Mid-West Campaign
Session Twenty-Seven

Saturday, 9 December 2000

Early in the morning Benedict and Bruce take over the stake-out of the Ethel Skinner's home in Chugwater. An exhausted Rocaan and Black return to Casper to a phone call from Eisenstein. Eisenstein informs Black that he is sending Alex Drake to augment the team, and he will be arriving on the 08:00 flight. He also tells Black that Joshua's various rectal problems have led to him being placed on long term sick leave. Black is now Assistant Special Agent in Charge. He revels in the power.

Black and Rocaan collect Drake from the airport and brief him on the case. A severe weather warning is given for the area. A treacherous ice storm is moving in on force 7 winds. The whole area is going to be in the grip of horrendous weather for 20-30 hours.. The three agents in Casper return to the hotel. In Chugwater, Benedict and Bruce call it a day and head to the sheriff's office. Benedict believes that Calvin Powell was the one going to collect the three cheques and obviously he won't be turning up. The weather gets very bad, and Benedict's car is nearly blown off the bridge into the river.

At the sheriff's office Benedict talks to Max Lincoln and examines the palm pilot found on the body of Calvin Powell. Bruce notices that the numbers of the Rosses are not on the pilot even though Oscar Ross sent him a postcard. The numbers of Bryce, James and Watson are listed. Is this Calvin's palm pilot or does it belong to someone else who was in the truck when it crashed? Due to bad phone lines this cannot be confirmed. The sheriff's office is covered in snow. Bruce and Benedict bed down in one of the cells to wait out the storm.

In Casper, the agents call in warrants to search the homes of Bryce, Watson and James but it soon becomes apparent they can do no investigating today. In the restaurant, Black can here a voice whispering his name and bidding him to look at the window. When he does so he sees an icy white Alan Hamblin III staring at him for a second before the man is consumed by snow. Taking Dominic's advice that this may not be a supernatural apparition they hurry outside and find the frozen body of Hamblin in the snow. The local doctor, Willis, is summoned but Hamblin is already dead.

Rocaan finds a piece of red-black vellum in Hamblin's pocket. It is ancient, and has a number of barely visible runes upon it that Dominic recognises as Mesopotamian or Sumerian. It is possible this could be the original Book of Entrance before it was translated. Hamblin's appearance is a mystery. He is certainly not dressed for the cold. He is carrying a mixture of American and British currency in his pockets which is consistent with him being recently in England, but he has no passport. Although the party will credit he used magic to teleport to Wyoming, he certainly didn't use the Book of Entrance to do it, because Black is certain that the rituals detailed within it do not work that way. Hamblin also has a wrapper for packet of cigarettes covered in the Cyrillic script, that the agents think might be Polish. Later they discover it is Ukrainian..

Black phones the hospital in Fairbanks, Alaska and is put through to Jane. Jane tells Black everything that happened on the Flight FB104. Black agrees to look through the passenger manifest for details of Lillian Winter and Al Brickman. He also tells Jane that he is Assistant Special Agent in Charge now, and asks her to return. Jane persuades him to allow her to visit Crondheim and then hurry back.

Later, Alex Drake looks out of his bedroom window and sees a strange light through the storm that seems to be over the location of the Anasazi dig (20 miles from town). A little later he sees a similar light over the Mary Estate. Dominic sees neither of these lights. Black, partly because he is at a loose end, and partly because of his new megalomaniacal need to lead the team to new heights of idiocy, decides that they must investigate the lights. Unluckily, Benedict chooses this moment to contact Black with news of the palm pilot, roping him and Bruce in on this dangerous mission.

Before they leave Rocaan phones the Mary Estate to check all is okay. Peterson is still trapped there, but saw nothing unusual. The computerised Elaine Cox says that Perry cannot be disturbed.

Black, Rocaan and Drake leave Casper in their 4-by-4 into the worst storm they have ever seen. Drake accidentally drives into a shoe shop before the group head off on their 3 hour journey through the snow. They are entertained en route by Artemis Black's Summer Hits - a shameless cash in by the author of Victim, Schmictim. Benedict and Bruce leave Chugwater in their damaged car. They have a five hour journey.

Eventually the first car reaches the destination (mostly with the help of the GPS equipment that Benedict now insists that everyone carries). There is a slope down into a bowl depression where the snow has been cleared away as if something recently took off or landed here. The three get out into the bitter wind to investigate only to have their car sink through the six foot drift they parked it. It takes an hour for them to dig it out, then they head into the depression.

The now only lays two inches deep on the Anasazi ruins. Black has everyone spread out with their entrenching tools to clear the snow and look for clues. An hour later Benedict arrives. Dominic is suffering from frostbite by this time, so goes to Benedict's car for some hot soup and informs the newcomers that Black is leading everyone on a mission to "move snow".

After five hours everyone is suffering from frostbite apart from Artemis Black, whose power-crazed adrenaline high is acting as complete protection against the inclement weather. The mission has not been in vain however: they discovered one crushed Coke can and several cigarette butts. However, these are the butts of Ukrainian cigarettes. Could Hamblin have been here?

Timeline note: at this point, Alex Drake discovers another one of the Joker cards inside the excavated car. Details of this event can be found in session 28.

After a small road traffic accident the agents head to the Mary Estate, arriving there at 23:00. They park on the heated pedestrian walkways and head into the building. Perry is in no danger, he was simply having some 'intimate' time with a hologram of Elaine Cox. Peterson is delighted that the agents have come to rescue him.

Bruce takes CCTV footage of the outside of the Mary Estate without asking Perry's permission. He also downloads some information from the Dynamicorp database that could prove useful later on. Perry notices this and engages in computer duel with Bruce that he loses. Disgruntled, Perry is unwilling to help the agents when Artemis asks for access to the largest lab on site (owned by Varium Electronics). However, Benedict's promise of hooking Perry up with the Harlow porn stash is more than enough to get Perry on board - that and his fear that Dominic is a voodooist and is going to use black magic to curse him.

Mid-West Campaign Index | Previous Session | Next Session