Brief Synopsis
These events took place during the WTO riots in late November and early December of 1999. During the historic riots, a group of anarchists, drawn into a cult, created zombies to disrupt the WTO proceedings. The PCs were present at both of the zombie attacks. During those attacks, several civilians were killed and more injured. The PCs tracked the cultists to an abandoned house and interrupted some sort of ritual. Most of the cultists were killed, and the rest were arrested.
The Starring Characters
Vicky Marly (Scott), FBI Agent, based on Velma Dinkley.
Alex Pepper (Gavin), monster hunter in training.
Lance Barret Shaw (Paul), former Army Ranger.
Rowen White (Chalamar), occultist and occult bookstore owner.
Episode 1
They met in a (coffee) bar.
In the beginning, the PCs have a tenuous relationship to one another, mostly through their patronage of the occult bookstore owned by Rowan. A variety of circumstances led to all 4 PCs being in a Starbucks near Westlake. Rowan stands out in the coffee shop in her black Victorian ensemble, dreamily sipping her Earl Grey tea.
The other characters, together with a handful of other patrons, are looking through the floor to ceiling windows, bearing witness to the spectacle beyond. A steady stream of protesters supporting a myriad of causes runs past them. For all of the traffic outside, Starbucks is surprisingly quiet.
Then all hell breaks loose.
A white panel van rolls up in front of Starbucks. It has odd markings on it in red spray paint. It’s side door slides open, releasing several people. Or at least they look like people. They immediately rush out and begin to attack random passers-by.
There is a police officer outside trying to stop two of the attackers. Two others begin banging on the glass. An intense fight commences just outside of the door, and Alex and Lance become a part of it. The glass is shattered and two of the attackers come in. All is a confusion of screams, breaking glass, and gunshots. Vicky starts shooting.
During all of this, Rowan has remained sitting, calmly sipping her tea, until one of the attackers comes crashing past on its way to the counter. Pulling a pistol from within her dress, she joins Vicky and Lance, who are both trying to take the attackers down. It takes a surprising amount of effort to bring them down, but it is finally over.
Outside, the police officer is clearly dead. Two of the people (zombies?) have torn open his abdomen and are feasting on his entrails. There are several injured, but the PCs have made it through without much damage, Alex having been on the receiving end of the worst of it.
Vicky announces that she’s FBI and calls the local police. Lance leaves immediately. Rowan returns to her seat and finishes her tea, never having spilled a single drop. A brief discussion leads Rowan and Alex to conclude that they were attacked by some kind of zombies. Vicky rolls her eyes.
In the aftermath, everyone remaining give statements to the police before going their separate ways.
What an odd man
Vicky is on protection detail for a WTO dignitary, Heinrich Grüber. He’s not quite ready when she arrives, greeting her in a state of partial undress, white undershirt straining against his amply midsection. While he finishes getting dressed, Vicky takes a furtive look around the room. She is immediately drawn to a set of occult instruments, but is not given time to investigate further.
The dignitary seems to know about Vicky’s involvement in the attack at the Starbucks, and thanks her for doing a good job. He tells her that he’s confident in her ability to keep him safe. She spends the lion’s share of her day on her detail.
After her shift is over, she goes to the FBI branch office to write a more detailed report for SPD. She faxes it to the Seattle Police when she is finished. The lead investigator calls her and asks for her expertise. He tells her that there’s something ‘occult related’ going on here. It’s the bodies - there’s something very odd about them, and he’d like her to take a look at them.
When she gets to the morgue, she’s greeted by the lead SPD detective who tells her that, oddly enough, the bodies are wearing especially nice clothes and most of them are older people. The corpses are fairly damaged, but they look like they have been dead for far longer than the few hours that have passed since the incident. In fact, they are completely free of blood; instead, they’re filled with embalming fluid. Then he shows her why he called her in on the investigation: there are strange markings on the corpses, almost tattoos.
The writing and symbols look like Arabic A translator says that they’re not modern Arabic, but rather some very old dialect that is all but unintelligible to him. The occult symbols aren’t familiar to Vicky, but she knows someone who might be able to give some answers as to what they might be: Rowan. She makes an appointment with Rowan for the next day. By the time she is finished, it is very late and she has to get up early for her protection detail.
Escape and Evade - and go to work
Lance left immediately to go to work. He has been working as armed security for a local company. With the WTO in town and the circus of protesters about, he has been getting lots of overtime, mostly working at a building on the periphery of the protests.
During the fight he has used his own personal weapon, not his service weapon issued to him by his employer. Not wishing it to be confiscated, at least not yet, he stashes it on his way to work. Afterward, he reports to his employer that he was involved in the attack and needs to talk to the police. His employer is sympathetic, telling him to get in ASAP.
He calls the police. They ask him to come in, and so he does. They spend a couple of hours interrogating him. His immediate disappearance after the attack seems suspicious to them. Following his training, he is not particularly forthcoming with details, leaving the detectives to draw details out of him.
He is finally permitted to leave after promising to hand over his gun to them after work. The rest of his day is spent intimidating protesters, driving them away from his post.
Ah, the joys of research
Alex is brought in for questioning after giving his statement. They aren’t especially happy with him, finding a concealed knife on him. Their interrogation takes more than 3 hours, and he sees Lance coming in before it is over. After interrogating him, they decide to simply confiscate it in light of his “civic mindedness.” They tell him not to leave town.
Alex goes to Rowan’s store, hoping to find something that might help him figure out what he’s up against and how to fight it. He peruses the store, flipping through books without finding much of anything. When he goes to the counter to ask for help, he finds a book already waiting for him, courtesy of Rowan, whom he has only seen briefly.
Afterward, hees at Oregon State recently had a number of “priceless” books stolen. They are pre-Islamic works of “religious” significance. Vicky calls him, then faxes him a picture of the writing.
He tells her a bit about his research. These are works, rebound several times, but ancient, of pre-Islamic occult and religious practices. It is the best collection he goes back to his hotel to study the book and recover from his injuries. Eventually sleep finds him.
Bright and sunny, but not entirely clear
Vicky
finds her protection detail entirely boring. Herr Grüber is even fully
dressed when she arrives; the occult paraphernalia is conspicuously
absent. She spends most of her shift standing around with other
security details from numerous countries. This isn’t her scene.
While
she’s there, she gets a call from the SPD with a tantalizing piece of
information: there have been a couple of mortuaries robbed in the last
few days - and one of the corpses in the morgue has been identified as
one of the missing bodies. The SPD are requesting her help, so she -
mercifully - is released early to work the case.
After
her release, she meets with her first potential lead: Rowan. She
travels to Rowan’s shop and is invited to consult upstairs. Vicky is
amused to find the cornucopia of occult artifacts, drawings, and the
like where Rowan has chosen to meet her. Unfortunately, Rowan is not
able to identify the markings, but says that they look like dark magic.
Vicky rolls her eyes.
She
returns to the office. Considering the ancient Arabic text, she
decides to look for an expert who might be able to help. She finds a
newspaper article about an odd theft: a professor of Near East languag
is aware of in existence. He was in the process of translating it when the books were stolen. He promises to fax what he has as soon as he can.
Flash forward (a preview of the next episode)...
Vicky, Alex, and Lance are sitting peacefully in a coffee shop on Capitol Hill. It is growing dark, and the mob of protesters is coming their way…**Disclaimer: this is done entirely from months' old memory.
