Identification. David snuck in while the others simply entered and began looking around. As Charles entered, a piece of Graffiti on the wall on his right (It said “Kilroy Was Here”) sparked and for a few seconds, burst into flame.

Charles opened up his Sight and examined the alleyway. He quickly learned not to look upwards as he got a beeline view of the Empire State Building and the Glory that is Mt. Olympus. He then scanned the area around where the body had been found and saw an aura of immense magical power floating over that area. He also saw several ‘laser beams’ of dark energy streaking towards the nearby fire escape, one of which originated from a pile of ash, which seemed to be untouched by the wind. He also saw, at the base of the fire escape, a golden Bald Eagle, which looked at him, then vanished. Finally, before turning his Sight off, he looked at the rest of the group and saw the following:

Andromeda – Resembled an armored Greek Hoplite, armed with a dagger rather than a sword, and looking even more beautiful than she is
Jane – Looked normal, except she had a glowing ‘halo’ effect around her head
Terri – Resembled a female wolfen humanoid (A WoW Female Worgen) with a cloak of pure ice draped around her shoulders.
V.S – Three versions of him were present. The first looked at Charles and bolted from the alley. The second looked like V.S., studying the scene. The third was an evil looking, demonic, V.S.
David – Looked like himself with bulging pockets with a small panther on his right shoulder. The panther was pink.

As Charles closed his Sight, the others examined the scene. David broke the ice by asking everyone else why they were here. Jane responded “I know why I am here. I have a badge. Why are the rest of you here?”

The group reluctantly stated their reasons for being there.

While this was occurring, Charles looked over the area where he saw the Eagle, and found an eagle’s feather on a ripped piece of leather cord. The cord was decorated with beads. Charles pocketed this. Meanwhile, Jane and Terri examined the Ash pile, which was unaffected by the Wind in reality as well. Looking around the area, Terri found a golden ring with three diamonds set into it She wrapped this in a silk handkerchief and slipped it into a pocket. Only David noticed this.

V.S. noticed Charles pick up the Feather, and took Charles aside, asking him about it. When Charles said he was going to examine it later in his lab, V.S. recommended taking it to The Flame, instead. Charles agreed.

Charles then explained what he Saw to the group. Andromeda explained she had received a vision about this alleyway shortly before her friend, Becky Barnes, David’s fiancé, contacted her and asked her to look into the murder.

As Andromeda and Charles discussed the condition of David’s body, V.S. struggled to contain his breakfast.

The group continued examining the alleyway, and while doing so, David picked Terri’s pocket and acquired the Engagement Ring Terri found earlier.

At this time, Terri and Jane discovered a set of tracks that was obviously not left in the snow by the police, as it was obviously a woman wearing high heels, fleeing the alleyway towards the subway. They traced the prints back from the Fire Escape to the body’s location.

The group then decided to then climb the Fire Escape and investigate the roof. Upon reaching the rooftop, Terri immediately became a dog, which dumbfounded David. She then scented that at least 4 vampire’s (a distinctive scent of death and hunger) had been present, and could confirm 2 of them were Red Court, but could not identify the second type. She also distinctly detected the scent of a human female. Terri became human again and conveyed this information to the group.

The group tracked the footprints across the roof to the opposite side, and could see footprints on the next rooftop, on the other side of a second alley. They seemed to angle across the roof and ended above 7th Avenue. Charles opened his Third Eye again, and examined the rooftop with his Sight. He saw four persons

being pursued by a woman dressed like a “Hollywood” American Indian Squaw, later identified as Hope Wolfrunner, Vampire Slayer.

Charles recognized her, but didn’t know her name, having seen her sitting drinking Coffee in The Shop Around The Corner, with an attractive Oriental Woman. Terri, who has had coffee with both girls at The Shop Around The corner, identified them as Hope and her girlfriend, Jenny Chang, owner of the Golden Dragon Restaurant.

Afterwords, Terri called The Shop Around the Corner, and left a message asking Jenny or Hope to call her.

While Terri was making her call, V.S. asked David why he was there. David responded he was returning a favor. V.S. then asked him if he was there to help solve the murder and David answered Yes, though V.S. did not completely believe him.

Terri then became a dog again and leapt to the next rooftop. Meanwhile, Andromeda began to grow bored and climbed back down the fire escape. Unfortunately, she was spotted by a paparazzi, and he started taking pictures of the Victoria’s Secret Model climbing down the Fire Escape. Thinking this might be a bad thing, Charles hexed the photographer’s camera, frying it. The man quickly went to a nearby newsstand and bought a disposable camera and resumed his picture taking as Andromeda left the alleyway. Andromeda went right up to him and punched him, knocking him on his ass. The cops in the squad car took notice of this and one came over to see what was going on. Andromeda played up her looks and coyly persuaded the officer that she was innocent. Along with the SD card from the fried camera being empty (the cop checked it in his car), the officer sided with Andromeda and chased the photographer off (who kept his disposable camera)

David contemplated the door to the roof on the building they were on while Terri ‘examined’ the rooftop she was on. Jane produced a crowbar from her messenger bag and gave it to David, who popped the lock. Terri was able to confirm that the vampires and Hope apparently leapt to the next rooftop, across 7th Avenue.

While watching Terri, Jane spotted what appeared to be scorch marks on her rooftop, just below where the vampires leapt from, almost like someone in the alley below, fired at the vampires and missed.

The group rendezvoused in the second alleyway. Andromeda opened one of the dumpsters in the alleyway and was confronted by a Homeless man, who promptly said, “Why you bother Hobo Joe?” she smiled at him and after bribing him with $20 which Charles gave her, found out he had been hiding in the dumpster to avoid the “Boogie Men” and keep them from “Melting his face”. The group decided he was crazy and let him be.

Andromeda then pulled Katoptris from her hair, the hairpin resuming its true form as a bronze dagger, and stared into the blade, seeking a vision. The vision revealed Jenny Chang, holding a rune carved black staff, and firing a burst of flame at the leaping vampires, missing them, and hitting the building. Jenny then swore in what Andromeda assumed was Chinese, and ran from the alleyway, heading down Broadway and towards 7th Avenue.

Andromeda explained this vision to the group as Terri joined them. Terri looked for the ring she found, but couldn’t find it. David noticed and handed it to Terri, telling her, “You dropped this”. The group then went to The Flame of Knowledge, at V.S.’s recommendation and then up to his apartment to converse.

Charles then used thaumaturgy to examine the Ash and found out it was once a young man known as Raiden Takura.

The spell also revealed that Takura had a strong connection to the area around Ground Zero, and that he was killed by Hope Wolfrunner, with a wooden stake to the chest. When Charles conveyed this information to the group, David recognized the name and identified Raiden as a member of the Yakamura Clan (Yakuza) and stated that Rosalie Ichinose, who he believes is the head of the clan, has posted a reward for information about his disappearance three weeks ago.

V.S. found the descriptions of the ‘bumpy headed vampires’ of interest and hit his books. His research revealed that the ‘bumpy headed vampires’ are of a type called Hellmouth Vampires, and that they require the presence of a Hellmouth, a gateway to the darker parts of the Nevernever formed by an event of great tragedy and death, and spells of some power cast at the same moment, to come into existence. Once a Hellmouth is present, the Hellmouth Vampires soon appear shortly thereafter, and then spread from there, creating more by draining the blood form their victims. The group assumed at this description that there is now a Hellmouth in NYC, beneath One World Trade Center, thanks to the events of 9/11 and using the fact that Raiden had a strong connection to ground Zero.

At this time, David received a call on his cell phone. He went off to take it in private, though, he did not notice Terri, again in dog form, follow him. David revealed to the person on the phone about the Hellmouth Vampires, the presence of the Hellmouth, and talked about the group itself.

When David turned around to return to the group, he noticed Dog Terri, who followed him back in, and resumed human form, asking him who was on the phone and why they needed to know about the group. David responded it was a friend and left it at that, diverting everyone as he and Andromeda had a spat about something in their past.

Charles, meanwhile, did thaumaturgy on the ring. The spell surprised him by creating an image of the woman the ring belonged to, for all to see. Andromeda immediately identified her as a traitorous half-blood named Risa Hirano, daughter of the Olympian Goddess, Nemesis.

David recognized the name and identified her as the lover/lieutenant of a small time gangster named Lazarus Jacobs, who operated in Queens, and apparently had been gobbling up territory vacated by the Yakamura Clan during their conflict with The Luciano Crime Syndicate.

The group finally examined the ring and saw an engraving inside it, “To Risa, all my love, Lazarus”

Andromeda then asked V.S. if she could use his bathroom. He gave her directions and shortly after entering the bathroom, the group heard the shower running. Andromeda used the falling spray of water, and a gold drachma she had, to send an Iris Message (I.M.), warning her former teacher of Risa and Lazarus, confirming that Lazarus, son of Chronos, did not die in the Titan War, and being told to deal with them both.

As Andromeda returned, dry, no evidence of using the shower visible, she conveyed the information to the group. At this time, Dolores called V.S., from downstairs and said Fed-Ex was there with a package for a Jane Louise Blue. V.S. confirmed Jane was there, and Jane went down for the package, recognizing the delivery man form work. She signed for the package, opened it, and found the Police report written by Detective’s Lenny Briscoe and Reynaldo Curtis along with the M.E.’s report on the murder.

The cause of death was the violent slashing open of the victim’s stomach. The murder occurred in Vanderbilt Park, in Central Park. Dirt found on the victim’s body confirmed this. Evidence of electrical fires and discharges present in the vicinity of the murder. All other damage was Post-Mortem. DAN confirms the identity of the victim, along with the presence of the victim’s wallet and Drivers License on the body. Statement taken by detectives form ’Hobo Joe" Seymour Ross, who apparently witnessed the murder. Witness considered unreliable due to drunken state and rambling about boogie men and face melting.

There was also a note in the package for Jane asking her to report in ASAP and wanting to know why her phone was off. She quickly texted her boss “White Council” and turned her phone off again.

The group then began questioning why the body was moved from the Park, which would have been empty at that hour, to the alleyway. They also marveled at the coincidence that Hobo Joe was in the park to see the murder, then wandered to Times Square where the group encountered him, only to wander back to the park an hour later to be questioned by the police.

The group then decided they needed to split up and interview some of the people they have found were involved and shared numbers.

David, Andromeda, and Jane stopped in Times Square for some hot dogs for lunch, and took Britney aside, asking her what she knew.

Britney knew an unconventional fight happened in the alleyway, around 2:30 AM the previous night – She was returning from a pleasant evening at The Shop Around the Corner to her Apartment in 55 Central Park West. She got to the alleyway in time to see the body, as someone climbed up the fire escape after 3-4 other figures that had just reached the roof. She knew the figure on the fire escape was female and was fairly certain the ones on the roof were male. She’s pretty sure at least two of them were not human. She immediately went to a nearby Pay phone (one of the last in NYC. It’ s a phonebooth even) and tried contacting Captain Elissa Mazza or Lt. Susan Ivanova at the UCU, to tell what she knew, but was informed “all UCU detectives were not available at this time” and asked to “leave a message”, which she thought was odd. By the time she was done calling and getting the runaround, the NYPD had showed up and she continued her trip to her apartment. The police don’t trust her, so the police on the scene didn’t ask her anything the next morning.

(The session ended at this point for the night)

To Episode 1 Session 2