The training ground, Basic rpg training

[barddas]

OOC- Nice to see the STORY LIVES~!!!!!!!!!!

Also Nice to see some of the old guard back!

Nice to see ya again Swanny, Free...
I missed you guys....

[Aon_Daonna]

yes guys, come back and let's get on with it!

And everybody knew is welcome too!

[Herrerano]

(Still sitting in the pub in Aberdeen, drinking our beer and rehashing old times, Jimbo and I were just getting to the good part concerning that one time at the Club Oasis in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala.)

"Jimbo," I said, "Remember that girls name, the one with the green eyes that had so much trouble keeping her shirt on?"

"Ferquhard, don't start on that, you know her name was Helen, but the thing is she had a son to support too."

"Hey man, I ain't sayin' nothin', she was a real sweetheart."

Jimbo looked at me a little askance, so I hurriedly added, "Buddy, you know I didn't do anything. She was your girl man, mine couldn't speak a lick of English, not that it mattered much, I can't recall being all that interested in conversation."

"Ok Ferq, still, nothing compares to that time we went down to Rio Mar that Sunday afternoon..."

It was at that point I heard the scream coming from the area of the bathrooms.
My God. I thought, Ann, something has happened. I jumped to my feet and went back as fast as I could, Jimbo behind me. When we got to the loo, the door was half open, but there was no sign of Ann or her cat. The owner pushed past me excitedly, babbling under his breath, "Dios Mio!".

He pushed the door open and we all three crowded in . The room was empty, not a trace of Ann, but on the face of the mirror, a small streak of blood.

[barddas]

The rain was begining to pick up. we still were several hours from York. It would have been a nice afternoon drive... But the rain and fog were becoming too much for Connor and the mini cooper.

Hey mate', why don't we stop at around the border eh? I said...

Connor nodded his head in agreement. I looked over to Isabelle to see that she was sleeping....

Once we get into York, we *really* need to get out of these clothes. I know I have been in these things several days... At least since that Anne woman lost us....

Conversation dies down and we find a little place to stay. I wake Isabelle, and go to get a room. Connor says he going to go get a pint and he'll meet us in a few....

[Herrerano]

OOC: "Once we get into York, we *really* need to get out of these clothes. I know I have been in these things several days... At least since that Anne woman lost us...."

Gee, several days! Seems like several months.

[Swanny]

(OOC - WOOHOO!!! The Game's ALIVE>>>> Now, let's see if we can get some of the 'old gang' back together).

A movement in the shadows from which the cat had dashed away in such a fright caught my attention. Just a flicker of movement at first, but as I watched closely I made out the familiar form of a nearly invisible wolf. And, in the crowd another familiar form. The wolf-lady. I'd bet Moira was somewhere about as well. Good, if we were going to plant that damned artifact and get back to the hunt a bit of help would be welcome.

I jumped from the chair, shut down the computer, slammed the lid of the magnesium case in which the laptop resides, snagged up my jacket and dashed out the door.

Lierin I shouted, no longer worried about hiding my face.

[Aon_Daonna]

((where the hell are we?? Anyways, I hop in))

Lierin stopped still, then turned slowly. "My, I thought I'd recognise the voice." She smiled and waited for him to come forward. "I thought you'd never be seen again.." She noticed the searching look he cast around and her smile faded. "She got the call home. It was eerie. We were having a touristy day down in one of the yorkshire dales and suddenly there was that car driver, out of nothing. He hit her." She stayed silent about the agonising minutes she needed to transport her to hospital, and she knew that if she wouldn't have used the gates, Moira would be dead. "She is better now. Her order transported her off after a few days in hospital." A wave with her hand and the wolf vanished.
"So should we look for a wee cafe and have tea? And you tell me what you have been up to?"

[Herrerano]

Aside from the grisly trace on the mirror, there was no sign of Ann. I pushed out past the other two back into the small tavern. There was a back door just down from the loo, and I hurried and tried to open it, but it seemed to be wedged from the outside. I raced out the front and tried to find a way to get to the back of the building and Jimbo ran out with me. We raced a short ways down the street until we came to a small alley that seemed to head back in the direction I wanted to go, then ran up towards the rear of the pub. There was a steel bar about an inch thick and four feet long that had been wedged under the latch and against the ground that prevented the door from opening. We looked in both directions and saw nothing, then I started up behind the buildings in the direction opposite our arrival. About fifteen feet up the alley, I found two things that scared me greatly, one was the torn collar that had been around Garfields neck, the other was the scarf that had been around Ann's neck. They both had tiny flecks of blood evident.

We continued up the alley, but saw nothing. It was as if they had vanished into thin air. Stopping at the intersecting street, we looked first up one side, then down another and my frustration mounted. My mind was full of that horrible scene in the cemetary, and just would not leave me alone and though I had no idea how to explain what was going on to Jimbo, I realized I needed to. I was going to need help to find Ann again, that is if I could find her in time. The thought of Garfield, that insolent furball of an animal, never crossed my mind.

[Swanny]

My head was suddenly reeling. This didn't make sense at all. Moira hit by a car? How did it get through her bloody shield? It happened days ago? Why didn't Aidan tell me about that? Surely he would have known. (OOC - we've only been at Rosslyn an afternoon).

I pointed to a cafe' I'd noticed up the street, figuring Aidan would stay asleep long enough for us to sort things out.

I still couldn't remember being kicked by the damned pony, and couldn't recall if Lierin had seen the artifact or not, so I explained about it and the brother's thoughts on the thing. I also described my observations of the long, boring afternoon I'd spent staking out Rosslyn Chapel.

I'm concerned that we need to get that artifact cached here, on Templar ground, Holy ground if you will, to protect it. I suspect that it's what our vampire was seeking.

Lierin asked where the artifact was now.

I left it with Aidan back in our room.

[Aon_Daonna]

"I guess he's yer new protector or sumthin'?" She wracked her brain over that artifact.
"I'm not so sure about the artifact. I mean, it might be an important part in our puzzle, but you know aboot Dirlot and Leylines, I guess. A few years back we had a problem with a petty sorceress trying to break a seal in Germany. Just directly at a church in Karlsruhe there is a point where 5 lines cross. The Rose-Line is one of them. My predecessors managed to seal everything off very well down there but she still almost managed to break through. That was in 1999 during the eclipse there." She took another sip of her tea.
"Whatever, I want this undeed deed. Simply because he's a bloody nuisance to me." Lierin frowned. "And he meddles with things that should rather be kept in a deep sleep."
She rubbed her forehead. "But I lost his trail. So I have to just wait until I can feel an opening of a gate that hasn't anything to do with ppl that actually have to do with them. This thing is giving me alot of trouble." With a sigh she leaned back and emptied her cup. "So, what noo?"

[Herrerano]

I stood on the street utterly perplexed, Jimbo paced nervously, first one way then another (I hadn’t realized the man had so many different styles of walking). My mind refused to focus. I couldn’t understand how Ann could have vanished so quickly. I knew she was a fighter, she had demonstrated that before in the car with the two witches, or whatever they were. I wondered what had been done to her, so that she could be whisked off without a trace.

The sky looked as if the late afternoon sun might appear to momentarily dispel the incessant clouds and as I stood there with my mind in a shambles, Jimbo suddenly jerked his head around and then broke into a run down the street.

“This way!” He called. I didn’t know what he had seen, but followed right behind.

A short ways down the street was a doorway somewhat set back into the building, and there, sprawled in that dark entrance was Garfield. Lying on his side, apparently unconscious, one of his front paws covered in blood.

Jimbo and I both looked at each other and then surveyed the door itself. The glass in the door was covered with one of those infernal bead curtains and a small sign hung inside with the letters ‘Open’, turned to the street. I reached out and turned the knob, pushing the door open a little too hard. It swung inward and for a moment I thought it might strike the wall since I had pushed so hard. Jimbo jumped instantly through the opening and I followed.

Before my eyes could adjust to the dim light my other senses were keenly at work. Some sort of weird music was playing that sounded like a cross between Ravi Shankar and the Black Watch Pipe and Drums, only with whale sounds in the background. The thick scent of incense filled the air and as my eyes adjusted I could make out small bottles of colored liquid on the shelves and weird trinkets hanging on pegs. There was no one in sight.

Good Grief! I thought, had Ann been kidnapped by some sort of weird New Age cult? I had started to feel somewhat secure here in Aberdeen, but this shook me to my core.

I heard a slight noise behind me and chills ran down my spine. I froze, then heard it again followed by a small plaintive, low pitched ‘meow’.

[Swanny]

There's been plenty enough shadow activity about here, but nothing I could attribute to this Jackal. Too much physical activity as well. They're doing some sort of dig over at the chapel and I can't think of any way to cache that box without being detected.

I downed the last of my tea, and suggested we return to my rented room with the view.

When we arrived back at the room almost everything was as I had left it when I'd dashed across the street. In fact, the only things missing were "brother Aidan" and the boxed artifact.

So, that's how trust is repaid by this 'order'. I looked Lierin square in the eye. I s'pose it's time we got back into the hunt, eh? Any ideas where the good 'brother' may have gone?

[Herrerano]

I glanced quickly behind me, there sat Garfield with a forlorn look on his ugly face, staring at me as if expecting I could do something. Jimbo had moved farther into the store and just as I noticed Garfield’s yearning look, it sounded as if something large had been dropped somewhere in the back of the store. I snatched up the cat, and followed Jimbo on into the store.

There was a plain, wood panel door at the back and we reached it together, Jimbo pushed it open and a horrible smell came rushing out. A sickening sweet, cloying sort of smell that we both recognized all too well. Our eyes met and Jimbo finally started to look concerned.

“I think we should notify the police Firth, this is starting to look serious.”

I gazed at him in amazement, stating to look serious I thought? Cripes! The woman of my dreams had been snatched from my grasp and it is just now starting to look serious. “Jimbo,” I said, “You don’t know the half of it bud.”

Again it sounded like something large and metallic had been dropped on a concrete floor somewhere farther back in the building. We went on through the door into another room filled with simple chairs arranged in rows. Quickly passing through that room we came to a half open doorway that opened onto some stairs that led down into a dark looking cellar. There was an old push-button light switch and I turned it on. It looked as if there might be a twenty five watt bulb somewhere below in the bowels of the earth that was meant to illuminate this cellar. If anyone could move around in that light, they would have to be doing it by habit. The three of us started down the stairs and just as we reached the bottom of the stairs a car engine roared to life and a large dark automobile spurted out a door which opened onto an alleyway below. We ran to see which way it went and pressed against one of the back windows was Ann’s terrified face. I wondered why she was doing that, it made her nose look so odd smashed against the glass like that, small gusts of breath fogging the glass like some old antihistamine commercial. Even from a distance I could tell that one nostril was slightly congested.

[oldraven]

CRASH

A tall red haired man stepped out of the mens washroom and was met by the pub owner running in the room to see what all the commotion was. The man stepped up to the bar and with one long gulp, drained a glass of amber liquid.

The owner burst back out the door seconds later. What the hell is your problem? You're not going anywhere without payin fer that mirror.

The man turned to look with one eye, and laid a gold coin down on the bartop.That should more than pay for the looking glass and the scotch. He headed for the door.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a mirror that size in a place like this?

Do you have any idea how little I care?

The barkeep flipped the coin about in his hand, after biting it. He mumbles first a girl goes missin in one loo, then a FREAK busts up the mirror in the other. He yells after the man as he walks out the door. Who the hell pays with gold coins, anyway?

[Aon_Daonna]

"Bill, did they give you up already?" Lierin frowned and looked around herself and with a slight movement of her wrist the door slammed shut. Another short movement and the wolf stood in the middle of the room.
"Calum? Bill. Bill? Uncle Calum." Lierin ran the fingers through her hair. Smell anything, uncle?"
The wolf wagged his tail, a sign of the excitement.
"Do you by any chance know if they like dogs in here?" The look of the wolf was definintly injured. Lierin held out a leather collar and a leash and Calum let a low growl be heard. His niece just laughed. "No? Alright." She put it away again. The wolf sniffed the room for a while and came back to Lierin. She nodded and turned to Bill. "He left on ordinary means. No signs of just vanishing or anything. He walked out the door." She sighed and sat down on the bed. "What now?"