybe Jack and Abe could still be saved. If Tom stays here, he's as good as dead, anyway.

OOC: Head for the door and the truck outside.

As Tom rose to run away, one of the vampires grabbed him by the neck and threw him away from the door. As luck would have it, he landed back first right into the glass door of one of the coolers. There was glass shrapnel everywhere! And the largest piece of shrapnel penetrated Tom's back all the way out of his stomach. Two inches of blood-covered glass stuck out of the future officer's gut.

As the fight continued without any student influence, vampires continued to kill werewolves and vice versa. And soon they were all dead. And the diner was ruined. All tables on the far side were broken. And most chairs too. And on the student side, it was even worse. That two on one fight had rampaged all over the place before the one killed the two just before succumbing to the wounds they had given him.

There was only one person alive in the diner. Abe. The fire rimmed portal was still open and the female who held it open with a lifted hand was still on the other side. She stepped through the portal and lowered her hand. Thus the portal shrunk together to a single point before it exploded in a miniature fireworks display. The flecks floated towards the ground like snowflakes. And like snowflakes, they just melted away.

The most beautiful creature Abe had ever seen walked towards him. Her raven hair was long and luxurious. Her eyes blue like the ocean. Her skin was fair. And her red lips were luscious. And she didn't seem to wear any makeup.

She crouched down and took Abe's chin in her left hand. There was sadness in her eyes. And Abe was no longer stunned.

"Who's pet are you," she asked him. And there was something almost like anger in her voice.

[What do you do Abe?]

Abe looked up at the stunning woman, and the idea of playing coy briefly crossed his mind.  But seeing how the group she had enabled dealt with what might have been competition, he decided to go with honesty and hope that it didn't end with one more evisceration.  "No one's to my knowledge, miss.  I'm entirely available."

His mind wondered whether she meant some sort of supernatural patron, but answered vaguely enough that if she was talking about significant others, his language still fit his situation.

With a swift movement of her right hand, flashes of heatless fire appeared suspended above her palm. The flashes soon coalesced into a gold coin, as if taken out of a John Wick movie. But thicker, older, and more intricate.

"When you decide to cut your leash, hold this, and call for me. And I will open the world for you." She placed the coin in Abe's hand.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:53, Wed 23 Oct 2019.

Abe took the coin and looked at it and thought for a moment.  He had apparently chosen right by calling her "miss" and not "ma'am" and didn't want to mess that up now.  He was still extremely disoriented but decided if the lady could make a hole in the world for vampires to jump through to kill werewolves, he could play along.  He still wanted whatever information he could get, though.  So, he spoke, trying to keep his voice from wavering like his vision did.  "I don't understand what you mean but I assume I will when I need to... By the fact that you just made that appear out of nowhere, I'm guessing I won't need a phone number to call you... but do you have a name I should use to call?"

"You can call me Sparrow," she said. "And with that coin, your desire to speak to me will be the only phone number you need. You don't understand because you are on a leash. Understanding will not come on its own. Someone must explain it to you. Or liberate you. Someone didn't want you to know. Someone has hidden the world from you. Taken away the sun and the moon and told you there were only stars. To keep you in darkness. To hobble you. To hear only echos. To outlaw laughter. To drench you in refuse so that the scent of sunlight after rain would be unknown to you. They have stolen your life!"

20 seconds ago, Abe would have been certain the woman was stark raving mad.  Or perhaps on a hallucinogen.  However, he hadn't eaten or drunk anything here, but had just seen the impossible.  Perhaps what she was saying wasn't madness.  Perhaps he needed to hear it.

He sat up, and looked around.  Me moved to check for pulses on his friends.  "A minute ago I would have suggested you check into rehab, but I think I might have had it the wrong way around... is there a reason I can't be freed now?"

"There is not," Sparrow said. "If you wish it, say the words and make it so."

Abe considered for a long moment, wondering what was going to happen.  He was intensely curious about what she meant by 'and make it so' but had long since learned to clamp down his teeth on questions that he'd likely learn the answers to in good time.  Instead, he stood and looked seriously at the woman, and said: "Sparrow, I want to be free."

Sparrow started a light show of magic, outshining the magic of Doctor Strange. A net of heatless fire surrounding Abe. Arcane words tethering the net to the leash, entwining with each other until the two had merged into one. And as she opened up her hands in an explosive motion, the net-leash around Abe exploded. And he collapsed.


Some time later.


The four students woke up.

Abe, Dean, and Jack woke up on their backs where they had fallen.

Tom on his stomach, surrounded by glass shards, at the bottom of the cooler.

The diner was trashed around them.

There was no one else there.

Abe was handsome. His brown wavy hair reaching his shoulders. His brown eyes quintessential. And his skin could have sold a plethora of skincare products.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:51, Wed 23 Oct 2019.

Abe stood up and stretched.  He felt awesome.  He put something in his pocket, and then looked at the other guys, shocked.  "Why aren't you guys dead?  The creature features killed you all and each other, the portal lady Dr. Stranged me, now they're all gone and you're not dead?  What the heck.  I wonder if she healed you guys in addition to whatever she did to me."

He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to find any mental gaps or changes from - allegedly - being freed of mental restrictions that had been on him.  Similar to how he would try to piece together evidence, but in this case trying to check what he knew against what he thought he knew, rather than what the evidence said being checked against what he thought he knew.  He started with the easy and obvious "there's no such things as vampires, werewolves, and magic."

GM passing a message.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:33, Wed 23 Oct 2019.

When Dean had died, as strange as that sounds, he had fallen directly adjacent to the little pick up counter, his cold and waxy taco salad still sitting there on a red tray amid the rest of the destruction.   When his aorta had been bisected from the front, liters of blood had been pumped down his middle and onto the floor in mere seconds. It was hard to say if he was even conscious when he had collapsed backwards, landing first on his backside, before his center of gravity had carried him rearwards to strike the back of his skull on the floor with a bony thud.

To add insult to injury of course, his attacker had been draped over him like some kind of grisly shawl.

It was in this generous puddle of coagulating blood that Dean had awoken, and both his eyes shot wide open as if his mind had suddenly remembered that it had urgent work to do. Kind of like pressing play on an action movie in the middle of a good scene, he sprang to action.

Everything he had been trying to do when he collapsed, he resume with sudden vigor. He sat up violently, and sort of crab walked backwards, leaving gigantic tennis shoes prints in the dark, thickening blood and then scrambled up, backwards, until his back collided violently with one of the clear cooler doors.

Wide eyed, and obviously terrified and confused, he had backed himself into a corner and now stood there looking like he might bolt at the drop of a pin, looking around and taking great breaths through his mouth and nose. His eyes flicked from one thing to the next ever quarter second or so as his mind reeled.

Tom's eyes flickered open. Where was he? He seemed to be face down in a drink cooler of all things. Like lightning, the events of the previous--hour?--hit him: stopping for gas, the attack on the diner, the vampires and werewolves. He remembered being shoved toward the cooler, the dagger of glass eviscerating him. But now--

He scrambled out of the cooler and stood, looking around the room. Raising his shirt, he looked for the gaping cut that should be there. Then he looked around the diner and saw Dean, Jack, and a stranger who looked somehow familiar. Had Tom seen him in a movie before? Abe was nowhere to be seen.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked the stranger, guardedly, not keen to be gutted for the second time in a day. "And what did you do with our buddy?" Tom glanced around the room. Where were all the bodies that had fallen? He was sure at least some of what couldn't have been vampires and werewolves had been killed in the fight, but he didn't see any of them now.

"This is so weird," he mumbled. "It's like I can feel you three somehow. Two of you are cold--and one of you feels like laughter. Bizarrre."

Tom at least, seemed familiar, and Dean latched on to his words like a mental life raft.

"Tom...I" he licked his lips. "Tom, what the hell just happened man? I..." his right hand almost subconsciously drew to where he had been opened up, and his expression turned to horror once more as he looked down at the blood soaked and shredded remains of his shirt. "Ohhhh...no, no..." his hand hesitantly pressed through the mess, only to find his stomach unharmed beneath. he pressed and prodded before he looked up.

"I need to go to the hospital guys, like..." he paused, and looked to Tom. "Cold?" he asked "What do you mean?"

"What do you mean?" Abe asked, suddenly concerned.  He turned quickly to look around for his own body, fearing that perhaps something horrible had happened.  As he turned, something pulled on his head and then smacked him in the face when he stopped turning.  He reached up to get it off of him and found himself pulling his own hair. "What the crap?"

He picked up a surviving shard of a mirror and looked at himself.  "What the crap, what the crap, what the crap."  He touched his face to confirm that it was still his face.

He then pulled out his phone to check date and time.  How long must he have been passed out for his hair to grow that far beyond regulation?  And for his companions to apparently fully heal?  "I'm me.  Abe.  The last one standing that made the portal... I know this will sound weird, but after tonight maybe it's believeable... cast some kind of spell on me.  Theoretically might have made me more like people were meant to be?"

Abe checked his phone.

"What the...?  I guess not the weirdest thing that happened last night."  Abe commented as he considered hitting 'send' to call Thomas back.  "Guys, we cannot be here if and when authorities come around asking questions.  I'll get you all some clean clothes from the truck, and you can change.  Anything you are wearing with blood on it gets burned before we leave."

Abe looked around for any evidence of recording equipment, then headed out to get them clean clothes as promised.  As he went out, he called Thomas.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 04:27, Thu 24 Oct 2019.

Abe made a call as he went outside.

Abe frowned when he heard the voice on the other end.  "I am, as far as I know.  Is there a reason you'd expect that I'm not okay?"

GM passing a message.

Abe was relatively surprised by the call.  He had assumed there was an emergency on campus... or perhaps something on the news.  He answered, "No, I think we're okay... do you often have premonitions like this?  And do you know where the crash is supposed to have happened?  I'd like to avoid it just in case."

GM passing a message.

Abe nodded even though Thomas couldn't see him.  "Yeah, Tom's here and seems alright.  Assuming we don't die in a car crash, we'll have to talk later, Tom.  I've got my hands full here at the moment."

When he got to the truck, he grabbed people's bags and brought them in to them.  He then set about cleaning up after the group - removing any traces he could find that would point to them having been there.

Abe returned to the diner with everyone's bags. And as best as he could, he started cleaning up after the group. To make sure he took care of any evidence of their presence.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:43, Sat 26 Oct 2019.

Dean was, more or less, in shock as he followed Abe's lead. He focused on the mop and bucket, and cleaning up the abundance of blood that he and the others had spilled.

Tired and cast in the harsh white florescent of the station lighting, he mopped quickly, taking buckets of bloody water back to the toilet and leaving the caustic scent of bleach in his wake.

Thankfully he had brought extra clothing, extra shoes even although they were cleats.

He has his reservations, obviously, but the more he remembered what had happened, he more he realized that his account of things would never be believed. He himself barely did believe it and he had been there.

As he mopped he asked "Abe", who sure did not look like Abe what had happened, in detail, twice.

Tom shook his head. "It's just a feeling, Dean. I can't explain it. I can't even tell which of you guys gives off which feeling." He looked in bewilderment around at the scene. This couldn't be a dream - it seemed too real, too stable.

Could they go up to the Naval station? Instinctively, Tom felt like this would be a place of safety, but would the four even be allowed inside? Unlikely.

Gratefully, Tom accepted his backpack from Abe and began peeling off his bloody clothes. He pitched in to clean up the mess in the diner as best as he was able to.

"Okay, so now what? Continue on as if nothing had happened? I don't know about you guys, but I'm ready to get out of this place."

Abe checked for other cleaning agents to use in removing - or at least denaturing - the blood of his companions.  He hated to obfuscate things, but figured that no law enforcement office would be able to deal with actually finding a group of vampires and werewolves, and besides: each group had already killed the other, so there wasn't really any justice left to be meted out.

Abe gave the others some guidance in what to do, then checked over the work himself and cleaned the tools they used for cleaning last.  As he cleaned, he let his mind wander to the mote of magic he found within himself, and he attempted to figure anything about it he could.

GM passing a message.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:03, Thu 24 Oct 2019.

Dean had only paused in his mopping to inspect the spot on his stomach where he remembered being eviscerated. He did remember than, the pain, the "claws". There had been claws right? On his attacker which had no vanished? or was he completely delusional?

Part of him was too embarrassed to even bring it up, it was so fantastical, and so he finished his mopping and then rallied with the others.

"Yeah, I guess we just go...hopefully this all just turns out to be, a bad dream or something." he said, as he changed clothing.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:32, Thu 24 Oct 2019.

Jack struggled to get back up, shaking his head.

"I don't know what's going on, but I definitely got hurt," he said, tugging at the shreds of his shirt. "Except I'm not, for some reason. I just feel kind of... hungry. Don't know why."

Abe reconsidered starting a fire when they didn't have time to sit around and make sure it finished its work before being discovered.  Instead after talking to Dean, he grabbed garbage bags for each person to wrap their dirty clothes in and pack them away in their own luggage.  He recommended thoroughly rinsing them with bleach and then water before bagging.

When they finished their work, Abe looked over everyone making sure they weren't walking out with red flags on them.  Noting Dean's shoes, he said, "Dean, we'll stop at a thrift shop down the road a little and one of us will pick something up for you.  What size are you?"

Abe raised an eyebrow at Jack.  "You weren't hurt.  You were dead.  D-E-D dead.... apparently you got better."

He thought for a second, then added, "Oh, and speaking of nightmares:  Thomas from NROTC at Croatan was calling me all night.  As in every half an hour from 12:30 am on.  He apparently had an incredibly vivid dream where we all died in a car crash.  He thought Tom was especially deader than the rest of us.  I'm not sure if it's a coincidence or not, but if anyone wanted to get out a mile or two down the road and call for a cab, I'd understand."

GM passing a message.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:30, Fri 25 Oct 2019.

Dean stripped off the blood soaked tennies and stood in his socks for the moment. Dean was far from any great mind, but even he could figure out that the presence of cleats at a murder scene would be noticed immediately.

"Uh, sixteens, they can be kind of hard to find, so...don't worry about it. I'll pick some up when I get home"
even the word "home" was some small comfort at the moment.

In his new clothes, a short sleeve gray T-shirt and black shorts, he looked far better than he had, if still a little unsteady on his feet.

At Abe's news Dean shook his head, then glanced to his smart watch. "How long were we out then?" He asked, clearly making ready to head back to the truck. "Was there, ah, video or anything? Cameras? Do we still need fuel?"

You looked around, but you couldn't see any video surveillance.

[OOC: You have filled the tank every six hours for the duration of the trip. Not because the tank was empty, but more as a convenience. Refueling the car while you refueled your bodies. There is enough fuel to get you home.]

Dean checked his watch as he headed out of the Jade Dragon with his bag. The rest of you not far behind with yours. The diner, now hopefully without any of your compromising DNA evidence. Or, at least, no longer identifiable as yours. Your bloody clothes were packed away in your bags.

As soon as the sunlight touched Dean and Jack, they burned! And Dean collapsed to the ground.


[Dean and Jack suffered 12 hp of burning damage each!]

[OOC: The dice wasn't with us on this one.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:59, Sat 26 Oct 2019.

It was like watching somebody unexpectedly walk into a really big oven.

The first step out the door was confident, eager even. He obviously wanted to get back into the safety of the truck, to be far, far away from this place. To get home. He could see it, big and beautiful and parked just over there.

The second step, he knew something was wrong. His bag fell onto the ground and half way through his stride his arms came up in a futile gesture, like trying to quickly ward off the dawn rays through a dirty windshield as you rocketed down the highway. It was an urgent motion, frantic.

He collapsed on the third, screaming like a man who was having his skin burned off in the aforementioned oven. It was a real, miserable, pained howl of misery and not the throaty manly sort of scream that a guy makes when he has control of his faculties.

He screamed like a man that was dying as all of his exposed skin erupted into vivid blisters and ugly swathes of raw crackling flesh.

And then, perhaps mercifully, he collapsed. The big guy pitched forward onto his belly, and even in that state he still curled up like he way trying to protect his face and eyes against the pain where he writhed for a moment and then went still.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:45, Sat 26 Oct 2019.

Dragged Dean back into the cursed diner, and asked Tom to do the same for Jack.

He then went and pulled the pickup to just outside the door, hoping the tinted windows would shelter his (probably vampiric) friends from the sunlight they could no longer endure.

Abe dragged Dean back into the diner. Jack and Tom followed.

Abe went back outside in the sun, brought the car to the door, the quartet of students got inside, and they left the Jade Dragon behind.

As they drove, the tinted windows were apparently sufficient protection against Dean's and Jack's sudden solar allergy.


[Where are you going? And what are you doing to help the unconscious Dean and the still conscious, but barely so, Jack? And who goes where in the car?]

When Dean and Jack suddenly collapsed, Tom reacted immediately, scooping up Jack and hauling him back inside the diner.  This was bad, really bad. If he had to hazard a guess—but no, that couldn’t be, could it? Although before today, if someone had told Tom that vampires and werewolves were real, he would have thought they were out of their minds. Now, though…

”At least us two can stand to walk in the sunlight,” he had said grimly to Abe. Something weird had happened to all of them. If Jack and Dean were now...he still couldn’t bring himself to complete the thought. Abe had visibly transformed, and as for himself, well, he apparently had this new sense that made no sense to him. “You drive, okay? I’ll keep an eye on our boys.”

In the truck, Tom did his best to make sure Dean and Jack were as comfortable as he could make them, as comfortable as two people could be who were now capable of being burned by the sun.

”Hold up, though, Abe,” if you’re really Abe, Tom thought. ”You said Thomas warned you about a car crash. Maybe we should find some place to hole up for a couple of days while we figure out what’s going on. I can finish the truck trip and then get a ride back to wherever we end up.” But where? They were out in the middle of nowhere, with only the Naval station and the diner nearby.

”Hey…you think you could magic up one of those portals those guys at the diners back there used? Maybe even big enough for the truck, too?”

”Or wait—maybe you have the whole Doctor Strange suite of powers now? Do you think you could, I dunno, cast heals or something for Dean and Jack?”
This message was last edited by the player at 16:58, Mon 28 Oct 2019.

Dean, who had been pulled "through" the backseat and then propped up in the corner, swayed and bounced just slightly as the truck was guided back onto the main road. His eyes were partially open, as was his mouth, his head lolled back against the rear window as he stared unseeing towards the roof.

Abe shrugged at Tom's suggestion of hiding from Thomas's dream for a few days.  "It happened at about the same time that all three of you really died and I sort of did - less so as far as bloodloss goes, but more so in appearance."  He said.  "I suspect that his dream was of exactly what happened.  And if it wasn't, I don't know that we can change futures perceived - the 'car crash' could happen in a car we get to avoid it, or with each of us in separte cars."

As he drove on, he considered Tom's words.  "In stories vampires always need blood.  And didn't Dr. Strange take a long time to learn to do anything other than fail at sparkly lights?  I'm willing to try... but I'm worried that I might harm them more than I hurt them."

He thought for a moment.  "You know anywhere we can lay low for a while?" He asked Tom.

Getting Dean into the car was an adventure on its own, as he was actually too heavy for Tom to lift on his own. But with Abe's help, it was possible to get him into the backseat and propped up against the far door. And though most men would have had the same problem with Jack, Tom wasn't most men. But then everyone could see that Tom was strong! Dean was too, but a little too preoccupied to help.

With Dean, Jack, and Tom in the backseat of the car, it was a little crowded. But only Dean was bigger than Abe, so at least that was working for them. But then Dean was at least half a foot taller than any one of them so why he had gotten a scholarship to play football for Croatan was instantly obvious.

But how would all this talk about dreams and transformations and Dr. Strange actually affect them? Their ability to play college football? Or even get a date? Or live a normal life?




[OOC: Only Dean collapsed from his solar injuries when they went out of the diner.

As I wanted to point that out, I forgot to make HT rolls for Jack when he walked back into the diner and when he headed into the car. And now that I rolled for that in retrospect, he did collapse on his way back into the diner.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:24, Mon 28 Oct 2019.

”I was thinking a motel, maybe,” Tom said, a little uncertain. ”I mean, something has happened, something absolutely nuts, and we need time to process this. Maybe there’s a cabin or something we could rent at a state park? I dunno, man, I’m just spitballing here.”

A worried look on his face, he glanced over at Dean and Jack. ”So you think our boys are vampires, too? I didn’t want to say anything, but I was thinking the same thing. Dude, that is so messed up! I mean, blood, right? I’m not ready to go find someone our guys can suck the blood from. That’s just too much, you know?” He said this to the apparently transformed or replaced Abe, who had his own thing going on.

Tom wondered why he himself is was least changed. Other than that weird sense he now had, he felt completely the same. ”Hey, you think I might be a werewolf now? It sounds completely bonkers, I know, and I don’t think any of those freaks in the diner bit me, but it seems like you guys were changed, and I’m still the same, mostly. Werewolves have heightened senses, right?” The bad thing was that werewolves and vampires were eternal enemies, if Vampire: The Masquerade and the whole Twilight garbage were to be believed.

Abe nodded, and told the car to guide them to cabin rentals at a state park nearby.  As he continued driving, he spoke to Tom, "Well, you all died after getting hit by and bled on by those creatures.  So yeah, you've apparently caught what they had.  I can only guess at werewolf abilities from games and movies, like you.  I'm guessing you've got the inside track on info about that."

As the terrain breezed by, Abe continued, "I've got a way to call someone who might be able to help them, or teach me to help them.  I'm not going to try that while cruising down the road, though, unless it's a real emergency.  They seem stable to you?"

Dean, who was slumped in the rear passenger side corner with less than an inch of heavily tinted safety glass between himself and immolation, looked pretty rough. If they were being honest with each other.

”They look like they’re half-dead,” Tom said, concern in his voice. ”I’d say take them to a hospital. If what you say is true about needing blood, maybe they can get a blood transfusion. If not a hospital, then whatever you’re thinking, but they need help badly.”

Tom could only imagine what the nurses in the E.R. would say if they showed up, though. Uh, yes, I think my friends might be vampires. And maybe that makes me a werewolf? Uh, no, officer, I’m not high, and I haven’t been drinking. He put his hand to his forehead in worry. How on earth would Dean and Jack be able to survive like this? Would Dean have to quit football? Dean had been so successful, and he was built for it. How would they even be able to go to class from now on? And how was Tom going to make it in the Air Force if he turned out to be some sort of werewolf?

”This is so messed up,” he said with a groan. ”We didn’t ask for this. Abe, what are you going to say when you try to go back to school? They’re not going to believe you’re the same guy. Dean and Jack won’t be able to go to class. I’ll probably be turning into a homicidal maniac every full moon. What are we going to do?”

"Hospital's a big fat no.  I seriously doubt anything good could come of making their condition known."  He thought about options.  If they were doing that poorly, he was going to have to try contacting Sparrow again.

"Yeah, he'll have to drop the team or find something that will let him go outside in the daylight.  Maybe become a professional arena football player?"  He glanced at himself in the mirror.  "Eh.  I might be able to cut this back to high and tight, then play it off as a summer in the sun after years of being emaciated by work."

Since the two apparent vampires were apparently doing very badly, and as Sparrow had initially opened a portal for vampires, he reached into his pocket and touched the coin.  "Sparrow.  I need your help.  My friends are apparently now fantastically allergic to sunlight, and burned.  Can you help them or teach me to?"

You left Plaster City and continued west through the desert. You rejoined Kumeyaay Highway in Ocotillo. No more than a couple of hundred people could be living there. A small, no-name place, in the middle of nowhere.

A sign pointed through the "village" to Agua Caliente Springs County Park, but your GPS pointed left onto the highway and you followed the GPS as there was no indication of the distance to the park.

Abe tried to contact Sparrow through the coin she had given him. But nothing happened.

You drove through a wind farm. There wasn't much else to see but desert and power lines. You soon passed a "Speed Enforced by Aircraft" sign, but you didn't see any. A couple of trucks drove in the opposite direction, but traffic was light. A railroad bridge passed over the highway. And shortly thereafter an ordinary bridge.

As you continued, there was a yellow "Avoid overheating Turn Off A/C Next 10 Miles" sign on the left-hand side. Signs about slow traffic followed. But the majority of what you could see on the sides of the highway continued to be desert, wind farm, and power lines.

The westbound and eastbound lanes separated on different sides of a hill. And soon the wind turbines on your right came closer to the highway. But as the highway continued to turn around the hill, the wind turbines soon were further away again.

The morning weather was lovely. A few scattered clouds here and there, but nothing for the sun to hide behind. As the right side of the highway became hilly too, the windfarm ended. And the power lines had long since stopped accompanying them. Though there were new ones in the distance ahead.

Hills on both sides were covered by rocks. And when they passed the hills on the left, the eastbound highway started running parallel to the westbound highway again. They passed a fuel tanker as the road turned. And later a car parked on the side of the road with both the trunk and the hood open. They were apparently having car trouble. But then car trouble paled to the trouble the four students were in.

The terrain remained rock covered hills on both sides of the highway, but the distance between the hills was large enough for travel in both directions. Though eastbound was at a somewhat lower elevation.

They passed another four cars that had stopped at the side of the road. It looked like they were traveling together for only one of the pickups had its hood open.

Another rocky hill divided the two highway directions. And the students passed another truck.

A "Desert View Tower Next Exit" sign showed up shortly after they had passed the middle hill. Another sign instructed them to drive safely before they passed another two fuel trucks.

There was a sign for Jacumba Hot Springs Next Exit, indicating that there were food and rooms there. But it wasn't where the GPS was directing you. But you had already driven for 30 minutes and the Golden Acorn Campsite was still 13 miles away. So you turned off the highway. The GPS protested, but a voice command redirected it to your new destination.

The road was smaller and there were a couple of ramshackle homes on the side of the road. At least there were some low bushes growing on the sides of the road now. The first vegetation you had seen all morning.

You soon turned left and traveled beneath the highway and turned right on the Old Highway once you were on the other side. Not that it looked any better than the road on the other side of the highway. But there were power lines to look at again.

The only traffic you saw was the Border Patrol, in their white and green SUV who had pulled over a silver-colored SUV. Fortunately, they seemed too professional to pay any interest in your 6x6 while they were working.

The vegetation got taller as you continued, though still only bush sized. There were a couple of trees in the fenced-in yard of someone's home. And a few other buildings on the other side of the road. An African American female was walking eastward, dressed in black training clothes with no sleeves and full-length legs. She was wearing a black bandana on her head and a black backpack on her back. She was holding a white cell phone in her right hand and some keys in her left hand.

The vegetation looked less deserty now. You were definitely arriving somewhere soon. Shortly thereafter, there were buildings on both sides of the road.

And you soon saw the large "Lodging Restaurant" sign. The somewhat smaller sign above it indicating that this was indeed "Jacumba Hot Springs SPA" was legible shortly thereafter. And it had only been three minutes since you turned off the highway.

This early in the morning, the trees to the east of the spa was still giving shade so that you could get from the driveway inside the spa without being kissed by the big eye in the sky. But how would you get the incapacitated Dean and Jack past whatever staff that would get you your rooms?

Abe parked at the Lodging Restaurant and looked back at Tom.  "Could you go order a meal for each of us?  I want to try a couple of things and then we can get a quick look around to see if this will be a good spot for us to hunker down and take care of our undead bordering on re-dead friends."

Abe again reached into his pocket and tried contacting Sparrow again, with the same message.

A firey vertical gash appeared near Abe, no heat radiated from it. Like before, the gash bulged into a circle bound by a rim of fire. The beautiful Sparrow was on the other side and behind her what looked like a luxury dwelling of someone with refined taste. She stepped through and the portal vanished behind her.

She looked around and seemed to be satisfied that no one had seen her arrive. "Not as private as I had expected," she said. "So I assume this is important. How can I help you?"

"It truly is.  Thank you for coming."  Abe said with full sincerity.  He pointed to the charred guys in the back seat.  "We had no idea they were changed into vampires(?) during the fight, and when they walked outside into the bright sunlight..."  Abe trailed off.  The results spoke for themselves.

"I'd have waited to call until we had them inside somewhere even more private and secure, but I don't know what vampires are actually like.  I didn't want to leave them where someone could stumble on to them, nor move them myself and have them end up eating me while I did so.  So - is there a way to heal them so they can move themselves?  And is there somewhere I can go either online or in-person to start learning things for myself?  I deeply appreciate your awakening me and now showing up again for me, but I'd rather not trouble you any more than is absolutely necessary.  What I owe you already seems like more than I could ever repay."

"You need a teacher," Sparrow said. "This is not something you can learn on your own." She opened one of the front doors and looked at the two students inside the car.

"That doesn't look good. Where are you headed?"

Abe nodded: he wasn't surprised about needing a teacher.  "That figures.  I thought about trying to help them myself first, but figured that even if I got something to happen, it would be more likely to do harm than good.  On that note, are you looking for an apprentice, or do you know anyone who might be?" He asked her hopefully.  Not just because she was the most beautiful woman he had ever met, but also because she was the only mage he had ever met.

When she asked about where they were headed, he answered, "We are heading for San Diego."

"I wasn't looking for an apprentice, but my home base is in San Diego too, so that is fortuitous. And with the recent deaths of so many of De La Vegas high-level associates, two copils sired by them would definitely be welcome. Adding a young, but untrained, Fey into the mix, who is already part of their cohort and who is willing to pledge loyalty to the undisputed Baron of San Diego and who will be trained by the best to serve him and his cohort. That will be a morsel he will not be able to say no to."

"What about your other friend? What happened to him?"

The ride had seemed interminable, particularly with all the cars overheated on the side of the road and Thomas’s premonition of some kind of car accident. If Tom had been able to view events with an air of detachment, he might have wondered why Thomas had been so worried that the four of them had been in a car wreck, but with everything else that had happened, a worried friend with visions of danger seemed pretty low on the weirdness meter.

Now, Tom had left the car and gone inside the restaurant to order meals for everyone. He still thought that they needed to find medical help, and barring that, some kind of supernatural expertise.

While he waited for the food, he checked Google for “what to do when your vampire friend gets burned by the sun.”

Abe pointed to the spa.  "In case you weren't able to answer and we had to hunker down, he's in checking the place out under the cover of getting lunch."

He considered a moment.  "Also, something happened to him at the restaurant.  Not really sure what, but he's strong and didn't burn in the sunlight."

Tom ordered, paid for, and received food for the group. Did real food give vampires any sustenance? When he double-checked that the paper bags to make sure they had given him what he had ordered, he discovered a coupon for a free massage at the spa.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:41, Wed 30 Oct 2019.

Tom grimaced when the Google results were less than helpful. Twilight was definitely right out, and this obviously wasn’t the sims. The more or less straightforward explanations just said that vampires were burned by the sun, nothing he didn’t already know from pop culture. At least the free massage coupon was nice.

He returned to the 6x6 to see Abe talking with an incredibly gorgeous woman. ”Wow, hi,” he says, looking to Abe for confirmation of whether this woman was known to him. ”I’m sure you get this all the time, but you’re the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen. I’m Tom. I’m guessing you know Abe here?”

Abe grinned at Tom's response to seeing Sparrow, and knew how he felt.  "Sparrow, this is Tom - a friend of mine who I'd rather not have die.  Tom, this is Sparrow, an acquaintance of mine who might be able to help us make contacts in the world we've been introduced to, and hopefully won't kill you?"  He said that last bit more to Sparrow and in a hopeful tone with his eyebrows raised.

"I see," Sparrow said. "It's all four of you then. And if he had been a vampire, he would have burned. No matter how strong he is. Unless there is any truth to these fairytales about Daywalkers that never seem to go away."

And then Tom returned. Sparrow's hair billowed around her when she turned around to face him. And Tom introduced himself and commented on her beauty. And she flashed him a brilliant smile. Teeth such as hers could never have met a cavity.

"Yes," she said. "Abe and I have talked before. You and I have met before too. Well, not met really. You saw me across a vampire and werewolf crowded diner before you died. I'm Sparrow and I opened the portal. There wasn't supposed to be any civilians there. But from what I hear, death wasn't permanent for you either. Anything you want to share?" She offered him another of her radiant smiles.

"And Abe is right, I have no intention of killing you."

When Sparrow flashed her smile at him, Tom’s knees went to jelly. How could such a brilliantly beautiful woman exist? She seemed familiar to Tom, and it took a moment to place her, but then he remembered the portal and the vampires coming through. ”So you’re a sorcerer, then,” he said. ”But I’m guessing that’s in the same way as in the Marvel universe.”

He picked up on something else with her, too, a feeling he had felt before. ”There it is again, Abe. Remember I told you I felt laughter from one of you and coldness from the other two? She feels like laughter, just like you do.” He shrugged his shoulders. ”Maybe I’m a werewolf,” he said, though not with a smile. ”They have heightened senses, right? Maybe that’s why I feel laughter and coldness from our group, but nothing when I went into the restaurant to get our food. Or maybe I’m some sort of sniffer, like something out of The Wheel of Time.”

Abe knew that he and Sparrow were Fey from what Sparrow had said earlier.  He considered outing the two of them as such to Tom, but didn't want to risk angering the one person in the parking lot who knew what they were actually doing.  Instead, he said to Tom, "Sparrow's mentioned someone in control of the supernatural in San Diego who might be willing to accept the fealty of our group in exchange for aid and training."

To her he asked, "So, should we be heading toward somewhere in San Diego to get help and meet this Baron?"

Tom frowned. "'In control of the supernatural?' How does that work? And exactly how many non-mundane beings are there, exactly?" Somewhere in the back of his world, Tom started to hear "A Whole New World" play.

"We definitely need to get Dean and Jack some help, though. Our worlds have basically turned upside down. if we can talk with some people and figure out what to do next, that would be huge. We also need to get our ride to its destination, so yeah, I'd say we need to get to San Diego as soon as we can."

"Supernatural scene, presumably not all the supernatural minutiae, but I don't know about the rest.  Sorry for the confusion."  Abe amended before adding.  "And the ride has a few more days in it."

"I am many things," Sparrow said. "And yes, I noticed that the Sorcerer Supreme can do some things that look like what I can do. One of the perks of hiding in plain sight."

Tom then mentioned she feels like laughter.

"Laughter? That would make sense. You can sense us? And the vampires? Know what we are. Interesting." She flirtatiously took Tom's hand, lightly caressed his arm with one of her fingers. Then, with a command word, the tip of her finger was surrounded by the fire you had seen previously. There was no heat. And as she slid her finger along your arm, your skin was effortlessly sliced open, and your blood liberated. And in a moment, blue lightning appeared on the edge of the wound and cracklingly healed Tom's arm. Sparrow smiled that timeless smile of hers again.

"Rare," she said. "I have met only a couple of Hunters across the centuries."

Abe and Tom then discussed the Baron and his relationship to the supernatural.

"De La Vega is a vampire. The leader of vampires in San Diego. I provide my services on occasion, but he does not control me. There are many more vampires than there are Fey though. And I don't know a single hunter in town, they have a tendency of killing other hunters as well as the rest of us."

"I would expect that you need another hunter to train you in how to use your abilities, just like Abe needs another Fey and the other two would need vampires. And having a Fey on retainer in one of his cohorts would be something he would like very much."

"And he could find many uses for having a hunter in his court too. But I suggest you should try to find something other than being his personal radar or an unending food storage. Binding your fates together in a package deal could facilitate that."

Abe's was rather surprised when Sparrow pronounced Tom a Hunter, rather than a werewolf.  "Sparrow, I'd love to stay here learning things as long as you'd let me, but I'm worried about my friends in the truck.  Is there anything we can do for them?"

After a moment's thought he added, "Also, could you give us an Idiot's Guide to Being Us so we don't wreck ourselves before getting to San Diego... at least any further than we did already?  Like: expect the guys in the back seat to turn evil and grow mustaches upon waking, or are they pretty much normal?  Can we drive over running water?  And if we get a flat, can I use a tire iron?"  Okay, that last was a bad question since if there was a flat tire on that truck, there would be a problem that a tire iron wouldn't fix, but the point of the question was valid.

"Not all vampires are the same," Sparrow said. "But generally, they only need to stay away from sunlight, fire, and anything holy. And you should probably not tell any normal person what has happened. Running water and garlic shouldn't be a problem. Nor should their personality change. But you're their food now, so...." Sparrow did not complete that sentence.

"In regards to what they need, that's an easy question to answer. They need blood. Lesser blood tastes bad and might not even work. And they look like they need a lot."

"And in regards to us. You're still you. Your choices are still your choices. Myths are myths."

When Sparrow sliced open Tom's arm, the young man gasped in shock, and then, dumbfounded, watched as his wounds rehealed. "A hunter?" he asked, repeating the term dubiously. "You mean like a guy who hunts deer or something?" Obviously, there was more to it than that. There was that weird sense he had, for one, along with these Wolverine/Deadpool healing powers he had now. He was still trying to accept that vampires and werewolves actually existed, along with whatever Abe and Sparrow were. The idea that there were even more kinds of supernatural creatures was even harder to process.

He thought back to all the stories of the supernatural that he'd heard. How much of it within all the legends and myths were actually real? Was Bigfoot real? Aliens? Talking animals and elves?

"So where can I find a teacher?" he asked Sparrow. "And you say hunters kill each other and you? Why?" Was he going to go mad and start killing indiscriminately? In spite of himself, Tom shivered. "It sounds like Dean, Jack, and I are going to be dangerous to the rest of you." And you to us, he thinks. The idea that he was now a food source for Jack and Dean was very troubling. How in the world were all going to survive this?

Abe smirked when Tom said that the group would be dangerous to Sparrow.  "I think she means you're a hunter like Van Helsing.  Specially gifted to fight supernatural beings... but I suspect that anyone who's been around for centuries isn't threatened by a single four hour old hunter.  Even if his friends are so distinguished as to be a four hour old fae and two comatose, four hour old vampires."

To Sparrow he asked, "Is there somewhere between here and the Baron where we could reasonably get the blood they need without hurting people, or do you think our best bet would be to go straight to him in this condition?"

"That's what we call you," Sparrow told Tom. "Your kind kills all of us Shadowlanders, I'm not sure why. In some sense, I guess, the Van Helsing analogy is accurate, but they want to kill 'monsters'. Not each other. I sense that the motivation is completely different. Not that I can put my finger on why. Nor do I know where you can find a teacher. You're the only hunter I know that is still alive. When you find each other, you duel, one of you dies, and there are sparks. Thinking about it, it actually reminds me of how the Dragonborn consumes the souls of dragons that die close to him in Skyrim. Perhaps that is why you hunt."

"I have worked with plenty of vampires. They haven't tried to eat me yet. I doubt it is a compulsion. I know it's not a compulsion for them and it doesn't seem to be a compulsion for you."

Abe then asked about where they could find blood.

"I do not think that is possible. Especially in their current condition. Most likely only a vampire can sort that out. Unless you hunt for them and feed them the blood manually."

Abe shook his head vigorously.  "We're close, but we're not that close.  They will have to owe the Baron or someone else in San Diego for helping them out when we get there."

He looked over at the truck.  "You want to ride along, or give us directions?  If you ride, you can play with the controls so long as you don't cause an accident."  He was joking about the last part - he assumed no one would want to crash an automobile that beautiful.

"You've played Skyrim?" Tom looked impressed. "I'd figure someone like you would spend most of her time lounging around, maybe listening to classical music or having bards serenade you." So Tom was basically a Hunter/Dragonborn. Yeah, this day was getting weirder by the hour.

Tom glanced worriedly at Dean and Jack. Neither of the two had come around yet, and Tom wondered how much longer they'd be out. "Let's get them to this Baron guy, then," he said. "As dangerous as it might be to us, I don't want to see our boys die here."

Sparrow accepted Abe's offer to ride with them and chuckled at his joke. "At least you have a sense of humor. You will need it."

And offering Tom her radiant smile once more. "Some classical music is wonderful and even the Bard serenaded me, though he was quite upset that I continually refused his advances. But sometimes, there is nothing more satisfying than killing a dragon!"

As the five of you traveled westward through Jacumba Hot Springs, she directed the GPS to Arcane Lux at 454 Sixth Avenue in San Diego.

You passed a tattoo parlor on your right and some store called The Love Shack on your left as you left town.

The Old Highway was desolate with mostly bushes, but some trees, sand, rock, and power lines on the sides. Though there were a few buildings too. You met a motorcycle going in the other direction and some guy that seemed to have been camping under one of the trees just three or so yards from the side of the road. And later you passed two parked RVs on your right. And after that, the opposing traffic increased slightly. And land was for sale to your left.

In the next community, you drove past Manzanita Diner. There even was a police SUV in the very next intersection. Exactly where you needed to turn! And you traveled on California State Route 94, with grass and trees on the sides of the road, for about 2,000 feet before you returned to the Kumeyaay Highway where traffic picked up even more.

And then there were billboards for the Golden Acorn Casino, which was located next to the Golden Acorn Campsite on the Indian Reservation. Later, you entered Cleveland National Forest. Not that it looked anything like a forest at this point. It was rather more of the same.

Laguna Mountain Recreational Area was then pointed out as the next exit. Apparently they didn't have a casino to overshadow them.

And finally, there started being trees on the side of the road again, not that they lasted. And they passed another 6x6 pickup on the side of the road.

There started being buildings near the highway again as they entered Alpine. And later the highway got wider. And in La Mesa they turned onto California State Route 125 heading south. And it turned into 94, the Martin Luther King Jr Freeway in Lemon Grove. And then into F street in East Village, San Diego. You turned left on Sixth Avenue, the border between the East Village and the Gaslamp Quarter. You drove a couple of blocks more before you stopped at the club. It was almost noon.

The Arcane Lux, THE club of the rich and famous in San Diego. It had been for years. It was a four-story luxury building with a turn of the century architecture that placed it on top ten lists of the most beautiful buildings in San Diego.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:28, Sat 02 Nov 2019.

Dean slouched motionless in the backseat of the truck, his bulk swaying slightly this way or that as Abe guided the vehicle through the rare turns that inevitably met them on their sojourn to some kind of relative safety, and some explanation as to what had occurred.

Did he dream? Or was he was all their purposes dead? If he did yet dream was it of family and the comforts of home? or nightmares about being disemboweled or burned alive? His face did not give so much as a hint, expressionless and cold.

"De La Vega owns this place," Sparrow said. With a swift movement of her left hand, flashes of heatless fire appeared suspended above her palm. The flashes soon coalesced into a gold coin, as if taken out of a John Wick movie. But thicker, older, and more intricate.

"This is for you," she said and reached back to give the coin to Tom. "If you want me, hold this coin, and call for me." And when he had taken it, she continued.

"Do either of you have a cell phone I can borrow?"

During the drive, Tom split his attention between checking on Jack and Dean and watching the scenery outside the window. Pretty countryside. Tom found himself wanting to take a hike through the scrub grass and the rest of the vegetation, maybe backpack out there for a week or two. Maybe he could get his head on straight after the weirdness that was today.

It would be good to see his parents when he arrived in San Diego. He knew he couldn't see them right away--they needed to see to Dean and Jack first--but right now, Tom needed some normalcy.

Once they arrived at the Arcane Lux, Tom looked up at the hotel. He had driven by here before, but he had never gone inside. So this is where the vampire king of the city hung out? In spite of himself, he shivers a bit. He wasn't looking forward to meeting more vampires, not after their attack on the Jade Dragon. How were they going to get two unconscious vampires inside? He looked around for an awning or an underground parking garage.

When Sparrow asked for a phone, Tom pulled his out and passed it to the beautiful woman.

"Why did the vampires attack those werewolves, anyway?" he asked. "It seemed absolutely mental."
This message was last edited by the player at 18:04, Sat 02 Nov 2019.

"Vampires don't like werewolves," Sparrow said as she accepted Tom's offered phone. "And that was some sort of secret high-level meeting. So De La Vega sent a high powered strike team to take them out."

As she completed her explanation, Tom bent over in the back seat with an expression of pain.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:08, Sat 02 Nov 2019.

Abe listened to Tom and Sparrow as he pulled his own phone out to call Carson.  Then he realized that there were still a pair of near-corpses in the back seat, along with bloody clothing hidden in packs.   Instead, he asked Sparrow, "So, do you know who Carson is?". In the darkest recesses of his heart, he kind of hoped Carson was part of the elite strike force that no longer existed, so that the car might need to be driven back across country some time.

"He's one of the Baron's men," Sparrow said with a surprised face. "How do you know that name?"

Abe smirked.  "Maybe I am just really well connected...  Or maybe I am due to deliver the truck to him in three days.". He said,his tone making it rather clear which was true.

"So that's why this car has tinted windows good enough to protect a vampire," Sparrow said.

"I had no idea when we got them into the truck and they didn't burn, but when you put in the address I was supposed to bring the truck to in the GPS as our destination, I started wondering."  He looked around and decided to go ahead with letting Carson know they were there.  "Should I ask him for help with the guys in the back seat?"

He sent a text to his number: This is Abe Griffith, delivering your truck a few days early if you'd like it now.  Am at Arcane Lux with Sparrow.  Need discretion and help regarding 2 passengers who are like you.



OOC: If Sparrow advised against asking for help with the 2 vampires, extra crispy, Abe leaves off the last sentence of the text.

Tom slipped the golden coin Sparrow had given him into his pocket. He pointed at the underground garage. ”Abe, maybe pull in there? Then we don’t have to expose Dean and Jack to the sun again.” How easily Tom said this. He was certain he was going mad.

And then a wave of pain hit him, and he nearly doubled over in the back of the truck. ”Somebody else,” he gasped out. ”Not cold, not laughter - just a lot of pain!”

Abe drove the truck where Tom had directed, having missed the underground entrance himself.

"You can ask him for help," Sparrow said. And Abe sent a text.

Tom pointed them to an entrance for an underground garage before he doubled over in pain. Sparrow turned around as much as she could and looked back at him.

"Are you okay," she asked, realizing just how stupid the question was as soon as it had passed her lips.

Abe drove the car there and stopped at the closed entrance. There is a canopy over the entrance so you are in complete shadow. 15 minutes later a man in his 40s stepped out of a door from the underground garage. He was dressed in a black suit with a black tie, black shoes, and black sunglasses. Only his shirt was white. His face and hands were tanned, his dark hair short. He seems to be a little shorter than the shortest of you and might be a little heavier than the lightest of you.

He knocked on the driver window.


* If neither door nor window is opened for some time:

He knocks on the window again.

* If the window is opened:

He looked inside at all of you and exchanged greetings with Sparrow.

"I'm Carson," he said looking at Abe. "You're early, which is good. You're not alone, which is bad. And you seem to know Sparrow. Which is mysterious. And your passengers don't seem to be like me."


* If the door is opened:

He exchanges greetings with Abe. Looks inside. Exchanges greetings with Sparrow.

"You're early, which is good. You're not alone, which is bad. And you seem to know Sparrow. Which is mysterious. And your passengers don't seem to be like me."

* Followed in both cases by:

Sparrow made the victory sign with her right hand, making sure Carson saw her signal.

"Ah, right this way."

He went back inside and soon the garage door opened.



[OOC Just to be perfectly clear, the man is wearing a tie, not a bowtie commonly worn with the semi-formal dress code called black tie.]

Abe rolled down the window promptly.  When Carson commented on his text and passengers, he responded, "I'm early because I had supervised help driving.  Unfortunately, we were so early that we ended up caught in a crossfire between unusual beings at a truck stop a few hours east of here... crossfire being entirely metaphorical as it was mostly claws and teeth going around.  When we all woke up, we were different.  I expect that two of the passengers are rather like you would be if you walked about 15' in that direction."  He pointed back toward the open sunlight.  "Sparrow said that we'd need another vampire to help them get back on their feet, and when I asked if I should ask you for that help she said I could... perhaps I leaped to a wrong conclusion?"

When directed in, he pulled the truck into the garage.

Underground was a half-filled garage, with a limo, a few SUVs, and a couple of sports cars. All of them with heavily tinted windows, just like the 6x6. In the rearview mirror, you noted Carson putting something in his ear. Something with a trailing wire leading inside his jacket.  Then he talked to himself while pointing at one of the parking spaces. And then he made a phone call.

After you had parked, six more individuals in black suits joined the group. One of them was female. They were all in their 20s, all of them fit and capable. Two men each brought Dean and Jack upstairs as Carson led the way and the two suits with nothing else to do were last in the procession. Despite there being an elevator, Carson took the stairs.

On the first floor, he led you out into the club. There was a stage, a large dance floor, tables with chairs, and a bar. Everything you expected the rich and famous wanted in a night out and more. The second floor hugged the walls, but most places it allowed for the club to have a very high ceiling.

"What is this," Carson asked Sparrow.

"It is exactly what it appears to be," Sparrow replied.

"And you have confirmed that?"

"Not precisely. They were at Jade Dragon. I saw three of them die. It's definitely plausible."

"And what about the fourth?"

"Let's talk about that with the Baron shall we."

Carson nodded.

[Feel free to talk to each other, Sparrow, Carson, or any of the other MIBs.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:04, Mon 04 Nov 2019.

Even under the power of two fit bearers, Dean's unconscious form made for an awkward burden.

His meaty arms and legs hung towards the floor, while his big shaven head bounced slightly with every shuffling step. In addition his light weight clothing rode up here and there even before they had to navigate the staircase.

He was dead weight, no pun intended. But for how much longer who could say?
This message was last edited by the player at 16:00, Mon 04 Nov 2019.

Abe looked back and forth between Carson and Sparrow.  "So, it sounds like you guys were expecting a group like us at some point?  But it involved all of us dying?  Sparrow, did you kill me?"  Clearly it was at least somewhat for his own good if she did, so he wasn't angry... but was rather confused at what he was hearing.

"Not really," Carson said. "You made a claim of what you are and Sparrow confirmed that it was plausible."

"I didn't kill you," Sparrow said. "You only needed to be unlocked to open you to your true potential. I broke the leash that bound you and your body didn't take that very well. So you collapsed."
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 15:53, Mon 04 Nov 2019.

Maybe 20 minutes later, an elegant African American male sauntered down the stairs and headed towards you. He wore a dark red suit, a blue shirt, and a striped red tie. He was bald and had an Obi-Wan Kenobi beard.

As he approached, Carson told you that that was the Baron.

He remained standing and didn't invite you to sit.

"Is it true," he asked looking at Carson

"As far as I can tell, it appears so," Carson said.

"And you vouch for them?" He looked at Sparrow.

"I do," Sparrow responded.

"Then let's feed them."

They lowered Dean and Jack and De La Vega revealed his fangs and bit the wrists of two of the men that had helped carry the duo. And their blood left their bodies. The Baron soon stopped them and licked their wrists, closing the wound completely; as if it had never been there.

[Dean and Jack are now at 1 HP and you return to consciousness.]

"Bring the herd," the Baron ordered and the female MIB left. Only minutes later she returned with dozens of people. Men, women, old, and young. People of all ethnicities. By their clothing some were rich and others were not. Some were attractive. A smorgasbord of variety.

The MIBs help Jack and Dean to their feet.

"You need to feed to return to your full strength. Take your pick. But don't kill them!"

[OOC Dean and Jack, if you decide to partake, describe what the person you feed on look like. And let me know why you picked that person, you can use a PM if you like.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:22, Mon 04 Nov 2019.

Hunger.

It was a word that had little real meaning for Dean. Dean who had grown up on a prosperous nation with plenty of food on the shelves, Dean who had visited a sports nutritionist on more than one occasion. He had even had  a fairly specific diet for years. Such an abundance of food that he could pick and choose for optimum performance.

Now, the word meant something.

Hunger was the thing that had stared out at him in the pages of history books. Hunger was what had driven his ancestors to tackle game many times their own size, or to devour their neighbors during a hard winter. It showed in his eyes.

It was not a slavering loss of control, but it was easy to see. The man, if a man he could still be called, was starving.

He picked the biggest, and the strongest looking one among them. The parts of him that had studied anatomy whispering about the sheer quantity contained within. Good blood, strong blood, and lots of it.

This, in turn, theoretically meant they would be the hardest to kill. And would give him the most room for, well, for error.

The moral aspect of it, that front part of his brain that cared about such things screamed somewhere in the back of his mind. But that brain was deep in the back, that primal center, it was running the show at the moment.

And it would not be denied.

Dean watched them file in, understood what was expected, and moved the moment he received the word. Everything else would have to wait.

Dean took the big, strong male. Bit him hard and fed long and deep. You could see a feeling of ecstasy on the man's face. He made no effort to stop Dean from Feeding. But a few seconds later, Dean stopped, and let the man go. Blood still leaking from the wound.

"Lick the wound and it will close," the Baron informed Dean.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:24, Mon 04 Nov 2019.

Dean had never done drugs in his life, but he had to assume that the sensation he was feeling was something akin the Heroin.

He felt better than he ever dreamed would be possible. As the blood perfused his system, and his mind gradually cleared, he began to recognize the inherent wrongness of the situation. His memory also struggled to catch up to just how he had arrived at the present moment.

He looked like he was becoming more aware, and then, both concerned and confused. He eventually pulled away and saw the fresh red blood still welling up from the wound. He paused, looking conflicted, before he eventually acted on the direction and sealed the wound with a hesitant lick to each puncture.

As he regained his full height he blinked, and then took an unsteady step backwards. His gaze locked on Tom, and then uncertainty upon Abe. He looked like he had a million questions, his eyes practically screamed out for answers, but some other force kept in check, and from breaking into hysterics.

Where as before he had seemed on deaths now, now just a few moments later, he seemed stronger than ever.

Tom felt that he had been co-opted into some kind of movie, maybe The Godfather or John Wick. He followed along behind the others, doing his best not to look too curious about his surroundings. He didn't want to stick out like a rube at his first rodeo. Still, this whole experience felt strange.

As they traveled up through the building's staircase, Tom stayed close to the guys carrying Dean and Jack, although not too close. Were they all vampires, too? Tom kind of pictured vampires to act like royalty, somehow, lording it over lesser beings. Maybe it was the fashion sense, or the immortality. Whatever it was, Tom didn't feel safe, not here where vampires ruled.

He watched, fascinated, as first the Baron bit his men, and then as a crowd of people came pouring in to the hotel. The vampires' food source. The thought makes him sick to his stomach, and the feeling grew even more when he saw what he knew would be coming, Dean feeding on a particularly large man.

The look on the victim's face startled Tom the most, though--a look of almost euphoria. When Dean looked at him after his feeding, Tom, turned away, disgusted by what he had seen. Of course he didn't say anything--he'd likely be the next one to be fed on.

Vampires were supposed to be able to read minds, weren't they? Or was Tom mixing up his lore? Whatever the case, he attempted to be as calm as possible. No doubt one sign of weakness and the vamps would rush him, either killing him outright or forcing him to become another of their mindless thralls.

The wounds vanished as soon as Dean had licked them.

"That only works when you feed," De La Vega said.

It was sad in a way, to watch the big kid. Not even old enough to buy a beer, and here he was in front of a bunch of strangers trying to somehow grapple with an event that would likely take years, if not decades to fully process.

Like an amputee waking up after a car wreck, he could follow directions. Roll over, swallow these pills, give me your arm. But in Deans case it was, drink the blood of this stranger, close the wound to hide your deeds from the world, don't freak out and break down in front of the few people that might possibly know that was going on. He obeyed because he did not know what else to do, and to start pulling on that thread was to risk unraveling everything that was keeping him upright.

When Tom turned away, it hurt. It hurt because Dean could not blame him for doing it. He also tried not to look at the man from whom he had just bit. Like the morning after a drunken one night stand, it was kind of weird now.

The big picture stuff was just too much. What had happened in the Jade Dragon, the memory of the burning out in the parking lot. It was easier to focus on the little things, like how his "fit bit" had stopped reading anything, and how he realized that he was not breathing. He had been subconsciously holding his breath, but it didn't matter, there was just no urge to do anything about it.

"You rescued me." Dean finally managed to say softly, looking first to their host, the charismatic bald man in the suit, then to Abe and Tom. It was obvious even in his shocked state that had he been left out there in the parking lot, he would burned right down to his bones. But he was here, wherever here was, and so they had somehow gotten him to safety.

He could have gone with "What the hell just happened?" or settled on just screaming his head off, but some part of him knew that he was in the presence of somebody incredibly important, and he damn well needed to make a good first impression.

"There are rules to your new existence," the Baron said. "But we'll get to those in a bit." He then looked at Abe and Tom. "And what about you two. What are you?"

Abe watched as 'the herd' was brought out.  He wondered why people would offer themselves for this.  Perhpaps they sold their blood, or perhaps their lives had been brushed by the supernatural, and now they gave of their resources to sustain those who could protect them?  Then he saw the look of those who were bitten... perhaps they did it for the rush - drugs were bad but at least this one allowed others to live and they were taken care of after.  Still, Abe was hoping to find a way to support his friends without needing them to directly harm others.

"I've been told that I am Fey and I have no reason to second guess that."  Abe responded.  "But I think more importantly, I'm friends with the other three here."

"I see," the Baron said and looked questioningly at Sparrow. "Do you have any comments?"

"I do," Sparrow said. "I told him that, because it is true. And I have all intentions of training him in all the necessary Fae skills."

"And then what?"

"He wants to remain with his friends. I'm sure you and I could arrange that."

He nodded and said something you couldn't hear.

His eyes wandered from person to person standing in front of him in his club.

Having seen enough movies and experienced a bloodbath himself only earlier today, Tom knew that this situation could go from 0 to entirely messed up in a moment. Outwardly, he tried to stay calm, but internally, he just wanted to get out of there as fast as he could.

When the Baron asked him what he was, Tom said, "Sparrow says I'm a Hunter. I can feel when people are different, not what they seem to be. You feel cold, for instance, and Sparrow here feels like laughter."

"And he too is friends with the other three," Sparrow hurridly added before the Baron could say anything.

"Are you certain," De La Vega asked.

"I have spent time with them, both Abe and Tom have shown me that the four of them are friends."

The Baron chuckled. "I was asking about him being a hunter."

"Oh, I have tested him and the results speak for themselves. He could be nothing else."

"Kill him," the Baron ordered.

And as the MIBs turned on Tom, Sparrow pressed herself up against him as if she was shielding him from them, and said "No!"

The MIBs looked at the Baron and he waved them off.

"Why not?"

"How many Hunters have you met?"

"None, but I've heard what has happened to others."

"And what have you heard?"

"They kill us!"

"But he hasn't done that."

"Perhaps he's playing the long game."

"Is that what they do?"

"No," the Baron said with a sigh. "They show up and they kill."

"Exactly! Tom hasn't done that."

"But from what Abe told Carson, this is a new condition. Perhaps he doesn't know how yet."

"You mean the way a new vampire doesn't know how to hate werewolves?"

"Exactly."

"Then we make sure he is taught differently."

"Can we do that?"

"If they are all in the same cohort, how could we not."

"Is that what you want?" The Baron looked at Abe, Dean, Jack, and Tom for a response.

Through this exchange, Sparrow had remained pressed up against Tom. Not even a piece of paper could fit between them. The top of her head pressing against the side of his, accentuating the half foot height difference between the two.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 17:21, Wed 06 Nov 2019.

Dean takes half a step forward before he catches himself. He did not know much, hardly anything at all, and it was getting stranger by the minute. But what he did know was that Tom seemed to be on the verge of being mobbed and killed.

He looked like he was about to say something when the woman shielded Tom with her body. A lot of words were being thrown about. Fey. Hunter. Vampire. Werewolf. It did not take a genius to know which of the above Dean fit under, and that acceptance ca,e with unsettling ease. After all, what else could he be? What else could explain what he had just experienced?

And he was supposed to hate Werewolves? That had not been lost on him either.

When asked if he wanted Tom to remain alive, Dean found he had to breath again in order to speak, this caused a slight pause. "I..." then the urgency of the situation pushed him past caution. "Yes, of course."
he said with surprising confidence. "I don't exactly know what's going on, I'll admit, or what a Hunter is exactly, but if you want me to vouch for him, I will." he looked to Tom. "You're willing to learn Tom, right? You're not looking to kill anybody?" he suddenly remembered that Tom had been on track to join the military. "At least not anybody that doesn't deserve it?"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:03, Sun 10 Nov 2019.

Abe was surprised at Sparrow's vehemence in protecting Tom... as well as that it caused the vampires en masse - and to some extent the Baron - pause.  He watched the dialogue unfold, not having any way to affect anything himself, yet.

He wondered slightly at the Fae woman's shift from being a bit stand-offish about teaching him to her statement that she had every intention of doing so.  Perhaps she had warmed up to the group... or at least Tom?  Or perhaps even more was going on than what he could see.  He pulled his mind back from that rabbit hole in time to consciously register the Baron's question.

Abe agreed with Dean.  "Yes, certainly."  He responded.  His consenting to stopping for food - as well as bringing the guys along to begin with - had gotten them killed once.  How could he leave any of them out to dry now?

We kill, Tom thought, as the Baron’s words sunk in. But why? Tom didn’t want to kill anyone here. He was practically in love with Sparrow, or more accurately, infatuated, and Abe, Jack, and Dean were his friends.

His heart beat faster when Sparrow shielded him, and he realized that if she weren’t there, he would most likely already be dead. He didn’t know why she was willing to put her life on the line for him, but she was powerful, and he suspected it would take more than a few vampires to do her in.

”I don’t want to kill anyone,” he said slowly. ”I’m still trying to process what’s happened here.” Like that vampires and werewolves and whatever Abe and Sparrow are exist, not to mention whatever that’s happened to him. ”I swear that I won’t try to kill anyone here.” If he even could.

Jack awoke, and indeed, he was hungry. Hungrier than he'd ever been in his life. Hungry in a way he'd never been before. His first instinct, upon awakening, was simply to reach out for the nearest neck and begin drinking, but that thought alone jarred him from his starved stupor, so alien as it was in his normal thought processes.

"Okay, what is even the hell," Jack said, languidly, in the tone of voice of someone who had only just woken from a deep sleep. "I am too hungry, and too tired for this crap. Hunters? Werewolves? And freaking vampires?" He said, before accidentally poking his lips with his newfound fangs.

"God dammit!" he yelled. "Fine, I'm guessing that feeding isn't optional for us. Well, let's at least make this slightly less awkward." He felt weird about feeding on the men; there was something intimate about getting into someone's personal space and seeking one's teeth into their neck, and it felt too personal for that. So instead he reached for one of the women and bit in, doing his best to not drain her dry.

Once he'd had his fill, he looked to the others. "Okay, you guys mind filling me in on what's been going on while I was... out?" he asked the rest of the group. "I see I kind of missed a few things."

Jack fed on the most beautiful female in the herd. And like the male Dean had fed on, there was an obvious ecstasy on her face. Jack held her up easily, just as Dean had held up the much larger man he had chosen to feed on.


After a few seconds, Jack stopped feeding on her and continued feeding on the second most beautiful female in the group. The ecstasy was just as plain on her face and Jack held her close too. A


[OOC: Ecstacy is a specific condition in GURPS. The person is incapacitated with overwhelming pleasure. If standing or sitting, they fall down. There is more, but we'll take that the other thread.]

Abe glanced at Jack.  "Short version - you're now a vampire so you burned when you got into the sun.  We got you into a coveniently sun-proof truck and drove us here, after one pit stop and using a phone-a-friend.  Long story is... long.  We can bore you with it once things are settled here.  For now the Baron just wants to know if you're on board for him not having his men kill Tom."

Abe then remembered Jack's tendency to shoot his mouth off in less than brilliant ways.  "But before you give an answer, I'd remind you that if he hadn't helped me get you and Dean into the truck, you'd both be little piles of ash in the parking lot at the Jade Dragon and he wouldn't have just been threatened with getting re-corpsified.  And before you ask: yes, this is real life."

Dean looks to Jack, obviously having some idea of what the other young man (could they really be called Men anymore?) was experiencing. Abe's explanation is as accurate as it is brief, and he has nothing much more to add. Hearing it just laid out like that does not make it any easier to accept.

"Thank you for that" Dean says seriously, referring to Abe and Tom saving them. How many like himself did not survive their first day? Their first week? Their first year? He can easily imagine the majority of new Vampires perishing through all sorts of violence. The thought is sobering to say the least, especially in the company of those willing to kill at the whim of this "Prince"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:03, Sun 10 Nov 2019.

"Good," the Baron says when all of you have responded regarding to Tom.

"There is much for you to do." De La Vega continues looking at each of you. "Sparrow, you can remain at the club if you like, but the rest of the day is vampire business."

"I'll be here," Sparrow says. "Come see me when you are ready to leave."

"Follow me," the Baron says and walks away to the stairs without looking behind him to see who is following him. Behind whoever of you that do are the two male MIBs who didn't give of their blood. Carson leaves on his own business.

From the staircase up to the second floor, you have a full view of the club floor and up here there's another bar and plenty of round and square tables with white table cloths on a fully carpeted floor. And a number of areas primed and ready for bottle service.

You continue up another set of stairs to the third floor, where all you can see is another set of stairs, a locked metal door, and a "Private" sign on the door. The baron unlocks the door with an RFID tag. There are a keypad and slot for key cards too.

There is another staircase leading upstairs, but the Baron ignores it. He leads you down a couple of corridors to a conference room with eight chairs around an oval, mahogany table. With all the technical and other equipment one can expect in such a space.

Over the next few hours, you speak about rules and expectations. Of vampires in general and of cohorts in his service.


[OOC You now all have Duty (Baron De La Vega; 6 or less) [-2], which means that if I roll 6 or less on 3d6, or slightly more than 9% of the time, you will be called to duty and it will occasionally be hazardous.]

Time passes quickly as they cover the basics. How this had happened? if they had not been "bit" (or if they had been and not remembered it?). What, besides the sun of course, would kill them?, did they age? and how often they would need to feed?, and how this had all been kept a secret? (mostly secret. Everybody knew about Vampires of course, just in the fictional capacity).

Dean tries hard not to waste De Vega's time, and to appear confident, respectful and capable. He does not bother asking things like if they could "go back", or if they could ever see the sun again. This seems depressingly obvious now.

So after the basics he moves on to more practical matters. Where can they sleep? (If they still needed to?), from who they could feed (and how often they would need to?) and if the victims would remember it. What happens if they did not, or could not feed? Who could they call or come to with more questions?

Once Dean feels they have a handle on the basics, he moves on to more personal matters. If Vampires created other Vampires, then who had created him? And why? What were werewolves and why were they at war with them? Would they be targeted by them in the street? Were there other "enemies" like the "Hunters" that had been referenced?

If De Vega was the "Price" how had that happened? And how was the rest of the heirarachy structured? And were other beings such as Sparrow beholden to it? What else existed our there?

And finally, if he had any personal advice for them to help them integrate into their new existence?
This message was last edited by the player at 13:04, Fri 08 Nov 2019.

Baron De La Vega took the time to answer your questions, not all answers were positive. Having the Baron answering these questions was likely not the norm, but he didn't seem to mind nor was he rushing things along.

To become a vampire, most of your blood has to be drained from your body and you must then ingest a sufficient amount of vampire blood. The vampire whose blood you ingest becomes your Sire and you become one of that clan.

In addition to sunlight, you can be killed by heat/fire, supernatural weapons, such as werewolf claws and vampire fangs, and any strike to the heart. Some claim holy attacks are lethal too, but in all my time, I have never found any basis for that claim. Going to church is not an issue.

You no longer age.

If you want to be satiated or camouflaged, you need to feed nightly. Learning how to use makeup can be a vital survival skill.

Shadowland is secret because we keep it a secret. Lapses have permanent solutions, one way or another. We find it easier to do many things if we maintain a mundane identity and hide in plain sight. Stoker was a vampire. And rumors that Meyer is a Daywalker can't seem to die.

Your need for sleep hasn't changed. It's still eight hours. But many chose to sleep all day and stay up all night, for obvious reasons. Most will wake up at sunset.

We generally don't turn homeless people, so if you don't have a place to stay, you have to figure out your sleeping arrangements on your own. As your Sire is dead, we will assign someone from your clan to take that role, they might have some suggestions. And will be the one you can turn to for answers. They will also take care of all your feeding related questions.

As they didn't have permission to do so, I suspect that your unbirth was an accident. Considering how much of their blood you have to ingest to be infected, accidents are extremely rare. But based on what I've been told regarding your situation, it's not an unlikely scenario. Who is impossible to say for sure, unless only one member of your clan was present at the strike.

Werewolves are shapeshifters, they have been our enemies since time immemorial. If a werewolf knows that you are a vampire and they can attack you without exposing Shadowland, they have sometimes done so. How likely that is, I cannot say.

There are not very many Hunters. They are the rarest of Shadowlanders and all they want is our heads. And their blades do kill us. Others are friends or enemies on a case by case basis.

I am the Baron of San Diego because I took it. And I remain the Baron because I'm good at it and those that have tried to take it from me have permanently failed. I am the leader of all vampires in the San Diego area. Other Shadowlanders have their own power structures. I have a working relationship with Sparrow.

I am also the Batran of the Cravat clan in San Diego and as such, I am a member of the Council. And the Council controls vampire affairs under my command, as the Baron.

There are Demons and Angels. I wouldn't expect them to conform to any specific religious traditions for those terms.

As for personal advice, listen to your Sire. More than anything else, they can help you stay undead. Find a place where you can sleep safely. And figure out quickly what works for you in the feeding department.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:03, Fri 08 Nov 2019.

Dean is "drinking from the fire hose" so to speak, and is trying very hard to retain everything the Prince is saying.

He suspects, must like the aformentioned amputee, that the full weight of it all will come when he is alone and left to process everything on his own terms. To keep his mind from straying into how his life was over (as well as prospects of career, family, safety...) He focuses on the present.

"Sir, I'd like to try and find out who my Sire was, or at least which Clan I belong to now so I can follow your advice, try to find a coach as soon as possible" it was the most applicable word that came to mind, Dean added. "A mentor" to make it sound more...educated.

"Is there anyway to tell who he was? Or which Clan he belonged to? It all happened so fast, I think I'd have a hard time describing him, but I can try."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:41, Fri 08 Nov 2019.

"That's one of the things we will do this evening," the Baron says.

Dean wants to know more. He wants to know about all the Clans, he wants to know how old De Vega is, he wants to know how to protect himself against werewolves and where beings like Sparrow come from. But his mind is full to the point where he feels like he can't retain much more.

He also senses that he wants to stay in the Princes good graces, and so he holds back from straying from the truly important things.

"Thank you, again"

With the promise that they will learn more  tonight, and that they are not just going to be thrown out in the street, he sits back in the generous office chair and let's Jack satisfy his own curiosity.

Abe considered the answers Dean had been given.  "I won't waste your time on things Sparrow is likely to tell me about later anyways, so I'll just ask this: why are you investing any time in us?  I would expect that person in your position has plenty of other things that need a great deal of attention.  A few Shadowland newbies who haven't even demonstrated the ability to survive 24 hours on their own - and who have in fact already almost died at least once.  It seems strange, from my admittedly limited perspective."

"You are here," the Baron says. "In my casame. In my Domain. Dean and Jack are Sireless Younglings and newcomers to San Diego. By the Second Tradition, a newcomer's first duty is to present himself to the Lord of the Domain. And you have done so in the proper place. By the Fifth Tradition, they need a Sire. It's still daytime. Everyone else is sleeping. There are still hours before any prospective Sire can be selected, informed, and then travel us. The buck stops here. I could have placed you in holding, but what fun is that? Besides, you are my latest cohort. Shouldn't I take this rare opportunity to do something about that?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:41, Sat 09 Nov 2019.

Abe nodded.  "Thank you.  How many capital-T Traditions are there, and what are they, if they're not too numerous and you don't mind?  Also, are there customs to which everyone in Shadowland adheres - other than the super obvious first rule of fight club?"

Tom listens, fascinated, as De La Vega explains the inner workings of being a vampire. Obviously, none of the information is directly related to Tom, but if he is apparently part of the Baron's cadre or whatever it is now, it's important for him to pay attention, especially if part of his job from here on out is to continue to keep Jack and Dean alive. He smirks a little at the idea that his two companions will need to learn how to use makeup.

Not many Hunters. Tom shifts slightly in his seat. Sparrow had mentioned that Tom needed to find a mentor, but if Hunters kill one another and other supernatural creatures on sight, the odds are slim of Tom finding someone who can teach him more about who he is and how to deal with all of this.

The Baron also mentions he's someone called the Batran of the Cravat clan. More titles, Tom presumes.

Demons? Angels? Curious. Does this mean that God is real, too, or is Tom just leaping to conclusions?

Cohorts. Traditions. So many new things to learn. The Baron has turned on the firehose, and Tom tries to absorb as much of it as he can.

"Thank you for accepting me into this cohort, sir," Tom says seriously when he gets a chance. "I know my nature seems like it could be a threat to you and yours, and I'm grateful that you've spared my life and given me an opportunity to show I'm trustworthy."

"Each community has its own rules," the Baron says. "There is no committee that rules all of Shadowland. Even the rule of secrecy was made within each sub-community."

"Of course Tom," the Baron says after he turned from Abe to Tom. "Sparrow was right. I've never met a hunter before. That unfortunately also means that I don't know where to find one that can help you to unlock your powers."

As the meeting continued Dead felt himself beginning to lose focus. Had he slept? Was the condition he was in prior to coming here anything like sleeping? The sheer volume of information, the changes to his body, and the enormity of what was occurring looming over him.

"May I stay here? Today? I know you said I need a place of my own, and I intend to find one, but...just before we meet the others." That was also daunting. He had to present himself to the rest of, well, to a group of Vampires, and he was in essence trying out for a team. He had to impress them, at least one of them, if he was to have any chance of finding somebody to take responsibility for him. He tried not to think about what would happen if he failed to do so.

This could lay the foundations for many years to come. He needed better clothing, a shower, he needed to get his shit together before he faced them.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:56, Sat 09 Nov 2019.

"You don't have to worry about that," the Baron says.

You continue to talk, the Baron makes more than an effort to get to know the four of you and around 6 PM food is brought up for Abe and Tom, who hadn't eaten since their late breakfast at the spa.

De La Vega was a gracious host and the fact that the sun sets late in San Diego wasn't even an issue. Talking about sunset, you could perfectly time it with the Baron's change. It was like a sun suddenly became a black hole. His gravitas and charisma literally caught and held you at his event horizon.

It was easy to see how someone could follow him into rebellion or excommunication and he wasn't even trying. Impressive was an understatement!

A couple of hours later, the door is opened again and nine individuals enter the conference room. One of the MIBs opens the door for the rest and a very beautiful Indian female enters. She wore an exclusive sleeveless, indigo dress, and a blood-red dragon tattoo wraps itself around her left arm.

A Native American male in an even more exclusive, dark blue, three-piece suit, white shirt, and black tie in a knot you haven't seen before follows her inside. He moves like a tiger, seems to see everything, and radiates the same impressive charisma as De La Vega does.

A male shimmers into view where there previously hadn't been anyone into the third position. He is dressed all in black and can't be described as anything other than a monster!

The beautiful blonde behind him, had stopped before entering, perhaps to let the monster pass her. She was wearing a full sleeve, red gown with a collar that reaches the top of her ears while the voluminous hood rests on her back. And she is just as impressive and magnetic as the two men you have already seen. Despite having milky white eyes.

A Caucasian male dressed in a black suit with a black shirt, the two topmost buttons unbuttoned, follows her and impressive and magnetic seems to be a common trait among vampires. This is the fourth you have seen today.

An African American female, taller than everyone but Dean, follows in her green outfit. Looking like a model that could arm wrestle Dean or Tom and win. She is paying more attention to the screen of the large tablet in her emerald green leather cover than to her surroundings.

The final Council member is an African American male in black cargo pants and a nice looking black multi-pocket vest over an olive t-shirt. He is the only one of the men with the physique of an alpha male.

Most of the newcomers paid more attention to the four of you than anything else. But before they could do more than that, the Baron sent you away, escorted downstairs by the two MIBs.




[OOC: If this had been a TV series, picture these seven vampires portrayed by Priyanka Chopra, Eli Santana, Jason Momoa in a monstrous makeup, Yvonne Strahovski, Brad Pitt, a 6'4" Oluchi Onweagba, and Mike Colter.]

[OOC: Writing this post, which mostly was getting the appropriate visuals for the seven vampires took much more time than I had hoped or wanted. And with another eight on the way, I really need to split the "introductions" up.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:56, Mon 11 Nov 2019.

Dean, although obviously young, had been somewhat accustomed to being in the company of physically powerful athletes, demanding coaches and eagle eyed fans and media. But nothing he had ever experienced had prepared him in the slightest for the panoply of predators that had filed into the conference room. Although he was taller than all of them, and at least appeared stronger, it really meant nothing. At least that was the impression he had come away with.

He was simultaneously relieved and a little confused when they were shepherded out of the room and back down the stairs while the "adults" conversed. He had assumed something like an admissions board would have taken place right there, but it seemed they had other business to discuss away from the new blood.

Although he did not have to, he let out a long, slow breath, let his head fall back, and his eyes close as he mentally prepared himself for what was about to come. When he opened them he was glad to see the others, friends he could say, his "cohort" as they had been called. His team. At the very least they were all in this together.

The expression on his face told them he was nervous despite his efforts to hide it. Abe had Sparrow, it seemed like a done deal, and poor Tom seemed to have nobody else to relate to. Not even rumors of people like him. So it could be worse, Dean thought.

"That's a fuck ton of Vampires." Dean said just loud enough to carry within the group as they navigated the staircase down.

Going almost all day without eating, Tom had dug into his meal with gusto before realizing that only he and Abe had eaten. Oh, right, the whole blood thing. The vamps still had to eat, but their diet was much more restrictive now.

When the nine vampires entered, Tom could feel them coming first, but seeing them in person was even more striking. These people radiated power, and they all seemed so different. Some were magnetically charismatic or beautiful. One was monstrous. Another seemed like he was either military or former military. And the last two - maybe they were underlings or something? For some reason, Tom had imagined vampires to be pretty much homogeneous, but these nine were quite diverse, well, except for their two escorts. He wondered why the other two felt more muted than De La Vega and the rest of the council.

Now, Tom nods his head when Dean put into words what Tom was thinking. Then, Tom asks their escorts, "Are you guys vampires, too? I kind of feel from you what I feel from the Baron and the other council members, but it seems muted somehow."

"No," one of them says. "We are not." There is a finality in his words. As if he isn't going to elaborate. As you approached the second floor, music becomes louder and louder. There are people here now. The spaces that before only had been primed for bottle service is now earning the club money.

The MIBs continue down to the first floor, the dance floor is filled with guests, but you only skirted around it, and then you go through another private door that you know leads down to the garage.

When you enter the garage, eight individuals are waiting for you.

“They are not mine,” a woman to the left wearing blue jeans and a long-sleeved shirt says. Like one of the vampires above, she looks like a monster. She and the air around her shimmers and she vanishes.

In the center, two beautiful women had been talking to each other when you entered. The Israeli, oozing an aura of command, wore a sleeveless tan jacket and matching tan pants of the same material.

"So, two of you are younglings," she says.

The other female was an elegantly dressed redhead in a sleeveless top and pants. She is alert and ready to go.

To their left was a Korean female, fit, strong, explosive, in a light blue jeans jacket and tight, dark blue pants. And next to her a Caucasian male in his 60s dressed in a gray sweater and pants.

To the right is an African American woman, her features hidden in the shadows of the garage, and what she’s wearing it making it easier for her to be lost in the shadows. Next to her is a man of mixed heritage in his 50s, with the beginnings of a beard and dressed in a fine black suit, black shirt, and tie. And he’s wearing round glasses.

Further away on your right, a final female is seated on the hood of the 6x6. She’s Pakistani and barely seems to be paying attention to what’s going on.


[OOC: So, in order of appearance, these vampires are portrayed by Sonal Chauhan in monster makeup, Gal Gadot, Emma Stone, Mia Kang, Liam Neeson, Alfre Woodard, Keanu Reeves, and Sophia Ali.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:10, Mon 11 Nov 2019.

As the group descends the staircase, Dean continues to try and process everything they were learning. Any one of these things would have been earth shattering, but taken as a whole they were almost impossible to comprehend. He was, in a way immortal. He could technically live forever.

There had been somebody up there, a creature unlike the others. What did that mean? How had that happened? Could it happen to him? to Jack?

One had been wearing military style clothing. Did these creatures have their own police? Their own military?

Croatan would be looking for them eventually, his family, the police. They had probably already called.

These thoughts and dozens more flit through Deans mind as he walks, down around the club and its music, back down to the garage, where to his surprise, were even more strangers in the know.

It occurs to him now that they had seen him, have all seen him, fresh from the road trip and the Jade Dragon, which already feels like a lifetime ago. Unshowered, in his under-armor shirt and workout shorts. There would likely be no chance to collect himself, to have any time alone with his thoughts. It was likely just going to happen all at once, and he tried to make peace with that.

Dean slows as they round  the corner and see the assembly in the garage, his eyes flick across the strangers before he focuses on the one speaking.

"News must travel fast" Dean replies with more confidence than he really feels. He glances to his friends, then back to the group. "I'm Dean, one of the ah...younglings." the word sounds odd to him so he follows up quickly. "I'm new, like brand new"
This message was last edited by the player at 06:16, Mon 11 Nov 2019.

"That's what we've heard," the Israeli says. "But we were also told that there were only two of you.

"Nah," the black-dressed male says. "Pascal told you that there were two younglings. He didn't say that they would be alone."

She looks daggers at him. "In any case," she continues. "Who are the two of you? And why are you here?"

If he were someone else, Abe might have been caught like a deer in the headlights and either blabbed or gotten defensive when the woman directly questioned him.  However, he had experience as a man under authority.  He'd had to deal with similar situations, refusing to allow brass to pass on the basis of higher authority, or even with a lack thereof, orders originating within his chain of command.  Sure that brass couldn't have ever actually ripped his head off... but then neither could the people he had the orders from do so to them.  He doubted they would dare to kill people that the Baron had just

So instead of being cowed, he responded easily, "We are being recognized by the Baron as part of the newest cohort in his service, along with these two gentlemen.  We just spent the afternoon learning the ropes from him.  I'm Abe Griffith.  Who are you all?  You seem like too special a group of people to be sitting in a parking garage."

"I'm Keren," the Israeli says. "Our various Batrans told us to come here and test you. Or them." She looks at Dean and then at Jack and Tom as if trying to figure out who the second vampire is.

"We will be your Sires, because your Sires are dead. But before we can figure out who that will be, we need to figure out what clan you are a member of. As that procedure is one on one, you each pick one of the seven of us, we will test you and you will switch until you find your match. Any questions?"



[OOC: Ask questions if you have them. Otherwise, you select who you want to be tested by. As we are doing this pbp, you can give me one individual at a time or you can give me the entire ordered list. This way we can post as it happens or we can post everything at the same time even though it chronologically happens in sequence.]

Abe nodded his understanding.  "Well, Keren, it was nice to meet you.  While this will no doubt prove to be interesting, it's got little to do with me currently. Jack's the other one you're looking for."

He looked at one of the MIB.  "Is it possible for me to speak with Sparrow for a while as they are tested?"

After hours of conversation with Prince De Vega, Dean feels significantly more confident than he had at the beginning of the day. He looks at the assembled, left to right as he tries putting things together.

So the ones upstairs were the "Batrans", and these were the ones trusted enough to take on trainees. Students. "Younglings". Dean figures that they all must be fairly respected in that case.

Before him are examples of money, sex, power, and potent charisma. There are parts of him that desires all of these, but it's not him, and in all this chaos he was looking for him hint of familiarity.

He looked at the Asian girl. Practical clothing, well built, and not trying to show off. It took self discipline to get a figure like that, and Dean respects that. Of course there would also be an irony if he was paired with the most petite among them. That was not to say that he thinks any less of her for being small of course.

"Alright..." He takes three slow steps towards the Korean woman, and nods to her. "How does this work?" clearly indicating that he would like to start with her.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:32, Mon 11 Nov 2019.

"Right, and I'm Tom," the young Hunter says. "Like Abe said, we're part of the cohort, although I'll be honest, I don't really understand what that means." He looks at Dean and Abe and then back at these other vampires. Although he's here with Dean, Abe, and Jack, Tom feels a keen sense of being alone, out of place, like he's swimming through the depths of the ocean and can't clearly see, all while being surrounded by sharks of all stripes and colors.

"The Baron seems okay with us sticking together," he offers. "All four of us were changed somehow, and we're kind of in this together."

The MIB looked at Keren.

"Of course," Keren says. "Both of you can go if you like. Or remain here."

"If you had a chance to be transformed into a bird," the man in the glasses said looking at Tom. "Would you be a lion, the Brooklyn Bridge, the color red, or a rippling creek?"

The MIB escorts Abe upstairs. If Tom is accompanying them, the MIB waits until Tom is ready to go.

Dean approaches the vampires and the Korean female in particular. As he gets closer and gets a better point of view, he notes that four of the other five females are actually smaller than the Korean and that the Israeli has the same height, but is slightly heavier.

"As a Lupator you are strong," she says and introduces herself as Ha-yoon. "Stronger than other vampires. Call upon your Saenge and show me your strength."


[OOC: The Baron explained that Saenge is the power of your vampiric blood. Your Blood Pool or Energy Reserve, if you will.

Dean, in this case, make a Will roll. And do whatever you feel like doing to demonstrate your strength. Lifting things, hitting things, throwing things, jumping, or anything else that requires strength, whether it requires ST or not.]

Lupator. Dean rolls the word over in his mind. It sounded Spanish maybe? In any case he feels a wave of relief wash over him when Ha-Yoon asked him to show her his strength. That he could do.

"Alright" Dean nods a few times, looking confident. He settles on one of the cars in the garage with a sturdy looking bumper, something with a tow hitch or steel eyelets in the front. Anything he could get a good grip on.

He rolls his neck with a few muffled pops, then his shoulders, obviously phyching himself up for the challenge, then took a position at the end of the vehicle and dropped into a solid deadlift stance.

Don't fuck this up he tells himself, then gets his grip and stares straight ahead with a focused intensity.

When he lifts and hits resistance, the veins in his neck splay out, and his face flushes as he exerts maximum effort to impress those watching.

13:13, Today: Dean Mason rolled 8 using 3d6.  Lifting.

13:08, Today: Dean Mason rolled 5 using 3d6.  Will.

"Good," Ha-yoon says, but there is no emotion in her voice or in her eyes. Her left hand touches his right bicep, she puts some pressure on it as if to test his strength. In some ways, it reminds you of Carter nearly touching Captain America after his transformation. But in others, this is completely different. Ha-yoon takes what she wants, but there is no foreshadowing of emotion.

"You're strong. For a human." Then she repeats what you have done without effort. "Sometimes it takes a while. Sometimes a different exercise will work better for you. Show me your strength."

The man's question takes Tom aback. Is it a test of some kind, or was it akin to Heath Ledger's "You wanna know how I got these scars?"

"Definitely a lion," he says after a beat. If one could be both a lion and a bird simultaneously. At least both were living creatures. "But a creek wouldn't be so bad, either."

"Dean, Jack, I guess I'll leave you guys to your thing. I'll hang with Abe until you guys are ready." With this, he follows Abe and his escort upstairs.

Glasses nods to Tom's response. He then whispers something to the African American female next to him who coughs in surprise to whatever he told her.

"Quid pro quo," Glasses says and turns his eyes towards the vampires being tested.

Dean feels good about his performance. Lifting up one end of a car was no joke, it was on par with the kind of stuff they did in the "Worlds Strongest" style competitions. But when he sees Ha-yoon do the same thing as easily as lifting the lid of a dumpster, his heart sinks. Is that whats expected of me? he thinks to himself

It would be very convenient, he thinks. A big defensive tackle just happens to wind up in the clan with the most physically powerful Vampires, if that's indeed what these Lupator are. But if he did not have Lupator blood, then what Clan did he belong to?

Maybe I need to really try to push it? he thinks again.  It was not inconceivable that he could have lifted up one end of a car before all this happened, and if Ha-yoon could manage it with one hand, maybe he just needed to try harder. He nods to the older Vampire and looks around.

He walks over to a concrete bollard, one of the ones used to make sure that cars did not take the corners of the parking structure too tight, sets his beefy hands on either side of the top, and then tried to snap it off its base in one violent motion.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:09, Tue 12 Nov 2019.

With loud crashing noises, Dean broke off the bollard from its base, and Ha-yoon compliments him again. And she doesn't repeat his feat of strength. She continues to challenge him to show his strength, and through various means, he does. And every time she compliments him, but she doesn't match his efforts again. And every time she asks him to do it again. And Dean does. For 30 minutes!

"Unfortunately, you're not one of us," she says and pats Dean on the chest three times with her right palm. She is more than half a foot shorter than Dean and less than half his weight. She steps away from him and returns to the old man who is almost as tall as Dean is and almost as big. At least, no one else is even near him in size.

When it becomes evident that Dean does not belong to Clan Lupator, he is visably disappointed. He feels that he had been doing well, he had shattered concrete, lifted what he had thought to be an impressive tonnage, but it is becoming apparent that such matters were not exceptional in his new world.

All his life he had been the big guy, the strong guy, but in death it seemed that he was starting from square one. He feels lost once more.

He has to keep looking, and he forces himself to keep his head in the game.

"Alright, not Lupator, thank you" he nods to Ha-Yoon a few times and paces a few steps back out onto the center of the gathering. He tries to envisioned the man that had attacked him in his minds eye, the demeanor, the claws. Who else here could he imagine gutting somebody with a flick of a wrist?

Who could he potentially eliminate from the list?

He looks to the Middle Eastern woman on the hood. "You don't seem to think I'm one of yours..." he states as he paces a little closer to her, crossing his meaty arms across his chest.

She was one he had a hard time putting a label to, her and the man in the gray sweater. Was the arrival of a new face not of any interest to her? Was Dean missing something?
This message was last edited by the player at 19:00, Tue 12 Nov 2019.

From under her cloak, she picked up a snow-white, short-haired chihuahua.

Half of the remaining vampires moan in displeasure at the sight of the dog.

"You brought a pet," the Israeli said. "You shouldn't have brought a pet. They make such a mess."

The dog was clearly happy as she scratches him in her lap.

"Pet the dog."

The Israeli, the redhead, and the African American clearly thought this was a bad idea based on the various noises they produced. The same trio that had expressed their dislike of the dog earlier.

As Dean gets closer, he makes the estimate that only the African American is shorter than the dog-lover, but larger in frame. The redhead might be as petite as the Pakistani.

She looks at Dean. Waiting to see what he's going to do. Apparently with no care in the world.

Dean seems slightly surprised, and a little amused to see this Vampire carrying around a tiny dog in her...well, he did not actually know where it had been hiding.

It feels good to let out a little chuckle, and helps to break the tension. Everything else in his life might have been turned upside down, but even Vampires could be funny in their way.

He notes that she had not given a name, or any introduction like Ha-Yoon had, and he seems to think that she's wants to be away from here as soon as possible.

"That's it? Just pet it?" Dean uncrosses his arms and goes to pet the tiny dog, half expecting it to freak out when he gets close enough.

She nods. "That's it. Just pet it."

So Dean approaches, carefully. Things quiet down as all of them wait expectantly to see what's going to happen. Only Glasses breaks the silence, but the African American female shushes him into line.

Dean slowly reaches out his hand towards the dog and pets it. Anticlimactically, the dog likes it. It enjoys itself and licks Dean's hand. Sounds of disappointment come from the vampires behind him.

"I'm Asali," the female says. "Welcome to Schimba."

Dean smiles as he pets the tiny dog and it nuzzles up to him. His family had a white dog of their own, a big goofy pitbull named Raider he had grown up with. He misses that dog.

But the chorus of disappointed noises behind him catches him off guard. He glanced back. We're they hoping the thing had latched on to his finger? Started barking up a frenzy?

The welcome is also unexpected, and Dean seems confused. He had heard so many new words that he was not sure what she was referring to. Was a Schimba another title? A place? A group?.

"Dean, nice to meet you Asali" he tries to match her pronunciation and smile. "I've got to ask, what's a Schimba?" he asks, not guessing that he may in fact have found his Sire by sheer luck.

"Don't worry about your name Big Guy," Asali says. "I'm not going to remember. You're probably going to die anyway. Like your Sire. I'm your Sire now. And members of clan Schimba don't train before an audience. We're leaving."

She slides down the hood and picks up her motorcycle helmet. She walks towards the elevator and holds out the hand in which she is holding the dog towards each of the vampires as she passes them. And every time, the dog goes wild, barking like a dog several times its size. It even barks at Jack.

The vampires are not intimidated by this display.

As she approaches the elevator, she looks at the only remaining MIB, "Stay!" she commands.

The MIB takes a step back away from Sparrow and to no one, in particular, he says, "Winter is coming. She brings a youngling. Reception is needed."
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:31, Wed 13 Nov 2019.

Oh shit Dean thinks to himself as Asali starts to move as his eyes go wide. Schimba's a Clan. She's Schimba, we're Schimba.

Dean has barely enough time to look around at the faces of the other assembled Vampires. Had they been disappointed on his behalf? Were some of them hoping to claim him themselves? Would he ever get to find out?

You're probably going to die anyway.

Dean feels a cold wave of worry wash over his mind. Just as he had wondered how many younglings perished earlier in the evening, he now has his answer. Many, most. At least in Clan Schimba. So many that she did not even bother with his name. It was like something out of an old war movie.

He moves after her, a million thoughts racing through his mind. Some of his stuff was still in the truck, Abe and Tom, they were also part of the Cohort. They should know

"Jack" he says as they walk out. "Can you let the guys know I'll call them when I can? I, uh, don't know when that'll be"

Dean does not even break stride as he glanced to his Sire and back, the dog barking like mad the whole time. "Wish me luck"

Even Dean is taken aback at the command snapped to the attendant. Then just as the elevator doors close he fixes Jack with a look of muted panic. He does not know a thing about where he is going, and he is not expected to survive.

Inwardly he tries to get a grip. Whatever was coming, he had endure it. Failure, as the old saying went, was not an option. Not for him.

Or at least, that's what he tells himself.

Jack was unsure of what to make of the parade of strange individuals, sights and sounds. He was barely taking in the information he was getting, having only just received his fill of blood. It was nice at least to know the women enjoyed it, but that meant he was probably going to stick to ladies; otherwise it would just get... weird.

Unsure of what the pecking order was supposed to be, Jack simply introduced himself to the vampires he was introduced to in turn, doing his best to be charming, even as he innately cowered at their impressive presences. With all the introductions, it was taking all he had simply to remember names and appearances and keep up his facade of courtesy, even though he was being overwhelmed by fear, curiosity and some slight hunger pangs.

Jack introduces himself to the six remaining vampires. He already knew Keren's and Ha-yoon's names, as they had introduced themselves previously.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:25, Sat 16 Nov 2019.

She introduced herself as Isabella.
This message was last updated by the player at 20:56, Sat 16 Nov 2019.

He introduced himself as Phillip.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:25, Sat 16 Nov 2019.

She introduced herself as Adanna.

He introduced himself as Kalama.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:25, Sat 16 Nov 2019.

They all looked at him, wondering who he would pick as his first test giver.

Jack steeled himself, and went before each of the vampires in turn to be tested.

First, he went before the red-headed woman, Isabella, having something of a liking for red-heads, although I suspected a romantic relationship with any of these women was a far-fetched prospect at best.

Second, he went before Ha-yoon, whose strong personality he had difficulty denying. He wasn't sure if he'd be blown away by her, literally or figuratively, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

Third, he introduced himself to Phillip, the older gentleman, because he seemed nice enough, and also to not seem like he was being steered entirely by his attraction to the pretty women.

Fourth, he spoke to the Israeli woman, Keren, who he was almost certain could snap his neck easily, even in his enhanced state, but in an odd way there was something appealing about that.

Fifth, he spoke to Adanna, the woman in the shadows, who seemed mysterious, but that was probably on purpose.

And finally, he spoke to the mixed-race man, who he felt no special attraction nor antipathy towards. Jack simply hoped the man wasn't offended at being saved for last.

Jack approaches Isabella to be tested.

"As Fermec, we can see, hear, and otherwise sense that which others cannot," Isabella says. "Focus on sensing something that normal people cannot sense."


[OOC: Please be specific. Which sense are you focusing on, perhaps a sense humans don't have, and what you are trying to do with that sense.]

Jack closed his eyes. Since vampires were premier hunters, it seemed reasonable to him that they should be able to detect their primary source of food: other, living human beings. He tried to focus on their presences around him- not just the sound of their heartbeat or the smell of the blood in their veins, but the very essence of their beings. If this was indeed possible, perhaps he could sense life itself through his mind.

Jack tries and he fails.

Isabella continues to guide Jack in his efforts to sense his prey. How to focus. How to connect to the unseen world. And how to tap its energies. And attempt after attempt after attempt fail.

But failure is not an option!

Despite your intense focus, you note that Dean, despite his impressive physique, has failed to join the vampire clan that prides themselves on their strength.

You will not fail and you lock eyes with the beautiful redhead.

Not accepted as a Lupator, Dean walks to the indifferent female sitting on the Benz they had driven cross-country. She has a small dog with her and for some reason, the other vampires don't like that. And when Dean pets the dog, she accepts him as one of hers and they leave. But not before sticking the dog in the face of every vampire on the way out. Dogs don't like vampires and he barks at all vampires, except the two of them. Including barking at you.

Now that both of you know what clan you are a member of, the other vampires left the garage and left you and your new Sire on your own.

[OOC: Some posts in this thread do not appear in chronological order.]

Isabella continues training Jack, if it could be called training. It was more about expanding what already was there, but still, it took hours. At least it felt like hours before Jack's face changed in subtle ways.

After your face had changed, she vanishes into thin air and instantly appears further down the garage.

And now, Isabella is actually teaching Jack something! How to instantly move from one place to another. Many attempts were needed before Jack succeedes.

"Kill the lights," Isabella says looking at the MIB who nods.

The fluorescent lights flicker and die. There are still a few lights on. Above the door to the staircase, at the elevator, and guiding lights towards the exit to the street.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:20, Fri 22 Nov 2019.

The MIB watching Jack and Isabella interrupts the training.

"It's time," he says. "Come with me."

You follow the MIB upstairs, through the two levels of the club, picking up Tom and another MIB on the second floor. Heading up to the private third floor where both Abe and Dean join the group with one additional MIB. The MIB that had escorted Abe returns to wherever they had come from. Dean's Sire is there too, as is her snow-white, short-haired chihuahua.

All four of you and those accompanying you are led into the conference room. Inside are the Baron, the impressive Native American Batran in his exclusive dark blue suit, the African American male Batran in cargo pants and multi-pocket vest, as well as two MIBs.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:29, Sat 23 Nov 2019.

"It's good that everything worked out for the best," De La Vega says. "Any final note before I send you off?"

Dean shakes his head. He had a million questions of course, bit nothing urgent, and nothing that he assumes his Sire will not be able to answer given enough time.

He stands there in the same clothes he arrived in, looking flushed and about as human as he did when they had first arrived at the Jade Dragon.

Abe held his peace for a moment.  His mind was consumed in figuring out how to handle his family.

Then he asked, "Send us off where?"

His thoughts echoing Abe’s question, Tom nevertheless does not voice them. He has been training for three years to follow orders, and though he is not yet an airman, he has been taught to not question what he is told. Of course, the Baron may simply be seeing them off before departing on business of his own, or dismissing them for the evening to pursue their own devices.

”Thank you for allowing us in your domain, sir,” Tom says. ”We’re grateful for your accepting us into your fold.”

"To continue your new lives," the Baron starts, but doesn't get further before you are interrupted.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:52, Mon 25 Nov 2019.

The tall and old male who had been one of the prospective Sires enters the conference room in a hurry.

"Keren and Ha-yoon have been killed," he says. "There is a Hunter in town."

Dean feels his stomach lurch as the news was delivered. Who knows how many Vampires wiped out but a day before, two more older ones gone tonight from yet another danger.

He had liked Ha-yoon, from what little he had seen of her, and now she too was gone.

How were they going to survive all of this?

He looks around at his friends, with an expression of solidarity towards Tom before he looks to the Prince for his reaction.

Abe tried very hard to keep his jaw from dropping.  Was it a coincidence that the hunter had showed up just now?  Or was it contrived by someone and if so, was it by the Prince or another?

He looked at the other guys with an eyebrow raised, carefully not looking at Tom longer than the others.  Abe wasn't sure if the Prince was advertising Tom's nature, but he didn't want to do anything to betray it if it weren't being made public otherwise.

De La Vega is visibly shaken by the news.

"What does the hunter look like?"

"Male," Phillip says. "In his 30s. Mediterranean looking. Hair to his shoulders and a goatee. A master with the sword. We didn't stand a chance. He cut down Keren before we knew he was there. Ha-yoon ported to him and was sliced down too before I could reach them. So I vanished. It's pointless that all three of us should be destroyed, so I came here to report."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:20, Mon 25 Nov 2019.

"You made the right choice," De La Vega says and sighs. "A hunter is loose on our streets, the Banshees are back, and someone has challenged the Justicar." De La Vega shook his head. "No good deed goes unpunished."

"This changes nothing for you," he says while his eyes sweep across the four of you, ending on Tom as he says the final two words of his short sentence.

"Safety is paramount. You should bring your Younglings into the city where they can be protected."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:12, Mon 25 Nov 2019.

"We are safer in our own Domain," Matthew says. "Where we can look after our own. We will not bring them here."

"This isn't the time to argue with the Baron," Annawon says.

"Of course you two city boys stick together," Matthew says. "We're leaving."

Matthew heads for the door and when Annawon starts to stop him, the Baron waves him off. Asali follows him and motions for Dean to join them.

"I will inform you when you are needed," De La Vega says looking at you. "Take your time to learn who you are now. "And you two," he looks at Dean and Jack, "make a clean exit from your old life. You don't want them coming to look for you. And make time to train together as a team. You will need it. And you're all dismissed."

Dean nodded his agreement, then lingers just a moment before he glanced to his friends and goes to join his Sire. Bound for wherever they would bring him.

A Hunter. Without even hearing the description, Tom knew what would be described. Mediterranean male, mid-30s. Tom had felt him outside, and no doubt, the Hunter had felt him, too. Feeling a little lost, he listens as Philip describes what happened, and Tom tries to process the Hunter's rationale. Hunters kill everyone, apparently, both Hunter and non-Hunter, and for some reason, Tom feels greater fear from this news than he does in a room full of vampires. What a weird world he inhabits now.

Tom also knows something that the Baron does not know: another Hunter had been in the Baron's club not an hour ago. Were the two working as a team? Was Daiyu a Hunter, too, and had somehow managed to keep this a secret from Sparrow? Regardless, Tom now knows now to recognize a Hunter's presence but not how to fight one, and if this Hunter made short work of two experienced vampires, he and and his cadre won't stand a chance.

Looking at Jack, Dean, and Abe, Tom nods his head. "We'll stay well away from the Hunter. He sounds terrifying, to be honest."

Abe nodded in agreement and acquiescence.  "Let's be off, then."  If the Baron and other elder vampires were making haste away, and if Tom was also bugging out, there was no way anyone else should stay.  Offhandedly, he wondered if Daiyu was on edge earlier because her demonic powers somehow let her know there was a hunter about.

He looked to Sparrow.  "You have a ride, or will you be taking us by short-cut?"  He asked.

Sparrow had waited outside for the meeting to finish, she had seen Phillip hurry past to join in the meeting. And shortly thereafter it had ended with the Schimbas leaving first, almost hurriedly. It didn't seem like things had ended well.

And Abe asked how they were leaving the club.

"We are taking a shortcut," she confirmed and opened a portal for the three of them.

Abe jumped through without a moment's hesitation, curious about where they were headed.

Tom had thought the four of them would be staying together. Call it crazy, but Tom feels like he can protect Dean and Jack, at least partially, from the Hunter, so he isn't too wild about the plan to split the band up so soon after forming, but things seem to be moving fast. "We'll stay in touch, guys," he says to Dean and Jack before following Abe and Sparrow through the portal.

Jack closed his eyes and sensed the strange lights above him.

"I feel like I can feel light above us. Life, powerful life, or maybe magic. I can't feel regular humans, however," he surmised, putting two and two together. "Is that sufficient?" He asked Isabella.

Isabella was quiet for a little while. As if she was trying to figure out what Jack was sensing.

"I think you got that reversed," Isabella says. "The floor above us is the club and there are regular humans there. It is sufficient. What do you sense on this floor?"