The Dead and the Damned

Something Wicked This Way Came

William Garnett was contracted by a woman named Victoria Slater to find a book that her ex-husband, Victor Yorkshire, stole from her. It’s one of three she inherited from her father, John Slater. Will takes the case and begins investigating. His investigation reveals that Victor takes occasional trips to Dudleytown, so Will arranged for a police escort (since the area is off limits and patrolled) with Daniel Benjamin and set out to go there.

Kristopher Magnuson was accosted by a pretty neighbor who knew that he sometimes helped people out. She begged him to please find her missing teenage son. Being a sucker for a pretty face, he gave in and began looking into it. Kris soon discovered that the kid was an amateur paranormal investigator, and the last place he planned to visit before he disappeared was Dudleytown. Kris makes plans to visit the area and look around.

Charlie Kane and Mark Peter Brewer are both visited by The Gatekeeper, who cryptically tasks them to make a trip to Dudleytown and investigate strange supernatural activity there. With little choice but to accept, they gear up and set out.

Kris, Mark and Charlie run into each other at the forest trail leading to the abandoned Dudleytown. There they also meet the private investigator Will and his police escort Daniel. After a brief discussion all five decide to enter together.

In the woods along the trail to Dudleytown they spot a campsite. No-one is there but Kris quickly discovered it belonged to the missing teen that he was there to find. The teen however is still nowhere to be found.

At Dudleytown they come upon a crater with a naked man at the center of it. The man is alive but appears to have lost his mind. Kris determined this wasn’t the person he was there to find. Daniel took him back to the cruiser in order to bring him in and get him help.

On the other side of the crater is the book that Will was contracted to find. He flips through it with no ill effect. Charlie looks through it and becomes “Touched by Darkness”. Still reeling, he agrees to let William return it to its rightful owner. Charlie and Mark conduct a magical investigation which reveals the entire area is seeped with residual, alien (Outsider) magic. The group makes the decision to head back before nightfall.

Will tries to return the book, only to discover that “Victoria Slater” never existed and her place is abandoned. Further investigation reveals Victoria’s real name is Dolores Klowski and that she works for Victor Yorkshire. That evening they would both be at a private location in Ledyard for some function. Will decides to check it out in order to confront Dolores. Charlie offers to buy the book (to keep it safe and to learn how to undo what happened to him in Dudleytown) and Will sells it to him.

Charlie, Kris and Mark also decide to visit the private location in Ledyard, which is the Accorded Neutral Ground Casino, based on the results of their individual investigations and researches. Will is not let in, but he is able to sneak in and disguise himself as a waiter. He meets up with Charlie and they both confront Dolores. She doesn’t want the book; she just wants to keep it from Victor. She pays Will what she owes him plus some extra. She and Charlie banter briefly.

Kris and Mark find themselves at a game table with Victor Yorkshire and some other folks. Kris demands answers from Victor, but Victor won’t just give up the information for free. Kris and Victor square off in a heated card game with Mark as the stakes. Kris wins the game; he gets the answers he was looking for, and Mark gets to keep his freedom.

After everyone goes their own way, Mark and Charlie are at the bookstore again when the Gatekeeper arrives. He thanks them for their work and asks Charlie to destroy the book. Charlie agrees, but instead locks it up in his “vault” in the hope he can use it to reverse what came over him in Dudleytown.

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Any Port In A Storm

Elwynn shows up on Mark’s door after being absent for a while, frantic. She reveals to him that he needs to marry her, or else a minor Sidhe of the Winter Court will force her to marry him, which will result in their deaths. Mark refuses to do so, believing there is another way, and heads to New Haven to collaborate with Charlie to find it.

Along the coast of Connecticut a strange storm has blown in, and what appears to be snow falls from it. When this snow touches the bare skin of a person, that person loses control of themselves, acting out violently. From Bridgeport up through Branford cities and emergency personell have their hands full dealing with this.

At The Magic of Books, Mark and Elwynn meet with Charlie to discuss his problem. William was there to discuss an investigation he was on. Kris comes by because something about this storm is familiar to him. While in the bookstore, the paramedic Calliope takes refuge after her partner starts acting out. The storm gets worse.

Elwynn explains that when her and the “Baron” Oledrin were both Wyldfae, they were to be married. Once she was raised to the Sidhe of the Summer Fae, her court protected her from having to follow through with the marriage. After some time, Oledrin was raised into the Sidhe of the Winter Court, and their engagement was forced by the courts to move forward. Once the marriage happened, both her and Oledrin would die now that one was aligned with Summer, and the other was aligned with Winter. However, this would be a victory for the Winter court, since Elwynn was much more influential in the Summer court than Oledrin was in the Winter court. In fact, Oledrin was only raised to the Winter Sidhe because of this obligation that Winter could exploit.

Elwynn continues to explain that Mark’s mentor had married her, stalling the marriage between her and Oledrin. This kept Oledrin at bay while Mark’s master was alive. But now the Baron Oledrin discovered Elwynn’s husband was dead, and he’s pulling out all the stops this time in order to make her his wife – even though it means his death and hers. But if Mark were to marry her, this would once again keep her safe.

The group does some reasearch and hashes out various ideas to see what can be done about this. The Baron is not a reasonable man, and in fact is responsible for this storm. This is the same storm he summoned decades ago when he came after Elwynn previously – this is what Kris remembered. They cannot hide behind Charlie’s wards forever though; the madness outside continues to grow and as night falls the group is witness to Black Court vampires roaming openly through the storm, taking advantage of the chaos to have their own fun.

It is decided that Elwynn will have to die. Her death will free her from her promise of marriage to the Baron Oledrin. Charlie and Calliope work together to create a potion which will “kill” her, but also allow them to bring her “back to life” once the Baron has seen her dead for himself. The plan works, and the Baron retreats with his storm. Calliope and Charlie succeed in removing the poison from Elwynn’s body and bringing her back to life. Everyone goes their separate ways again, blissfully unaware of the consequences which their actions have wrought.

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Happily Ever After

Kris receives a phone call from an old FBI buddy, warning him that senator Elliot Montgomery has flagged his file during a financial review and will be conducting an investigation for fraud. Kris will have his assets frozen and his pension stopped pending the outcome of the ivestigation. Kris begins attending to his assets to ensure he can continue to operate during this time. He also begins his own investigations into the senator.

Mark receives a visit from the local Warden, Luthor. There is a rogue practitioner in the state, and Luthor wants Mark to do the legwork to find him. He tells Mark this is a test, and if he succeeds he will begin the process anew for getting Mark another shot at becoming a Warden. Despite initial objections, Mark aquiesces. He has not seen or heard from Elwynn since the night at the bookstore.

Calliope finds herself dealing with a series of serious burn victims. One of them is able to tell her that it was a kid who did this to him, some kid just looked at him and set them all on fire. Calliope doesn’t get much more out of him but sets out to learn more about this incident. She discusses with some colleagues and discovers that there was a similar incident, about a week ago, near a club in New Haven. All the victims in that fire were dead before paramedics could even arrive. The club is not too far from the Magic of Books. Calliope heads out there to see what she may be able to learn.

Kris’ investigations reveal the senator has a teenage son who is currently held in a mental institution in Hartford, called Beacon Hospital. Kris sneaks in, avoids the staff, and finds some odd records (some records have the patient labelled as “food”) in Victor Yorkshire‘s office. There he also finds the kid’s file and location. He discovers John Williams in a state of extreme despair and apathy. He gains John’s trust and learns that the reason he’s in the hospital is because he witnessed his boyfriend kill a group of punks who accosted them. His boyfriend, Daniel Morris, just stared at them and somehow burned them all alive. Daniel ran away and when John went to his father for help, he was instead sent here.

Mark visits the Magic of Books and learns that Charlie met with someone and the two of them left the store and area for some time. Mark goes through some older newspapers looking for any unusual killings and discovers that about a week ago, three gang members were found in the alley of a nearby club, burned to a crisp. Witnesses gave police the description of a person they saw fleeing the scene, but police are still looking into leads. Mark heads to the alley and performs a ritual which confirms that magic was used there to kill the kids. While there, he meets with Calliope.

Calliope and Mark discuss the implications of people being killed by magic, and why they can’t call the Wardens to deal with it (because Mark is doing the legwork in their stead). They contact Kris and compare notes, and realize they now believe they know who is responsible – Daniel Morris. They go to speak with his family, who haven’t heard from him in over a week. They manage to get some personal effects from Daniel’s room and Mark uses magic to track him to an abandoned building in Bridgeport. Kris discovers he has a FBI tail but manages to shake them.

In the abandoned building, Calliope decides to try and peacefully confront Daniel while Kris and Mark hold back. She gets his side of events and learns how scared he is of what he can do, what he has done and what he may do. She is able to calm him and convince him to come with her. She tells him she knows of a place where he can be safe – with her parents, who are themselves White Council members. Daniel accepts and is brought there. Once Calliope goes to sleep Mark and her parents summon the Warden. Luthor takes Daniel away while Kris, Mark and Calliope’s parents solemnly watch. No-one has the heart to tell Calliope what Daniel’s fate is likely to be.

The next day Kris confronts the senator to call off the investigation, using his knowledge of the senator’s son as leverage. The senator, defeated, calls it off and Kris goes back to life as usual. The senator calls his friend, Dr. Victor Yorkshire, to talk about this turn of events and to discuss his son. Victor thanks him for looking into Kris and lets him know he need do no more at this time. Victor also assures him that the boy needs to stay under his care for some time longer.

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