Attack on the Thompson City Mall

## Casualties

*“I had hoped to take your measure during this particular conflict. Either that or terminate you and your sister as a message to the Committee. I must say you have proven more tenacious than I had expected. You both have hidden reserves I have yet to identify.”*
*“Put the vial down! Now!”*
*“For a world without fate!”*— The Wazir and Derek Hawthorne, *Esoterrorism*
The **Attack on the Thompson City Mall** was an attempted bio-attack by the Wazir, the leader of the Emerald Eye. What began as a routine handoff between two Emerald Eye operatives was disrupted by two agents of the House, Derek Hawthorne and Penny Hawthorne. The result was an attempt by the Wazir to massacre as many innocents as possible before dropping a vial of Matheson-22 inside, attempting to turn any survivors into draugr. Ultimately, though the Wazir killed many innocents, the bio-attack was thwarted by the two agents.

## Background

For centuries, Karl Bjornson opposed the House's draconian measures and attempted to destroy them by any means necessary, up to and including an attempt to start World War III. However, in modern times, Karl changed his goals from trying to destroy the House to trying to expose the supernatural to the world by any means necessary. For this, he required allies, and for this, he found Cassandra Cassidy, the CEO of Pantheon Corp, and Edward Strickland, the head of the White Room. Both sought revenge against the House for their own reasons; Cassandra wanted revenge for being brainwashed into marrying Derek Hawthorne, while Strickland blamed them for the deaths of his wife and daughter.

For this partnership, Cassandra let Strickland use her company's resources and labs for Strickland to develop a new virus capable of converting humans into draugr. Though it took the company time, the eventual result was Matheson-22, which could be spread through the air and resulted in draugr which could infect humans via bites like zombies. The Wazir needed to test the virus and chose the town of Wheatfield, resulting in the town's complete destruction. With the virus's effectiveness proven, Karl only needed to distribute it further, and to begin disseminating it among his forces, he arranged a handoff between two rakshasa.

However, the meeting also served a secondary purpose. with his various connections to the Red Room, Karl discovered Derek and perused his file. He eventually came to the conclusion that with the right motivation, Derek could be persuaded to turn against the House, so as a test of his personality, Karl arranged for a succubus named Shannon O'Reily to be sent to Division One as his partner. Predicting that Derek and Penny would be the agents sent to disrupt the handoff, Karl attended the meeting personally, and was proven correct when the twins were sent to disrupt the meeting, arrest everyone involved, and see if they were carrying anything important.

When the two realized that the Wazir was personally involved, their plan was scuttled, and after a brief discussion about the importance of brining Karl in, Derek made the executive decision that Penny would pull the fire alarm to evacuate the building while he arrested the Wazir peacefully. Derek walked over to him and placed a gun at his back, with Karl ordering his rakshasa to not interfere. Karl then put Derek on the back foot by revealing just how much he knew about Derek, including his father's fetishes, his half-dragon heritage, and his file stating that he was a terrible spy. At this point, the fire alarm finally went off and people started evacuating; however, when Derek attempted to lead Karl outside peacefully, Karl gave the order for his rakshasa to start killing everyone in sight.

## Attack

### Rakshasa

As soon as Karl gave the order, Derek shot him four times to kill him, then turned his attention to the two rakshasa. As they were massacring the civilians, Derek aimed at one of them, only to be knocked over by a fleeing family. This brief distraction allowed the other rakshasa to sneak up behind him and punch him in the neck, knocking him down. It grabbed him and moved to rip him in half, but Penny returned and bound him with magic, removing him from the fight. In response, the other rakshasa ran at Penny to try to defeat her, but Derek managed to shoot him while he was running, and with no other imminent threats, Penny killed the bound rakshasa by crushing it to death, ending their threat.

### The Bio-Attack

However, when Derek looked to the Wazir's body, he found that it was missing, as Karl had somehow gotten up from his lethal wounds and grabbed the duffel bag one of the rakshasa had been carrying. As he attempted to flee, he used a "Splintre" spell to destroy all the glass in the entire mall, forcing Penny to use a shielding spell to protect them. Though Derek was briefly stunned by the explosions and had to check if Penny was alright, once Penny indicated she was okay, Derek took aim again and shot multiple times, managing to hit the Wazir's knees.

The Wazir collapsed, but as Derek approached him to collect the duffel bag, he stood back up, having pulled a vial out of the bag. After a brief exchange between the two where the Wazir revealed that the confrontation doubled as a way to size up Derek's loyalty to the House, Karl proclaimed the House's motto "For a world without fate" and moved to drop the vial. Before he could, Derek shot him dead again, and though the vial still fell, without the added force of a throw it bounced harmlessly against the ground, ending the attack. As Derek moved to collect the vial, the police finally arrived and arrested Derek for what seemed to be his participation in the attack.

## Aftermath

Despite the innocent casualties, preventing the exposure of the Matheson-22 virus made the attack a failure for the Wazir. However, it had long-term repercussions for both sides of the conflict.

Derek was arrested by the local police, but after five days in a prison cell, the Professor was finally able to have him released under the cover of a DEA agent working on a classified mission. With Derek released, he was finally debriefed on several key facets of the conversation, including the destruction of Wheatfield, the existence of Matheson-22, the presence of a mole in the Red Room, and the fact that the Wazir had been using a homunculus during the confrontation, meaning that he was still alive.

After the attack, the Emerald Eye put a bounty on Derek's head. Derek and his new partner Shannon intended to use this bounty to lure out low-level flunkies they could trace back to the Wazir, but the war between the Wazir and the House escalated into all-out conflict before they could do so.

The attack gave the White Room access to the Matheson virus, allowing them to study the virus's properties and conclude that the virus could have only been produced in Pantheon Corp's labs. This, combined with the Assault on the White Room, led the House to Cassandra Cassidy as their prime suspect and lead.

In the Confrontation at Strickland's Safe House, the Wazir revealed that he had placed a compulsion spell on the vial of Matheson Derek recovered during the attack, forcing Derek to accept Shannon as his partner, believe in Cassandra's innocence, and cooperate with Karl during their next confrontation. This forced Derek to listen peacefully as Karl pitched the idea of ascending to the Committee, which Derek ended up agreeing to do.

The people who died in the Thompson City Mall attack would ultimately be avenged when Derek killed the Wazir during the Battle at Cassandra's Lair.