Session 08

← Session 07 | Session 09 →

The party looks into somewhere they aren't wanted, again. Some demon children are found.

## Characters

* The Party
* Na'arisiel

The Weblings:

* Turret
* Vincent
* Eben
* Laura
* Button
* Carly

## Rumors

Sam doesn't trust Nyx and gets given a rumor about Power: he overheard Kitty and Silas having a worried conversation about a friend of theirs whose apprentice went missing (which happens every so often).

Nyx doesn't trust Sam and gets given a rumor about Night: someone is after her.

Asa doesn't trust Kuno and gets given a rumor about Wild: Asa did a job for Turret, and he didn't get killed.

Colby doesn't trust Sam and gets given a rumor about Mortality: someone is after him.

Kuno doesn't trust Asa and gets given a rumor about Mortality: there have been disturbances in the poorer districts, riots and whatnot, for no apparent reason--which means it's being covered up.

## Summary

In the time since MacLaughagan's Hallowe'en party, Kuno has started writing his memoirs, Sam has been at work, Nyx has been edging closer to becoming an alchoholic, Asa has been grumpier than usual because the party wasn't able to solve Templeton's murder, and Colby had to explain to his church why he spent a week in jail--which is eventually spun as evidence of society's corruption.

### **Murder Warehouse? My Favorite!**

##### **Friday, November 6th, 542:**

Kuno sets up, via Nyx, another trip to Back At 'Za, and Kuno has a suggestion of what the party can do next, though he suggests not talking about it in the restaurant. After eating, the party goes to Kuno's apartment, where he suggests looking into the warehouse full of spooky children that he saw at one point while wandering around the City. The party is reluctant, aside from Nyx, who is on board immediately, but eventually figure they might as well go, since otherwise Kuno would go alone and likely end up dead. Asa goes on the record stating this is a bad idea, and Colby is going to be upset if everyone ends up bleeding out in an alley somewhere. The warehouse district where the building is located is a long trip from this part of the City, so the party decides to make a day of it, arriving in the evening and then poking around.

In the meantime, Nyx gets a few more bullets from Asa, so she has more than two shots in case something happens.

##### **Saturday, November 7th, 542:**

The trip to the warehouse district is a 6-hour train ride, and then another few hours of walking through the neglected part of the City.

During this walk, there's a block in the run-down area which Sam and Colby react to. It has a similar flavor to the vibes given off when MacLaughagan or Colby use their power, but in an overwhelmingly rancid way. Sam tries to look around for a source, but doesn't see anything obvious, and the rest of the party (who were unaffected) urge them to move on.

### **Wandering the Streets at Night is a Good Idea**

By the time the party reaches the warehouse district, it is roughly 7 p.m. and night has fallen. The entire district, when in use, was automated, so there is no light, but Kuno and Nyx have flashlights. The district is large, mazelike, abandoned, and entirely devoid of the standard noises of the City.

The party makes their way through the district towards the center, where Kuno thinks the warehouse they're looking for is. On the walk, they hear something round and metal dropped in the darkness, and Sam jumps. Kuno and Nyx train their flashlights in that direction, revealing a large empty space between some warehouses, and a silhouette that ducks away from the light. A kid makes himself known, and asks if the party are lost. He says he was out for a walk with his mom, indicating the dark shape he is shackled to, before walking off.

The party follows the wet footprints the two figures are leaving, in circles around a warehouse. Colby and Kuno get hit in the head with pebbles thrown from the roof of a warehouse, and a silhouette with big wings jumps between buildings overhead.

The kid from before, who is on a walk, returns to say the one with the wings won't talk to the party, and that the wings kid is called Eben. He wishes the party good luck finding their way out, and after being asked tells the party that everything around here is empty except for a few people who don't tend to stick around long, and where the kids live. He says he would get in trouble for showing the party where he lives, but agrees to take them in exchange for $10 and if Sam and Colby stay behind, because according to him Turret wouldn't be happy to see those two. The party agrees, and Nyx leaves Sam with her crowbar, and Asa gives Colby his spare gun, in case of emergencies. The religion boys get told to wait a few minutes before following, and the party heads off. They are led around in circles for some time, until Asa hands over $10, and the circles become obfuscating instead of stalling, until the party is led to a warehouse. Sam and Colby follow, and make sure the party knows they're nearby.

### **So Many Demon Kids**

Nyx knocks on the door to the indicated warehouse and, when she gets no answer, opens it. Behind the door, there is chaos: a horde of children, between the ages of 4 and 15, all with demonic powers. The three party members in the warehouse turn to leave, but the door is closed by a girl with no arms and many mystical hands, who demands they empty their pockets to pay the Stranger Tax. Kuno gives her $20, and she accepts it, but says they should also talk to Turret, who is busy at the moment. After Kuno hands over $5, the party learns Turret is cutting off someone's leg in the playroom.

She explains this is Turret's house, so everyone helps him out, as well as mentioning that she got her hands from "the man in the suit" but is hiding from him, with the implication that all the children are hiding from deals they made. While the party is waiting for Turret, Eben enters the building and disappears into the chaos, and the girl introduces the party to Button, a child-shaped void with button-shaped white eyes and an intricately organized button collection that is surprisingly untouched by the chaos around it. Kuno offers some buttons from his coat to add to the collection. The party tries to check on Turret, but Eben drops down from the ceiling and stops them. He addresses the girl as Laura.

Nyx manages to negotiate her way past, saying that she has no qualms about seeing limbs cut off, and the door Eben was blocking leads to a hallway with a door on the left and one on the right. The door on the left leads to a fairly long room, that Nyx can only easily see half of, which is covered in particulates that don't look healthy.

Through the right door is a well-lit room full of trashed toys, with some distraught children huddled in a corner. In the middle of the room is a table with two figures around it, one of whom has horns and is cauterizing a wound with her bare hands. The other figure is blocked from Nyx's view, but likely Turret.

Nyx heads back to the main room to tell the party what she saw, and Laura explains that Jordan (who doesn't live here, but is in the area, with his friends) stepped on something and the wound got infected, so it had to be amputated. When asked about the room on the left, she calls it the doctor's office and "where the sick people go," before saying that they don't use that room any more and refusing to explain further.

Nyx brings Kuno and Asa to look at the room through the left door to investigate briefly. The particulate floating in the air is obviously bad to breathe, and there is a red-and-black fleshy, lichen-y growth on the ceiling on the other side of the room, which absorbs light. Back in the main room, still with no sign of Turret, Nyx makes it known she has candy and is *swarmed*. She is forced to dump out her backpack, that also contains some alcohol, to escape the crush of children.

### **The Religion Boys Anger a Demon Teenager**

Outside the warehouse, Sam and Colby are starting to get antsy, since it has been about half an hour with no word. Nyx tries to text them at one point, but there is no cell service--odd, for the City.

After the party has been waiting around for abut 45 minutes, Carly emerges from the back room. She is tackled by Laura, who asks how everyone is doing, and Carly says everyone is fine and that Turret is still cleaning up, but let her leave. There are a few trickles of blood around Carly's hands, as if her fire causes her pain, but she doesn't say anything about it. She is confused by the presence of the party, and Laura explains that they are lost.

When the party has been in the warehouse for an hour with no word, Sam goes and knocks on the door. When he gets no answer, he reaches to open the door, and when he grabs the doorknob he gets trapped in a spectral spiral of a spider's web with a creeping sense that something is coming for him.

The door to the warehouse as well as the door to the back slam open, and the kids inside clear a path between the two. Turret emerges, crosses the main room, and Sam drops to his knees, convulsing, still trapped in the web. Asa asks Turret to stop, saying that Sam is just stupid, and explains the basic situation: that the party is lost, and that they had heard Sam and Colby shouldn't come. Turret notices Kuno, and asks why he came back, to which Kuno has no good answer.

Turret sighs, saying he has so many bigger things to worry about, and throws Sam out of the building onto the pavement of the warehouse district. He reveals the web across the entirety of the building, including the hole torn out when Sam got caught, and complains that it's going to take a while to repair.

Turret asks for one good reason he shouldn't feed the party to the children, and Asa asks if there's anything they can do for him. He explains that all of these kids are hiding from patrons and contractors, and in order to let the party leave he would need some guarantee the kids wouldn't be in danger. Asa mentions that Sam has a demon of his own, and while Turret is confused at the general concept of MacLaughagan accepts that apparently people need the party around to do things and thus aren't likely to be murdered by demons. He tells the party to use the fact that they know a demon to get information on how to cure a Lower Planes illness, and to show up back in the district when they have the information and then someone will lead them here.

### **Wandering the Streets at Night is a NOT Good Idea**

The party leaves, at about 10 p.m., and after the trip back to their section of the City it is roughly 3 in the morning.

##### **Sunday, November 8th, 542:**

The party is walking back to their houses, before they have to split up and go their separate ways, when they hear a scream from an alley. The party investigates, and Kuno's flashlight beam catches two ghouls eating a body. The ghouls lunge at the party.

## Quotes

**Abby:** "If they're kids in the same way Pax is a kid we should bring alcohol too."

**Kellen:** "I wouldn't be fucking narrating like this if *something* wasn't happening."

**Kellen:** "It's ghoul o'clock, baby!"
← Session 07 | Session 09 →