[Buffy/Angel Actual Play] Nocturnum: The Pittsburgh Chronicles

[The Grey Elf]

I don't often talk about my game or group on here, but I'm pretty damned pleased with how this season is going. After 3 years, these guys haven't even come CLOSE to getting tired of playing their characters--on the contrary; they get better and better with each passing session. They're not afraid to grab the reins and go for it, no matter what the cost.

I'll give you an example: this past Sunday, I had planned a goofy little one-off: a converted Call of Cthulhu scenario (which most of my sessions are, to be honest) entitled "I Want You To Kill the Ice Cream Man." It's available online for free; just do a Google search for it.

Anyway, like I said, it was designed to be a goofy little one-off. I've hit a turning point in the season and have been debating where to go from here, and my players deserved a fun session without angst, rage, darkness, murder, and someone's back story biting them in the ass for a change...

Or so I thought.

My players TOOK that goofy one-off and TURNED it into a trip down the road to darkness and insanity. At the end of the session, Cyan had gone completely dark (a la Season 6 Dark Willow) and the Cast had to organize a potentially violent intervention to get her to England where she has gone into "magic rehab" with Willow, Giles, and the Devonshire Coven. Cyan is now out of the game for at least a month game time. And all of this was 100% unplanned and completely driven by choices the players made for their characters, many of which had little to nothing to do with the scenario at hand.

Don't get me wrong; I'm praising, here, not complaining. My group rocks. I've never been so happy with a gaming group in all my years. I gave them the option to put their characters to rest after this season and start with a new crew and a new game set somewhere else, basically because I've wrapped up most of their back stories. The skeletons will all be out of the closet by the end of the season, and after 3 years of play, they're pretty damned powerful.

None of them were very keen on giving up their characters. It seems as if they're now busting ass to give me more fuel to use to screw with them. Heh.

Anyway, if there's anyone 'round here who hasn't kept up with our game and would like to see what our crew is up to, check out my website.

http://buffy.grey-elf.com/

And by-the-by, I claim the honor of being the FIRST one to cut an opening credits sequence for their cast

[TechnoGothic]

Its all Good, all the Time. - Herbal, Dark Angel

Anyways...

Sounds good.
If they want to continue, let them.
Sounds like they have ideas to run and advance their characters too Go with it, enjoy We know you do

Ask them, each one in private...if they have more story ideas they wish to explore with their characters.

Drake became human right.
Later on temp him with becoming a vampire again.
Or maybe, he starts to crave human blood after seeing someone killed. The urges of his old nature start to return for an unknown reason. Someone casts a Protection spell vs Demons, and later when Drake tries to attack someone, he get a mystical *bam-Pow* instead for trying it. Would that freak him out

The Initiative guy being offered to run a Group of Agents...with government sponsorship and backing. Would he be tempted ??

Cyan while coping with her magic addiction runs into another young girl abusing magic too, tries to help, Only to fall victim to the childs magics which sucks out Cyans magics entirely, barely leaving her alive...Entire the crew to help. Will Cyan try to recover her magics ?? Or will she be willing to let them fade away with the young girl ?? When i say sucked the magics out her, i mean sucked the very knowledge of how magic works out her, leaving her a Normal person unable to work magics. She cannot even grasp magic theories as a concept anymore...

One of the group is out one night a sees Walter *Who is dead if i remember right*
Is this Walter or Has he returned to life somehow. Then later another member of the group spots Kat *the Goth Slayer* killing a vampire in an Alley.
They could be from another dimension/reality, the Old friends back from the dead, they could be that Pure Evil entity from the buffy show season 7...

Go back to Old stories and make new twists to Old Ideas/plots, evolve them beyond...

[brightstar]

Yeah yeah we rule.

Seriously, we wouldn't be the group we are without our fearless leader, who puts so much time and creative energy into the game, thus inspiring us to be the crew that we are.

Thank you.

The cd kicks some serious ass, btw.

[The Grey Elf]

Originally Posted by TechnoGothic

Its all Good, all the Time. - Herbal, Dark Angel

Anyways...

Sounds good.
If they want to continue, let them.
Sounds like they have ideas to run and advance their characters too Go with it, enjoy We know you do

Ask them, each one in private...if they have more story ideas they wish to explore with their characters.

Drake became human right.
Later on temp him with becoming a vampire again.
Or maybe, he starts to crave human blood after seeing someone killed. The urges of his old nature start to return for an unknown reason. Someone casts a Protection spell vs Demons, and later when Drake tries to attack someone, he get a mystical *bam-Pow* instead for trying it. Would that freak him out

The Initiative guy being offered to run a Group of Agents...with government sponsorship and backing. Would he be tempted ??

Cyan while coping with her magic addiction runs into another young girl abusing magic too, tries to help, Only to fall victim to the childs magics which sucks out Cyans magics entirely, barely leaving her alive...Entire the crew to help. Will Cyan try to recover her magics ?? Or will she be willing to let them fade away with the young girl ?? When i say sucked the magics out her, i mean sucked the very knowledge of how magic works out her, leaving her a Normal person unable to work magics. She cannot even grasp magic theories as a concept anymore...

One of the group is out one night a sees Walter *Who is dead if i remember right*
Is this Walter or Has he returned to life somehow. Then later another member of the group spots Kat *the Goth Slayer* killing a vampire in an Alley.
They could be from another dimension/reality, the Old friends back from the dead, they could be that Pure Evil entity from the buffy show season 7...

Go back to Old stories and make new twists to Old Ideas/plots, evolve them beyond...

Some good ideas, Techno. But Walter's not dead. He did die, but Sam (his player) spent the DP's for Back from the Dead. Walter was released from Hell, got a new body, and rejoined the Cast in Season 2. Sadly, Sam moved to New York, so Walter is currently globetrotting trying to find a way to kill Nyarlathotep. I brought him in as a guest NPC for the 2 episodes before this past week's. Couldn't have Drake become human without having Walter there for it.

[TechnoGothic]

Ahh thats right...Forgot about that part of Walter's story...my bad.

He is in a New body ??

Would the group like it if something was using his Old body ??

Anyways, glade you liked a few of my ideas.
I have tons of them, all the time.

[The Grey Elf]

Originally Posted by TechnoGothic

Ahh thats right...Forgot about that part of Walter's story...my bad.

He is in a New body ??

Would the group like it if something was using his Old body ??

Anyways, glade you liked a few of my ideas.
I have tons of them, all the time.

He's in a new body because his old one was cremated. One of his last requests that John found in his apartment when he died.

I've decided to kick it up a notch. I'm trashing a number of episodes I had planned this season and am going to see to it that the fit hits the shan this week. Conspiracy, destruction, shadow wars...it's all on the horizon, along with some startling and terrifying revelations. Should be a good episode.

[The Grey Elf]

So I just finished putting together this weekend's episode.

As a bit of a "Next Week on Nocturnum," I give you a cryptic flash of things to come, in the form of a poem by W.B. Yeats.


“The Second Coming”

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

[TechnoGothic]

shway...

[The Grey Elf]

Season 3, Episode 14: Things Fall Apart

The episode begins as Anita rolls out of bed in the morning. Her shift at the Hive is not to start until noon, so it’s roughly 9 am when she awakens, showers, gets dressed and heads downstairs for coffee. As she goes down the stairs, she hears a strange noise coming from the back room: a sort of half-coherent moaning.

Investigating the sound, she discovers Alan, beaten and bruised, in her dining room. His clothes are tattered and he looks much the worse for wear. He looks up at her and says simply, “I failed.”

He will not have her call anyone; he’s utterly paranoid at this point and she is the only one he trusts. His story is that he finally tracked down the Black Sorcerer and tried to kill him, but failed, and now is in grave danger. He’s going deep underground, but will be back very soon. He may need her help to put an end to this once and for all.

Things get even darker. Alan reveals that it was none other than Daniel he had to go after.

As they talk, Anita sees a figure in black outside her window, leveling a silenced gun at either her or Alan (she can’t tell which). She dives for Alan, knocking him to the floor as the shot breaks through the window. Two Combine agents attack Anita in her house. She defeats the first by giving him an out of body experience and capping him in the head; the second goes after Alan. Anita jumps on the assassin’s back and puts her gun to his head, ending his career.

Meanwhile, arriving at the Hive early, Drake finds Jamie talking to Father Bob, terrified. She can’t find Daniel and certain members of her Wiccan Coven have decided that it’s time to fight back against the other Covenants, particularly the Rosicrucians, who they seem to believe have been keeping them down for centuries. They’re calling this a second Burning Time and are determined not to let it happen.

Not long after, John is approached upstairs by Sandra, who needs his help. She’s just rescued Carrie and Kay Hito from a massacre and has them, “someplace safe.” She asks John to come with her to talk. If he is hesitant, she tells him that Drake is welcome to come along as well, and tells him that caution is likely well-founded right now.

Once John agrees to go along, she takes him to the Upstage, which is closed this time of the morning. Sandra produces a key and unlocks the back door, explaining, “I’m friendly with the owner. He lets me crash sometimes.”

Inside, Carrie and Kay Hito sit quietly at a table. The two girls are beaten and bruised, but their injuries don’t seem serious. They are very shaken up. Sandra begins the story. She has quit the Sentinels. She has a story about how they’ve declared war on all the other Covenants as enemies of Heaven and are collapsing in on themselves. When she was ordered to spy on her friends in other Covenants, she stormed out. She suspected that the corruption couldn’t just be in the Sentinels and went to find Carrie and Kay at one of the Cabal’s safe houses. When she arrived, she found a group of unknown assailants attacking the place. Carrie speaks up, saying that she and Kay were coming out of their morning meditation when the attack happened. It caught everyone off guard. Kay’s foresight enabled the two of them to escape more serious injury, and Carrie’s telekinesis enabled them to fight their way towards the door. They met Sandra halfway, brandishing her flaming sword and trying desperately to get as many people out as she could. The two girls hail Sandra as a hero, and Sandra looks as embarrassed as John has ever seen her, insisting that she just did what she had to do. They dove down a sewer grate and made for safety, avoiding the demon underworld as best they could. Sandra brought them here so they could think a bit and track down help.

As they tell their tale, Drake hears the quiet rattling of the locks to the front door. Someone is picking the lock. John takes up a position beside the door, and as a Combine agent enters, he shoots the man in the head.

At this moment, a Combine strike team bursts into the room and attacks. There are fifteen agents, covering all three possible exits. Drake goes down in a hail of gunfire, but Sandra takes position over him, both to fight the agents with a sword of fire, and to heal Drake. Between Sandra, John, Drake, and Kay, the group finishes off the Combine agents and makes for the Hive. Sandra insists that they weren’t followed and she has no idea how the Combine found them. Kay, thanks to her Remote Viewing powers, notes that someone has put a mystical trace on John and Drake, and probably their other friends as well.

As the group deliberates this alarming turn of events, Amara shows up. Except it’s not just Amara. It’s Amara, sharing her body with Katherine. Drake moves to attack Amara, when Katherine speaks through the vampire, saying, “I’d appreciate it if ye wouldn’t be doin’ that, love.” Drake is aghast, and Katherine explains: some Tainted force is reinforcing the wall between the Threshold and Death Realms, and Malkuth. If Katherine didn’t create an anchor, she might not be able to get back to Earth. Because Amara is an ensouled undead, Katherine was able to create a more permanent bond with Amara, and Amara agreed.

Anita arrives, and Amara calls the Cast into the theater, where she informs them that the House of Thanatos is actively recruiting undead from the demon underworld, gearing up for war. Their first targets are to be the Twilight Order and the Iscariots. She suggests that Anita warn the Order, but asks that she return before dinner time. Amara has a few friends coming with whom she’d like the Cast to meet. If the Cast tells Amara about their misadventures this morning, she will be grim, but unsurprised. “It was only a matter of time,” she says, “before our enemies targeted you. You are the only thing standing in their way. But there will be time to discuss this later. Now, the Twilight Order must be warned.”

Anita goes to warn the Order, but John insists she swing by his house first, and get a bullet-proof vest. Given the situation, he’s not willing to risk any of his team. She agrees, and informs John that Daniel is the Black Sorcerer.

After leaving John’s, she goes to the Order where she’s greeted by a panicked supervisor and ushered into the office, where she’s shown a surveillance tape of a battle in an alley. The fight is between two agents of the Order that Anita knows personally, and two Rosicrucians that she’s seen in the store. The Rosicrucians brutally murder the agents of the Order. She’s told that the tape represents only one of several attacks on the Order by various Covenants and that the Order is going to war. She’s ordered unequivocally to cease any and all contact with members of other Covenants. If she refuses, she’ll be expelled from the Order and branded their enemy. Anita notices a subtle corrupting/manipulating influence on the necromancers in the Chapel House. She tries to reveal this and talk some sense into her superior, who says, “how do I know you’re telling me the truth? Perhaps it’s you who are being manipulated.”

He then informs her that if she’s not with him, she’s against him. He pulls out a pistol and tries to shoot her. She dives for cover, and makes for the front exit. On her way out, another (weaker) Necromancer tries to hit her with her own medicine: for an instant, Anita sees her body from above, but her formidable necromantic powers enable her to shake off the attack, and she gets away.

At 4:00 PM, Amara’s friends arrive. Amara suggests they hold council in the theater. The newcomers are none other than the Archangel Michele and two other unusual characters: a huge one-eyed man dressed in a brown poet’s blouse, breeches, and suede boots, who reeks of power and claims to be Odin himself; and the ghost of Benjamin Franklin. They have a story to tell and are looking to take the Cast in as a “war council” of sorts. For several years now, they have been preparing for the Reckoning, which they believed to be closer than anyone could’ve imagined. They believe that the Combine is behind it, and that in a twist of dramatic irony, the Combine has been infiltrated by a dark supernatural power.

Michele also has a dark revelation for the Cast: the Combine was founded by none other than the archangel Gabriel; this is the very reason Michele went into exile. Gabriel is one of the leading members of the Heavenly Host, and has manipulated his way into too much power for her to touch him. She has fallen out of favor with the Host and has gone underground until the time is right for her to come forward again. They also believe that a dark force rising within the Rosicrucian Order—the Black Sorcerer—is in league with the power behind the Combine’s push, though they don’t know exactly who this Black Sorcerer is. By way of sparing Jamie’s feelings, Anita and John forego revealing the Sorcerer’s identity; they merely say it’s someone they know and trusted.

The Alliance has come to the Cast because the heroes are embroiled in this plot up to their eyeballs, and the time for the power players has not yet arrived. “As horrible as things look now,” Amara will say, “There are far worse terrors on the horizon, and to tip our hand now would be the destruction of what may be the world’s only hope in the near future. The forces of darkness must not learn that the Old Gods have returned, and that an Alliance is being formed in the wake of the coming storm.”

John asks her to elaborate, and she responds, “think of myself, Michele, Odin, and Benjamin as four aces. Would you reveal your hand before all the bets are in?” John concedes it’s a strong strategy.

“Besides,” Odin adds, “the time for the gods to rule the world is long gone. The world belongs to man, now, and it is man who must fight to save it. It is merely our domain to help to create the alliance that will stand against the darkness.”

Right now the Templars, the one organization thus far untouched by the corruption of the war, are forming the backbone of this Alliance, and will be helping to absorb the castoffs from the coming storm into the organization. John then reveals to the Cast that he is a member of the Templars.

A final bit of information from their council horrifies the Cast. The Church of Revelations has gone public. It’s now protected by the First Amendment, and untouchable without severe legal repercussions. As they chat in the theater, they hear screams from the café proper, and as they race for the theater doors, an explosion rocks the place. Rushing outside after they get up, they’ll see the front room in a shambles, with bodies laying about the rubble. Father Bob, Jamie, and Dana are barely alive under the mess. In an ironic twist, while the Gifted barely survived, Jim is dead. The story the Cast gets from various survivors is the same: a black automobile pulled up in front of the store, the window rolled down, and a man in a black suit threw a hand grenade into the place. The car then sped off.

Michele and Amara are grim: it seems that the Cast has been targeted as enemies of the conspiracy. Not unexpected, but disheartening that it should’ve happened so soon and so suddenly.

It occurs to Anita that there may be some clues as to this whole mess left behind at Alan’s house. She goes to Alan’s and is sifting through the rubble. At that very moment, back at the Hive, Drake has a psychic vision of the scene playing out at Alan’s.

Many of his books and artifacts are still intact, including a few that she didn’t know he had. A few which are somewhat…dark…in nature. Anita discovers a few loose floorboards. Hidden under the floor, she’ll discover two books. The first is an ancient manuscript written in a proto-Germanic language. It’ll take time to translate, but deals with something called the Deeper Dark, a Black Stone, and an ancient sorcerer named Xalotun. It seems to be Hyborian in origin.

The other book is far more shocking, and Anita’s heart sinks as she lifts it from the floor.

It is the very copy of the John Dee Necronomicon that had gone missing from the Rosicrucians after Anita turned it over 2 years ago.

As Anita looks at the books, a quiet voice rings out behind her, “I’d really hoped you wouldn’t come here, Anita. I’m surprised the Rosicrucians didn’t discover those after I got away.”

As Anita turns, her worst fears are confirmed: Alan stands behind her, cloaked in black. He looks sad as he says, “You weren’t ready for this revelation, yet.”

Alan isn’t looking to fight; he’d much rather seduce her into joining him, and makes some very Darth-Vaderesque offers of power and glory to her if only she’ll accept Leviathan into her heart. Anita has been through a great deal and she’s seen what Leviathan can do; she is sorely tempted to accept his offer. In the end, she quietly says, “Alan, you know I can’t do this.” She begs him to come away with her and leave all this behind.

Alan simply says, “I’d hoped you would see it differently,” and unleashes a blast of Taint that blows Anita off her feet, across the room, and into a wall. But then, as she lays on the ground, bloodied, barely conscious, and waiting for him to finish her, she sees a touch of sadness, mercy, and conflict in his eyes, and he merely says, “I really do love you,” and proceeds to bind, gag, and blindfold her, and drag her down to the basement, where he chains her to the furnace.

As she lies there, beaten and broken, consciousness slowly returns and another quiet, pained voice sounds from the darkness. “Anita? Is that you?”

It’s Daniel, also chained in the basement and severely injured, but conscious. He reveals that he was the one who tracked down Alan and discovered that he is the Black Sorcerer. Daniel came here to put an end to Alan’s madness, and was unprepared for the strength of the sorcerer’s Taint. Alan beat him badly, but couldn’t bring himself to kill Daniel, and so dragged him down here and chained him up while he debated what to do with the man. “Now,” Daniel says, “It looks like we’ll be sharing the same fate, whatever that is. Anita, I’m so sorry.”

Alan knows the rest of the Cast will eventually track Anita and Daniel down; he leaves a few surprises behind to guard the prisoners, and buy him the time he needs to get away. Before he leaves, he summons a Shaitan, and six tainted creatures known as Serpent Hounds, and leaves them behind to torment and guard the prisoners.

Drake’s psychic vision of the exchange, along with some directions from Amara (who followed Anita there once before) leads the Cast to Alan’s house, where they have to deal with the welcoming party. After they have rescued the two, Daniel tells his story: Alan had disappeared months ago, and was always suspected of being in league with an Old One, but Daniel wasn’t able to tell the Cast for two reasons: first, the Rosicrucians forbade him reveal his mission to find Alan, and second, he knew Anita would never believe him. He’s also aware of the shadow war between the Covenants, and believes that Alan and Leviathan are behind it. He’s willing to set up a meeting between the Cast and the leaders of the Rosicrucians to exchange notes and see if his organization can help.

Anita is taken to hospital, where the rest of the victims from the attack on the Hive are recovering. John has left Sandra and Carrie behind as guards to ensure the Combine doesn’t try again. Sandra stays at Anita’s bedside until she’s released from the hospital.

Drake has another flash of memory from Draco: the secondary book that Anita found, the Black Sorcerer told Draco, is the book upon which Von Junzt based his own Black Book, Unaussprechlichen Kulten. If the Cast can get hold of a copy of that book, they might be able to get a clue what Alan’s next move is. Anita recalls that there is one in the University of Pittsburgh’s Darlington Memorial Library, for access to which they’ll need an appointment.

And things fall apart…

[The Grey Elf]

Episode 15: The Demon of Catheway
Original Air Date: 6/6/2005
This episode is based upon two Call of Cthulhu scenarios by Dr. Michael LaBosierre. The adventures can be found here and here. For those of you looking to adapt these to your own games, be forewarned: it's entirely possible for your group to run through these scenarios without ever having to enter combat. Mine did (though I threw in a gratuitous zombie fight to give John something to do).


Special Guest Stars:

Omar Sharif as Dr. Armedt


Synopsis
Anita, in an effort to guess Alan's next move, spends a week studying the contents of Von Junzt's Black Book at the University of Pittsburgh's Darlington Library. She comes up with some positive, if frightening leads which point to the small town of Catheway, about 45 minutes northeast of Pittsburgh and south of New Castle, in Amish country. She meets with the Cast and presents her findings.

The Cast has a meeting with Daniel and with Dr. Armedt, the leader of the Pittsburgh branch of the Rosicrucians. During this meeting it is determined that the Rosicrucians as a whole are not tainted by the goings-on within the Covenants, but have been made a scapegoat for the war by Alan. In addition, Dr. Armedt reveals that a student of his, Bryan Dumont, purchased a rare piece of Egyptian jewelry for Bryan's girlfriend. When Armedt saw the jewelry, he was intrigued as to its origins and asked Dumont if there was any more where this came from. Dumont went to New Castle to visit the pawn shop where he'd purchased the jewelry, and hasn't been heard from since.

Anita reveals her findings from the Black Book, which indicate a cult ritual to resurrect an ancient Hyborean Sorcerer named Xalotun at a place of power marked by five Black Stones. She asks Armedt if he has access to a spell that will allow her to place an Elder Sign on the area, to stop the ritual. He promises to check the Rosicrucian archives and call her with whatever he finds.

Armedt suggests the Cast go to check out the happenings in New Castle and Catheway. Meanwhile, he will dedicate the resources of the Rosicrucian order to trying to hold off the Covenant war that's near boiling point in the city, if not as John reveals, the world. He also informs the group that a new mysterious tome has surfaced at the Carnegie, and that his agents are watching over it. Daniel is going to be assigned to attempt to decipher the manuscript, and if it turns out to be important, he'll contact the Cast.

It's off to New Castle. Following their leads, the Cast rents a hunting cabin in a housing development where there have been a string of recent disappearences. They then visit LaVec's pawn shop in New Castle to investigate the jewelry. LaVec shows them six more pieces and asks for $400 each. The Cast talk him down to $350 and Anita later informs the group that these artifacts are priceless and belong in a museum. There's no good explanation for why they are here; they could only have come from an Egyptian tomb.

Anita and Kay go to question Janet Green, whose husband was killed under mysterious circumstances. Mrs. Green is currently being kept at the New Castle Medical Center for observation, but is scheduled for transfer to Mayview State Hospital (a Sanitarium). The two women get very little from Ms. Green, as she starts raving about "a moose with dead eyes, and skin that was hanging, loose, from its flesh...a loose moose on the loose!" The staff have to restrain and sedate Mrs. Green, and explain to Anita and Kay that these ravings are commonplace with her. Still, her ravings, combined with the mentions of her story in the local papers, make Anita think zombies. The two head back. Armedt calls Anita and gives her the spell to activate the Elder Sign. First, the sign must be placed in something permanent: carved into wood, chiseled into stone, etc. Second, it must cover the entire area to be warded. Third, where this ritual is concerned, the points of the star must touch the five black stones, which Armedt believes are the poles for the resurrection spell.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (literally), John and Drake are sitting on the porch having a beer and cigar, when just after dark they hear noises in the woods. John attempts to shine a floodlight in, to no avail. They approach the woods to investigate, and John calls Anita to tell her about the noises. She suggests they stay back until she get there, but at that moment, 11 zombies--6 human, 3 dogs, and 2 cows--burst out of the woods. John drops his phone and he and Drake proceed to decapitate the undead. As they backpeadal towards the cabin, a horde of undead emerge from the woods. Drake and John run for the house.

Ten minutes later, Anita and Kay arrive, driving over several zombies to get as close to the door as possible. Anita uses her necromantic powers to impart an aura of undeath on both herself and Kay, enabling them to move unmolested through the press and get in the house.

Once inside, the group debates what to do next. They're trapped and don't have the resources or power to get all four of them through an entire horde of zombies. John calls the Templars to appraise them of his situation, then nails a few tables to the windows, and they decide to try and get through the night. If they can get some sleep, they can come at the problem with clear heads in the morning.

At roughly 2 am, Kay has a terrifying vision of what appears to be a Satanic Black Mass going on in the woods. The vision includes four chest-high black stones, and a fifth, massive monolith, atop which sits a horrific, bloated, toadlike creature. The cultists dance in a 60 square foot area between these stones, which appears to be covered in some kind of ash. Along with the eight human cultists, a group of reptilian creatures and deformed, pygmy-like humanoids also dance and chant. The Cast nearly panics when Kay's eyes roll back into her head and she begins speaking in tongues, but she comes back to normal and tells them what she saw, and that she knows where the ritual spot is.

The next morning, miraculously, the zombies turn to ash. The Cast exit the cabin and make for the ritual site. Upon arrival, they find the area Kay described, but only four stones and no sign of a fifth. Worse, Kay is unable to get her bearings to figure out which end of the site the fifth Black Stone appeared, and without this knowledge, it's a shot in the dark where to place the top of the star that forms the Elder Sign.

Exploring the area, the group finds a hidden vault, roughly the size of the ritual site, that contains a cage. The cage itself radiates magic energy, and there is something dark and tainted within, that the Cast can sense, but not see. John approaches the cage to examine it, and is knocked off his feet by a charging Anita, who explains that she saw a black, vaguely-human shape manifest within the cage and try to grab John through the bars. No one but Anita saw the thing, leading to the group's assumption that it is some sort of ghost or phantasm of someone once living.

The shape within the cage begins to speak, trying to tempt Anita to let it go with offers of anything she wants. The conversation sends chills up Anita's spine, and she finds that she is actually afraid of the thing in the cage. Though it never introduces itself, she is certain that she's speaking to Xalotun.

John places a call to the Templars, asking for as much concrete to be flown in as possible. He explains the situation and informs them of his intention to create two Elder Signs in the area: one on the ritual site, and another on the concrete they're going to fill this vault with.

"Xalotun" overhears John's conversation and informs Anita very casually that if they create an Elder Sign on this area, two things will happen. First, it will simply be more difficult for Xalotun's friends to free him, but far from impossible, and Second, that when he is free, he will murder the entire Cast, one by one, in their sleep.

Anita announces that she feels the Cast should simply lie in wait for the cultists and (she assumes) Alan to show up. Xalotun says he likes this idea and encourages her and all of her friends to stick around all day, and not go anywhere. The seeds of doubt firmly implanted in her mind, Anita and the Cast eventually decide to go get breakfast and debate their next move.

They return to the pawn shop in New Castle, and bribe Mr. LaVec to give them the identity of the guy who sold the Egyptian artifacts to him. He gives them the name "Leland," and tells them that this Leland kid makes him uncomfortable and is often seen with a "Goth chick" and a few other guys, but that the stuff Leland pawns makes him good money, so he doesn't ask too many questions.

The Cast then goes to talk to Dan Jacobs, the man who rented their hunting cabins to them. Jacobs informs them that he hates Leland and his cronies, and would love to see them go down. Jacobs is an ex-cop who is convinced that Leland is involved in drugs and fencing. He tells John that Leland doesn't work, but still has money to rent a house and purchase a Trans-Am and three pickup trucks. He then asks the Cast to get back to him with any solid evidence they can find, and that he'll get the New Castle police in on things.

Leland's address in hand, the Cast goes to investigate his house, where they find the credit cards of the missing people, a lock box with an Egyptian scarab in it, and a phone book with the names of all of his gang (7 names and numbers, making 8 cultists in total). In another bedroom, they discover a quarter of the floor covered with sheet metal and the remnants of lots of burned items. The room is also full of accelerants and flammable materials--the indications of a pyromaniac. Also in this room they discover a journal with a hand-drawn map of the town and many key buildings marked with "X's".

Going to investiage some of the "X-ed" buildings, they discover homemade fire bombs set on the foundations. They debate on the meaning of this before coming to the horrific realization that most dark rituals require a sacrifice of some sort, and a ritual like the one to bring this Xalotun back would require a massive sacrifice...like the whole town.

They run to Jacobs with an "anonymous tip" about the evidence they discovered in Leland's house and he promises to work on getting a search warrant. They then rush to the ritual site to meet up with the Templars, who are flying the concrete in. The problem still remains of where the fifth stone appeared, and Anita touches upon the idea of calling forth the spirit of a sacrificed victim to ask. It takes an heroic effort on her part, due to the tightening of the walls between Earth and the Threshold, but she pulls a spirit forth and asks its help. The spirit tells the group where the fifth stone was, and Anita passes out from exhaustion.

When Anita awakens, the concrete has been poured and is beginning to set. The Cast manage to work the powerful and dangerous Elder Sign ritual together--twice--and the area is sealed. They go home victorious, feeling positive about being able to stop a dark act before it ever happened for a change.

Epilogue "Cut Scene"

The town of Catheway sits quiet in the dusk. The news of Leland’s arrest and his plot to destroy the town has not reached the ears of the townsfolk yet.

Two miles away, in the forest, the ground begins to tremble. The two newly-crafted Elder signs rumble and glow as an ancient evil struggles against the magic holding it at bay. With one final scream of rage, the evil sends all its power skyward. The heavens darken; dusk becomes black as midnight, and a green glow forms over the skies of Catheway.

Suddenly, a massive bolt of sickly green light shoots from the heavens, engulfing the entire town. In an horrific eternity of seconds, greenish flames cover every last building in the small town. The screams of the inhabitants last the barest of an instant. Then the light fades back into the darkness, which returns to the ground beneath the Elder Sign, a black mist that reveals the dusky sky beneath it.

Catheway is gone, utterly consumed by unholy fires.

“I didn’t know you had it in you,” a voice says from the forest.

“It wasn’t I,” comes a muffled voice from within the vault. “A side effect of those cursed wards, perhaps reacting to my anger.”

The figure steps from the forest, and Alan Collins stands surveying the Elder Signs. “More likely, the Elder Signs ensuring there are no nearby sacrificial victims to sate your hunger. I can’t free you from here, now. She’s a clever girl, my Anita. She and her friends are far more dangerous than we’d anticipated. An oversight on my part, I admit.”

“An oversight? You fool! I’ll never get free, now!”

“Relax, my lord Xalotun. There are other ways, other routes to the Deeper Dark. I’ll tear your soul free and you will return in all your glory. And then, my friend, Leviathan will rise to consume this world in eternal night. We shall be gods.”

“As of this moment,” Xalotun replies, “I care not about godhood. I will settle for vengeance.”

Collins nods, pats the side of the sealed vault, and says, “We shall speak again, soon.”

The Black Sorcerer turns and walks into the forest, as the last rays of daylight disappear on the horizon.