Tuesday, 10 April 2001
It is obvious to the agents that McKenna, Hardy and the fat chicks
were all pupils of Veronica Cunningham and that the Pagan society
was the cover for a Wiccan coven. The agents head to the campus
of Dallas University to speak with Newtridge Hardy. On the way there,
Joshua suffers severe rectal collapse and is whisked away to the
university hospital.
On the door to Hardy's room is a picture of a tower that makes
Benedict feel particularly uncomfortable. Entering the room sets
his nerves on fire and he is forced to make quick excuses and remain
in the hall. He assumes the poster must be some sort of ward to
keep out supernatural creatures. In any event, Newt and his room-mate
(Leon Carter) don't seem to notice.
Their room is a festering hole of decomposing pizzas and the rank
stench of unwashed bodies: it is a typical student dive. There is
a lingering smell of dope and a large TV where Newt and Leon are
playing a computer game. Leon agrees to leave while Jane and Alex
talk to Newt in private.
In the hallway, Benedict is still feeling bad. His plan to go into
the room with vampire fangs and scare everyone has backfired and
now he has the world's worst tooth-ache. Leon joins him in the hall
and Benedict asks him about Newt's friends. Leon says that he was
assigned to Newt and is not part of the Pagan Society. He can tell
Ben that the other members of the society are Jane West, Colleen
Williams (who is very attractive in Leon's opinion), Louise Milton
and Veronica Suzanne. They meet every Thursday over at Prentice
Hall (named after Prentice King who donated the hall to the university).
Leon then shows Benedict the .38 special that he keeps at all times
in case he is attacked by Apache Joe. Leon goes to the canteen and
leaves Benedict alone.
Jane and Alex start to question the lanky and malnourished Newt.
He seems extremely unwell. They ask him about Josephine McKenna.
Newt says that he hasn't seen her in about a month. He then excuses
himself and heads to the bathroom, where the agents can hear him
being sick. In his absence they check the room. There is a strange
candle burning on a coffee table. Underneath the poster attached
to the outside of the door is a complicated Celtic knot-work pattern
- a mystical symbol of some kind. Minutes pass and Newt is still
being sick. Jane is concerned and opens the bathroom door.
The bathroom is covered in hundred and hundreds of beetles. They
are crawling over everything, including Newt. He is vomiting up
handfuls and handfuls of beetles. He looks completely terrified.
He cannot breathe. Jane grabs him and tries to get his breathing
going again, but the beetles keep pouring out of his mouth. She
performs an emergency tracheotomy but to no avail. Newt dies in
her arms.
Jane is stunned and sickened. This was a magical effect. As soon
as Newt mentioned McKenna (or perhaps Veronica) this spell kicked
off and killed him. Something in this room caused it. Jane telephones
Dominic Rocaan to use his occult experience. Dominic isn't very
much help. Drake takes the poster off the door and throws it out
of the window so Ben can enter the room. Benedict suggests they
need to come up with a convincing story to explain this (maybe there
were beetle eggs on the pizza Newt ate). To cover themselves they
should suggest that Leon is taken away for a thorough examination,
in case the same thing happens to him. Their talk is stymied however,
by the arrival of campus security.
Jane apprises campus cop, Lieutenant Gordon Whitegate of the situation.
Whitegate used to work security at the Baylor College of Medicine
and remembers busting Jane and Kirsty for driving under the influence
of narcotics. Jane (rather sheepishly) explains she wasn't driving
at the time. Whitegate says that he saw Kirsty driving through Dallas
recently. Jane pretends that this doesn't come as a shock. Benedict
says that the FBI will take over the investigation and will contact
Newt's parents. He also suggests that Leon be taken to hospital
ASAP.
The agent's next steps appear limited. If talking to other members
of the coven results in their deaths then they cannot openly approach
Colleen Williams, Louise Milton, Veronica Suzanne or Jane West.
Veronica Cunningham was on the staff at the university (she was
a senior administrator), and Josephine was a postgraduate behavioural
psychologist, so more might be gained following those leads on the
campus.
The agents discover that Prentice Hall (where the Pagan Soc meets)
was built in the 1960s. It was donated by Prentice Kray, an oil
baron who made all his money from drilling. He lived as a Howard
Hughes-esque recluse in a fortified house in the Fort Worth area,
until his death five years ago. The only problem with the Pagan
Society using the hall is the wax stains from all their candles,
and they have been fined on more than one occasion.
The candle in Newt's room is still burning. Alex tries to put it
out but cannot it. The flame even burns underwater. This could be
the focus that resulted in Newt's death. Jane phones Dominic who
says the candle could represent several things: it could be used
to scry, bind or ward. Drake looks into the candle, and finds his
spirit leaving his body and drifting toward the flame. He manages
to resist. The agents place the candle in a thermos flask for safe
keeping.
They head down to the cars. They have the symbol that seems to
keep Benedict at bay in the boot of one car. Benedict opens the
boot and collapses. He needs to travel in a different car from now
on.
Jane suggests that they use the equipment they have to bug Prentice
Hall and listen in on the Pagan Soc when they meet the day after
tomorrow. They get the key and head into the hall. Drake puts all
the bugs up, but the agents have no particular skill in concealing
the cameras and the microphones. In the end they tape a microphone
to the back of a chair and conceal it behind a sign that says: "Broken:
Do not use". Hopefully, their luck will hold out.
Thursday, 12 April 2001
After a day of twiddling their thumbs the agents meet in the evening
to eavesdrop on the Pagan Society. The meeting starts at 8:00pm
and is a obvious collection of new age mumbo-jumbo. However, at
the end four girls linger. These are evidently the remains of Veronica
Cunningham's coven: Jane West, Veronica Suzanne, Louise Milton and
Colleen Williams.
"Do you think she knows?" asks one. "Of course she
knows," says another. Suddenly in the picture one of the girls
(Colleen Williams) becomes Veronica Cunningham! The other three
know that something is changed, but they don't seem to see what.
They are acting deferential, but scared. Veronica speaks with Colleen's
voice.
She says: "Well my children, we all knew he was weak and he
has paid for that. Have you made any progress with the searching?"
One of the girls replies that the "ritual of three" isn't
working. "We must find her," says Veronica, "she
is eluding me, and it is unsettling." Then suddenly Veronica
is gone and Colleen is Colleen once more. The coven breaks up and
goes its separate ways.
It seems that Veronica is really dead, and that she possessed Colleen
in the same way that Tic-Tac Loos possessed Jack Renford. Jane telephones
Dominic for his take on this. He says that Veronica has returned
as a ghost for the sake of vengeance. She believes that she was
murdered, and will instinctively know if she is in the presence
of the murderer. The only way to get rid of her would be to sever
the emotional and physical ties she has to the world. He warns that
if the killer dies before Veronica can get to him, then she could
hang around indefinitely and become a free-willed killer like the
Mirror Ghost Plum Blossom.
Mid-West Campaign Index
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