When a vampire goes out of this world where does it go? Those of the Christian faith believe their soul returns to God to be judged of its works. Those of the Muslim faith believe similarly, yet extremists might add that a suicide killing in the name of Allah let’s the soul bypass the whole judgment process. Buddhists state that once a soul dies they are reabsorbed back into the universe. Depending on their works done on Earth and how much they have been enlightened determines whether or not that soul is reincarnated into a new life or is able to reach its ultimate state, Nirvana, the state of nothingness. But a vampire? We are without souls. Maybe this is the reason we hold on to “life” so tightly; killing and sucking the life out of all else. This is our only shot at happiness. We better not blow it. Unfortunately, my friends and I are on a collision course with the Earth about to do just that. Ironic that the ride taking us to oblivion was christened the Soul Plane. If I wasn’t fighting the effects of zero gravity at the moment, I would have my hands around Reggie’s throat for giving this plane its bad juju. My death means that my Precious Penelope will never regain her sanity and be freed from her eternal thirst for blood.

But this is not where our story begins. The week started at the enigmatic alchemist’s abode. We did not know much about Alice, only that she was powerful, and could help us find Silas, Bloodlord of the Coven of the Lost. Silas and his daughter Mila had been taken the day earlier. The abductors’ trail grew colder with every breath we took. Therefore, he made a deal with she who may turn out to be the devil…because we had no other choice. She transported us back to her castle on a very, very remote island by way of a transportation device that I have named the Gulliverian Halocator. It is a gold ring laced with runes and archaic symbols. Alice tells us that certain rules apply to the Halocator: first, all of us must be holding the ring at the same time; second, we must all be think of this island at the same time, thus we cannot be in the middle of battle; lastly, the ring can only transport us to this island and back to our original location prior to traveling to the island.

Using an embroidered patch found where Silas was abducted, Alice cast a tracking spell. Immediately following the spell-cast, we felt as though we were weightless. I presume that we had descorporated at this point, since I am familiar with changing to a form that is not solid. From this state our minds seemed joined. We were taken high above the Earth in the moment of a thought. From this vista we began to descend back to the Earth at a rapid speed. We saw the large Mediterranean Sea and Asia Minor. As we descended we began to shift Northward and towards the Black Sea. We could see the Alps just Southwest of our focus. We descended upon a metropolis, then shifted slight East of this metropolis until we arrived to a small outlining town. Our descent ended on the street-side view within this town. We looked around. A street sign read, ‘Strada Tudor Vladomirescu’. The lettering appeared like the Latin alphabet of English with slight variations. Thus, we could read it, but not understand it.

From down the street we heard this tune:

We looked. It was coming from an approaching purple Volkswagen Vanagon. I took a detailed look around so that I would be able to remember this exact location when we came there physically. The buildings were definitely poor. Many of their walls had open cracks. Smoke was coming from the makeshift chimneys on most of these houses. There were patches of snow on the ground. It was certainly a residential area, yet across the street one house had hanging sign reading, ‘DK Productions’. In the distance I could see the industrial district, possibly the villagers’ only source of jobs. In front of us was a two-story house most likely with a basement. It seemed run down and not very conspicuous; if I were going to hide, this place would be as good as any.

Willie being a little on the edge after having been taken to this place without any warning, tried to pull out his pistols. Yet, he couldn’t even find his hands. “Dawg Nam, Witch! Where da funk is my hammas? Hell! Where da funk is Willie’s warm, soft n’ chewy, melt-in-her-mouth chocolate hands?!”

“Willie, be calm. Nothing is wrong with your hands, nor your guns. You still have these items. You are just in a vision-like state. Once it recedes you will see that nothing is missing. Yet, concern yourself not about what you don’t see, but about with which you do see. For the vision cannot remain open very long.” Willie grumbled. Rin cursed in Japanese.

Silence moved into the house in front of us. We all moved with him. We passed right through the front door. We heard muffle voices below us. The building was definitely 3rd-world. A solitary low watt light bulb hung from wires coming out of the ceiling. A broken piece of gypsum board was also hanging, attached barely by the paper casing. Mold and water damage were apparent all around. I strongly doubted the place had running water. Electrical wires were exposed in areas of the wall. Yet, in the corner of this front room there was a Japanese brand big screen T.V. Nonetheless, it was not plugged into a electrical receptacle. Rather, it was unconventionally hardwired with twisty ties into loose wires coming straight out of a hole cut into the gypsum board wall. Silence moved towards the voices.

The downstairs appeared more like a root cellar. It was hewed from earthen walls; it had a musky smell. Two people at table were conversing over a game resembling chess. This room was not very wide; it was more like a corridor. Three doors were behind these men at the table.

Willie tried to decipher which door the muffled voices were coming from. We heard a soft spoken voice coming from the far left door. A man’s voice and high pitched voice coming from the other door in the middle. Willie deduced the soft spoken voice could be a leader. He went for the middle door.

As we got close we heard sobs from a pre-teen female. We entered. We saw Mila, a young female vampire. She was being interrogated by burly male vampire; he was standing over her. Mila was tied up in a chair with her hands clasped behind the back of the chair with silver manacles.

“I am going to rip your teeth out, one by one.  I will leave your fangs for last, and those I will dissolve with acid… or maybe I’ll pick me out a priest to piss them away.  Then I will feed YOU rat blood.”

She began to tip the chair back and forth in a rage. “You cannot do this to me! The Lost are gonna get here any minute!” She than began to sob without any sound, simply a slow hopeless exhale. Until finally she gasped back in a deep breath ending in an uncontrolled flutter.

“Please let me go!! P-p-pplease?  I n-n-need to g-g-go ho-ome….” All this was spoken in Spanish. Yet, by way of the spell’s capability of linking our minds, those did not speak Spanish could still understand. She was trying everything to get out of this situation.

Reggie focused on the male vampire’s face. In addition to the details of his face, she noticed the badge on his uniform that he wore. She had the impression that he was military. The badge was of a black emblem on a red field. She recognized that it was the same as the patch used in the tracking spell. Raven had a uneasy feeling and familiarity with the patch.

The male vampire appeared caucasian with brown eyes and pale skin. He looked East European, possibly Romanian given all the other clues. He looked like someone from the Firstborn.

As the group focused on the uniform patch we recognized that the emblem was a Black Dragon. Raven finally realized that this was the mark of a faction of the Firstborn, which was thought to have died out. The black dragon was the symbol of the ruthless Coven of the Dragon. Silence stated that the Coven of the Dragon was an occult group of the Firstborn. They came from the Tepeş family. They were once at war with the Coven of the Beast during the 15th and 16th centuries, until the Beasts decimated them…so it was thought. Raven had a repressed memory surface at that moment. He remembered that Angelic], his mistress from the past, was associated with this Coven of the occult. Putting everything together, he realized that Angelica was of the Coven of the Dragon. Raven became very uneasy and moved away from the patch into the next room where the soft spoken voice was coming from. We all were forced to follow.

We saw Silas. The room around him was bare. Another more reserved interrogator stood over the Bloodlord. He was calm, yet threatening. The Bloodlord like his daughter was constrained to a wooden chair with silver manacles.

Willie cast a See Aura spell. To his surprise it worked! He sensed that the abductor was of medium level of experience. Willie felt that the abductor had no magic or psionics. Very interestingly, Willie sensed that the Bloodlord’s capture had some sort of illness. I tried to sense what sort of disease we had sensed, yet had trouble getting any other details. Silas was blocked from Willies probing.

The interrogator wanted something undefined from the Bloodlord. He was using Mila as leverage. He referred to “The Boss” multiple times. In addition he spurted out some random threats. Finally, after beating the Bloodlord several times with a pair of leather gloves embedded with silver studs with no results the interrogator threatened, “If you won’t do it, Mila will.”

At that moment we felt that we were being pulled back to our bodies. In a last effort, Reggie broke for the door leading to the room Mila was being held. Unable to reach Mila before being pulled back, Reggie’s hands passed through the wooden door breaking it into splinters. We were brought back to Alice’s Island. Reggie’s hands are riddled with painful wooden shards. Willie blew his top at Alice. Raven began threatening Alice, too. Alice shut Raven’s mouth with a spell. Willie threatened to shoot Alice if she didn’t unzip Raven’s mouth. Alice complied.

“I am sorry to use such evasive measures. Yet, I can only be so patient.”

Alice proposed to provide her alchemist skills through payment of merit. Rooster was called to retrieve her price list.

We traveled back to Hartford Heights by way of the golden Halocator. We discuss how to get to where the Bloodlord was being held. After, we fed from the stores kept at the hacienda of the Lost. We decided that there was not time to wait to sleep. Thus, we concluded that we would be packed into crates labeled ‘Antiques’ to be placed on Willie’s charter jet. Before morning our crates we transported to the airport on trucks.

Willie’s plane was in his style, purple and lavish. He called it the Soul Plane. We fed on the plane; Willie provided some stewardesses. I convinced one of the stewardesses to ‘donate’ her blood to ‘save’ her co-workers. I then kept her in a sleeping state for later. After more than 15 hours of flying we arrived in Rome. We were held up by customs. Four men came to our plane on the tarmac. They were concerned about our lack of our flight manifest.

The one who addressed us was named Paolo. They believed that I was a dignitary. Rin became afraid of the cross around the leader’s neck. They were obviously holy men. I tried to use hypnotic suggestion to say, “Come in we have nothing to hide. You will not find anything here.” It seemed that only one was not affected. Various of our vampires tried to alter their minds. Fortunately, our vulnerabilities had been smuggled away. Willie asked to exchange services with the gentlemen. They took his card and left. We felt confident that they did not see much.

We took off toward Romania. We were joined by some Sicilian escort planes sent by Big Tony. We entered an aggressive storm cell. Two of the four escort jets turned around. Ice developed on our wings. The rest of the flight was pretty bumpy, but was nothing to worry about.That was until the young stewardess that I had placed into a trance woke up. She was out of her mind realizing her friends were dead and we were vampires. She went for the emergency door. Before we could reach her, the door was ripped open. The pressure was instantly gone. The stewardess was sucked out. Crap! There went my lunch out the window. We all grabbed something bolted down. The quick change in pressure made it very difficult for the pilots to keep the plane straight. They hit a patch of turbulence. One of the engines suddenly went out.

So here we are plummeting to our death.

The pilots struggle to get the plane level. They try to land. Unfortunately, our plane performs a crash landing. We lose an engine and the landing gear. Yet, it seems like it was still repairable. The only good thing is that we actually made it to Bucharest, Romania. Once we are out of the plane, the Sicilian mob boss’ daughter greets Willie with a full out kiss. She is one of the jet pilots.

We get to the street we saw in the vision. I become mist, but can’t find a way in yet. Willie goes into Bat Form. He enters the house into the room that wasn’t seen in the vision. Reggie becomes invisible and begins to scale the wall. Reggie epically fails to detect whether or not someone is about to ambush her. Yet, she became hyper sensitive to her environment (rolls of a Natural 20 for Perception). She sees that the “cleaners” have come and covered up all the tracks.

Rin discovers “Monster Truck” tracks that head down the road. Raven agrees that they are Monster Truck tracks. Slims sticks with Rin and Raven outside.

I enter the basement. I find some spilled rat’s blood. I diagnose that the blood is only a couple hours old. I hypothesized that the interrogators probably left in that amount of time. I also see a rat in the corner gnawing on something. I think it might be an explosive trip wire. I start bugging out.

Willie bats out of the house and yells, “Ain’t nobody here. They be jammin’ outta here.”

Reggie tries to see if there are any traps in the building. (She fails the roll). She is certain there is a trap on the front door. So instead of going that way, she back-flips through the window. And, yells, “Its a TARP!”

In hearing this, Rin comes closer to the building.

Willie to Silence, “Throw the horn.” Silence jumps in the purple Cadillac and lays on the horn. We literally all freak out since we are a little bit tense. I corporate and break the door to form a stake. Rin and Raven are freaking out as well running into things.

Once everything calms down from the horn incident, I realize that rat was chewing on a severed finger. I pick it up and regroup with the others. We jump in the caddy ready to follow the track Rin is tracking.
a severed finger. I pick it up and regroups with the others. We jump in the Caddy ready to follow the tracks Rin is tracking.