Mid-West Campaign
Session Thirty-Four

Friday, 15 December 2000 (continued)

Jane is confined to her bed feeling too weak to move. This weakness seems to increase the closer Nathan is to her. But she can use the telephone and contacts Benedict Oaxaca to inform him that Owen Sawell was probably killed by the Joker. The water-proof ink on the card and the wetsuit - it all seems to make sense. Benedict says that Owen had a partner called Lex Edmond that Jane might want to speak to.

Benedict used to work in San Francisco and tells Jane all he knows about the local triads (see the case notes for 0008-GCF for this information). The resent resurrection of Harlow and Jane's weaknesses are completely over both Benedict and Jane's heads and so Jane speaks to Artemis Black to see what he thinks.

After listening to a complete explanation of what has happened over the last couple of days, Artemis immediately feels he knows everything about the situation. He says that where dragon lines (or ley lines) cross they form pools of negative or positive chi or even void. This energy is not good or evil it simply is. There has to be a balance - a Yin for each Yang. The perfect focus for chi is jade (like the pendants). The Taoshih are Chinese alchemists or geomancers who have been around since about 1200 BC. They can use chi energy to become immortal. Artemis suspects Mai Sei Ben is one of these Taoshih.

Just as people have chakra points, the place where dragon lines cross could be seen as the chakra points of a city. A ritualised killing at one of these points would release chi at that point. Certain chakra points give off positive or negative chi. Therefore a ritualised killing at certain points would imbalance the chi - although the killer would have to eat a certain organ of his victim. Artemis is certain that time travel (case 0015-GCF) isn't connected with the dragon lines.

Regarding the four jade pendants, they will be bonded to the recipient at the appropriate chakra point: Confidence to the brain, Strength to the Heart, Skill to the Hands and Talent to the Gut. Nathan's pendant (Talent) is in his chest. This is the wrong place. Therefore the chi is all wrong. This is why Nathan cannot access the powers of the pendant, and also why Jane is feeling so bad. She got the ritual wrong and it affected her. Artemis believes removing the pendant will kill Nathan, because only the pendant is keeping him alive.

But there is some more alarming news from Casper. Artemis has had Benedict's sperm tested and Benedict is a non-secretor just like Apache Joe. There also may be a hitherto unrealised link between these two cases. What if the green mineral that Benedict handled was the same stuff that makes up the pendants. Both augment the physical and mental attributes. But the agents still do not know who sent the mineral to the team in the first place.

While Jane is doing all this, Dr Ecks checks the phones of the west coast team, but they didn't telephone anyone worth mentioning. Ecks then begins to look at case 0015-GCF. The door in time was discovered one week ago by the Chief Librarian, Arnold Eyres who reported that the door to a basement office was jammed. Jim Purnell who worked for maintenance couldn't open the door and eventually took a chainsaw to it. The chainsaw was ripped in half by some force beyond the door. Then they took thee hinges off and the door was sucked through a shimmering portal. Eisenstein's office intercepted the reports and the west coast team were quickly despatched to cover everything up. Ecks wants to look into this but Jane things the murder of the west coast team should take priority.

Philip McKraken is assigned back to the east coast team, and he leaves HQ just as soon as he is conscious. The group now search the house for more clues. Jane and Ecks find a red-bound book of I-Ching in the room of Jennifer Summers. This could have mystical significance.

The group drive to the impound lot to check out the cars used by the west coast team on the day of their death. Just being in the same car as Nathan is making Jane feel faint. Suddenly Jane sees a familiar face on the sidewalk - it is Gabe the archangel from Winterset, although he is now in an Armani suit and no longer dressed like a tramp. Stopping the van, the group quickly talk with Gabe.

Gabe wanted to be found. He tells them that the hole in time is an artificially made door; it is an anathema in the eyes of God and must be closed. He says that it can only be closed if both sides of the portal balance - something has gone through the portal and remains on the other side. Something of equal mass must be sent back through to close it. Everyone has questions for Gabe as he cannot lie, but Gabe only confirms what the party already think they know:

Apache Joe was exposed to the same chemical as Benedict. Mao Sei Ben, Yo Yo Chan, Fu Pi and Nushen Zeinshen were the murderers of the west coast team. The thing that Nathan knows about Artemis Black's connection with the Joker is…. well he doesn't tell the party that. In fact Gabe seems quite interested in Nathan. He says that Nathan's soul is in jeopardy. Gabe says that he requires one act of generosity, one act of faith from Nathan and he will tell him the connection - or the survivors if Nathan dies. Gabe then departs.

Jane collapses because she is so close to Nathan. Distance seesm to help, so the team splits up. Nathan and Burchill go to the impound yard, while Ecks and Jane go to the library. At the impound yard the pair look at the two card and one motorcycle that belonged to the team. They take the onboard computers to analyse later, but find nothing particularly suspicious.

At the library Jane feels a bit better. She and Ecks talk to Arnold Eyres who tells them that the office in question belongs to a resident archivist: Alan Hamblin III! Suddenly this case seems very relevant. There is a workman's curtain around the door and there seems no way around the door through the walls. Ecks and Jane agree to get someone to dig through the ceiling into the room so they can investigate it inside. The city engineers will begin work tomorrow.

The pair take the opportunity to talk to Colin Wilson. He is a local studies librarian with an interest in the occult. He can give them a map of the ley lines (dragon lines) in Los Angeles. The west coast HQ is sitting on a negative nexus point. He tells them that Alan Hamblin went to the British Museum to consult an older, Egyptian, version of the Hebrew script he was working on.

The group return to the HQ. Jane contacts the county morgue and asks them to go ahead with the autopsies on the remaining west coast agents. Nothing beyond the obvious is found.

Saturday, 16 December 2000

[Editorial note: We are about to enter the longest day. Due to further investigation into the time tunnel on the door to Hamblin's office, this day is actually repeated three times. A full description of the various unstable time lines - as well as an explanation of how time travel works - can be found on the section on Time Travel. Also check here if you're wondering who the heck Henry Devries is. This section details the various permutations experienced by the players in the order they were played. Events in blue type never really happened. Only Bradley Ecks and Todd O'Connell remember all the time-lines, although the other agents have been told what transpired.]

Jane is unconscious in the morning and cannot be roused. Leaving Todd to take care of her Nathan, Ecks and Burchill go to Hamblin's house in Los Angeles. They stop at a Chinese Herbalist on the way to get some tea that might help Jane. Ecks also has some seismic devices delivered so he can check under the west coast HQ for a space ship.

At Hamblin's house they see an African sculpture in the garden. When he opens the front door he is confronted by a wave of nausea (although happily for him this effects Jane instead). They search the house from top to bottom and find it packed with books, scrolls and assorted historical nick-nacks. There is no computer here.

Notably, Ecks finds a scroll of papyrus. It should be ancient but it looks very modern indeed - the ink is very new. Could this be an original scroll from the past that Hamblin has brought to the present using the time portal in his office? If this is the case then the imbalance is on this side of the time portal, and mass needs to be send back to close it. Follow this link for the eventual translation of this scroll.

Mid-West Campaign Index | Previous Session | Next Session