July 3rd 2000, Monday
6:00 pm
Undisclosed Island in Michigan Lake
The PCs get to rest for a couple of hours while the scientists work out the next series of equations, but once they’re finished they get marshaled back up to the Saucer (the main room of the XDG) to find the next piece of the skull.
July 3rd 2000, Monday
Unknown
Somewhere in the Mirrorwall
Angelique quickly realizes that they’ve not crossed into the Dreamlands, but into the Mirrorwall (the Astral Plane) a place that is incredibly dangerous to go on purpose, much less end up there on accident. The landscape around them is desolate, being nearly featureless except for a scraggy tree here and there and a dusty cobblestone road cutting through the dustier hills. Angel sends Sergei out to scout on foot and Alex to scout on horseback. While Sergei finds nothing in the wasteland they’ve found themselves, Alex finds an unconscious old man on the cobble stone road. Checking to make sure he’s stabilized, he then takes him back to the others. Far (the medic for the SEAL team), checks on the unconscious man and other than low blood pressure and malnutrition he seems fine. Hachiko tells the others of a building he spotted in the distance and Alex confirms it is not a mirage. The team then make their way to the building with BFG carrying the old man the entire way there.
July 3rd 2000, Monday
Unknown
The Hasgimbal Institute Somewhere in the Mirrorwall
When they get close enough to the structure, they realize it is an old sanitarium. At the gates of the massive building they are stopped by guards wearing extremely old Napoleonic uniforms. Eventually a nun and a couple of orderlies come to the gates to take the old man Alex found back inside. The nun, Sister Gretchen, has Angel, Alex, BFG, and Jonathan come with her to see the Mother Superior, but forces them to disarm themselves. Hachiko, Gelar, and the remainder of the SEALs stay outside. She tells them that they may only leave with what they bring and then invites them within. Sergei sneaks in the building by himself at Angel’s orders, but quickly get’s lost as he realizes the building is semi-sentient and actively working against him. Angel and the rest meet Mother Superior Applewood who then offers her the piece of crystal skull shard telling them to take it and go, but Angel mysterious asks for a tour instead (she’d had a vision). Mother Superior agrees and has Gretchen show them around. The rooms of the sanitarium are filled with screaming lunatics, but Alex notices that in one room he sees what appears to be his girlfriend, Sam. Angel then talks Sister Gretchen into letting her go free with them, since she is a doctor and they returned a patient so they should be able to take a patient with them. Sister Gretchen returns them to the entrance way of the building and to a waiting room there while she consults with the leader of her order. Eventually, Sam is brought to them, but Mother Superior brings another woman as well: Abigail Winterbourne, Alex’s aunt and the one who raised him. Realizing Mother Superior has put him into an impossible position he does the only thing he can: he doesn’t make a choice. He gives his Aunt, his Uncles pocketwatch and watches as she disappears, using the eldritch device. This enrages Mother Superior, but Angel and he team push their way out of the building as the walls begin to shake and unearthly screaming can be heard. Sergei tries to kill the nun, but is thrown through a window as a supernatural force protects her. Once outside the team falls back to about halfway as the SEALS rush through the gate and to their aid. Bellowing out of the building like animated smoke is being with hundreds of faces, lmbs, and voices. Angel immediately recognizes it as a Whisperer in the Dark1 and performs a spell to sap some of its spiritual energy. The rest of the team fire into the creature with little to no effect until Hachiko realizes that damaging the building damages it. The majority of the team then distracts it as Sergei, Ecks, and Jon plant bombs on the building itself. Once they go off the creature transforms into a little soot-covered boy clutching a lantern. Mother Superior runs forward screaming for them not to hurt her son. Apparently, the child, Reggie, died after he accidently set the sanitrauim on fire, killing everyone inside. But instead of passing on he drew in the souls of all those who died in the blaze, becoming a Whisperer in the Dark. Far then gives both the boy and his mother last rites and the building and its occupants fade away as they finally cross over to the afterlife. The PCs make their way back to where they started from and Angel telepathically contacts Jessie, who then opens a gateway back to Undisclosed.
July 3rd 2000, Monday
11:00 pm
Undisclosed Island in Michigan Lake
Once back into the base the PCs are given enough time to reload their gear and ammo, bath, eat, and are then sent back out. But before they can go to the next location, a portal rips a hole into the space above the Saucer and something is thrown through. A marine screams grenade and jumps atop it before anyone can react, though nothing explodes. Instead it is an old metal flask with a photo of Marie and a ransom note within it. Director Halusko and Colonel Islington fight about handing Marie over to whomever has the crystal, with Marie deciding to do it. Jon comes up with a plan to get the crystal and keep Marie as well and the PCs set off through the gateway, they are joined by both Director Halsuko and Jessie who intend to negotiate.
July 3rd 2000, Monday
Unknown
Ulthar, The Dreamlands
Once through the portal they realize they are in Ulthar where no man may harm a cat. The PCs make their way to the square where a large group of men await them. Jon and Sergei sneak above the rooftops of Ulthar as they make their way to where the shard lay on the third floor of the Cat’s Grin Inn. Below them a nameless man with some form of mystical obscurement deals with the PCs, but when he trades the shard for Marie he learns that Angelique had been impersonating the girl all along and a combat breaks out. Above the fight, Sergei and Jon find the shard, but both realize it’s a trap before the chest which contains the fake shard. They flee the room, but are blown off the building thanks to an explosion. Angel uses her telepathy to force one of the Nameless man’s allies to her side (the Russian), telling him to “kill the mage” (Nameless’s mercenary caster). Alex summons a small ice storm creating a frozen slick beneath the feet of the mercenaries, Hachiko then uses a ofuda charm to summon hundreds of chains binding the now prone mercs to the ground. The sorcerer then creates a magic-dampening field. He then begins flinging magical spells left and right, hurting both Jessie and Director Halusko. Jessie quickly dispels the field allowing Angel, Jon, and Sergei attack the mercenary sorcerer despite his large assortment of battle spells. Although they severally hurt him he remains mostly undamaged as his wounds seal back up near instantly. When Jessie dispels the magic on the mage, a conditional spells activates and he disappears. Realizing he won’t get what he wants the Nameless man throws down a smoke bomb and disappears. Realizing they have the shard they go back through the portal. Angel offers the Russian a job, who quickly accepts.
July 3rd 2000, Monday
1:00 am
Undisclosed Island in Michigan Lake
Once back on the other side, the PCs get to rest before going after the next piece as only two now remain.
July 3rd 2000, Monday
2:00 am
Undisclosed Island in Michigan Lake
1 A Whisperer in the Dark is a being composed of multiple spirits that are trapped or working together. These spirits can only be separated forcibly. Created from intense pain on death or other dark emotions and/or trauma they are incredibly difficult to banish or exorcise. The more souls within the creature, the more powerful it is. The one at the Hasgimbal Institute manifested the hospital that was destroyed in creating it and this became a part of its body.