A Death Trilemma

Session #2 of the Zora, Rashid Aljayushi, Mihai Barbaneagra, Father Donovan group.

### Play through

#### Hakan's crash landing

When last we left off, the group decided to fight the Vampire Kesim. At the start of this session, Dr. Sahin, kept firing at the Vamp, while Rashid went to Zora to pull her away from him. The Vamp responded by turning into a mist and moving against the Doctor. Some of the neighbors sounded worried about the gunshots. Rashid urged everyone to go to the back room of the house and close the door. This didn't work, as the Vampire proceeded to flow as a mist under the door. Zora, as a move of desperation, beseeched a spirit to intervene and stop the Vampire from pouring in, marking corruption in the process, as this was a move of control over the supernatural world. The spirit indeed stopped the mist from coming into the room.

This didn't stop the Vampire, who turned into his normal form outside the door. He threatened that Dr. Sahin should give him the adress of his sister or face the consequences. As a response the Doctor picked up his gun again, but turned it into his own head. Rashid acted quickly and snatched the gun from the Doctor's hands. The Vampire outside, having lost his patience, just kicked down the door. But before he could do anything, he stopped, warned the people present that they would pay for their actions, and left.

A few seconds later, the group figured out why he left, as the police sirens sounded in the distance. The Doctor moved the unconscious Hakan and Eda inside his operating room. Because of how critical their condition was, the Doctor gave fresh clothes to Rashid so he could talk to the police, while he was working on getting them better.

On the meantime, Mihai, still working in the night club, heard some screaming from outside. When he went out to check what happened, he saw a crowd of people gathering around a mutilated corpse, that had some resemblance to him. He learned from passersby that the body was thrown off the roof. Mihai transformed into a bird and looked around the roof. He only found blood footprints and he learned from claw marks that the perpetrator was a kind of half human, half clawed monster. With this not being the first time he found a mutilated corpse close to his place of living or work, made Mihai worry enough to call Rashid for protection.

Rashid bluffed the police into believing that the gunshots did not come from inside the Doctor's house. That's when he received the call from Mihai. Knowing that he has to tend to his car crash wounds before heading out, he tried patching himself up. Seeing his own blood though, made him go into shock and in his state of mind, he pulled out a piece of metal that was stuck in him, which lead to severe bleeding. Seeing that Zora, froze in place, until Rashid reached a critical condition. Only then she regained her composure enough to put pressure to the wound and call for the Doctor.

Seeing the condition that Rashid was in, the Doctor gave Zora a choice. He couldn't treat all of them, he didn't have the time or resources. She would have to choose one of them to die. Zora chose her drug dealer and husband of Eda, Hakan to die. The doctor moved quickly, harvesting the blood of Hakan and after testing it to see if it was compatible, gave it to Rashid. Zora was in shock and crying, when Dr. Sahin informed her that Eda was pregnant and she had lost the baby.

#### Mihai's sewer adventure

Mihai, seeing that Rashid wasn't turning up, decided to escape to his home by himself. He waited for everyone to leave and closed the shop himself, before turning into a cockroach. As a cockroach, he traveled through the sewer system to get to his home. The monster that hunted him though, managed to track him in the sewers, using a resonance in their energy. The monster opened a manhole cover and came down to the sewers. It had a humanoid shape, his whole body looked like melted candle, he had claws in hands and feet. Mihai, stayed still for a second, and then, again as a cockroach, tried to fly out of the manhole. The monster knew that he was there, still sensing him through the resonance in their energy, and caught him in mid air.

Mihai transformed into a human again to escape the grasp and fell down. He then imbued his touch with the Wither spell, using his own life energy to power the spell. He tried to touch the monster, but it was too fast for him. The monster jumped up to avoid Mihai's touch and grabed him from behind, holding his arms from higher up, driving his claws into his flesh, while forcing his head underwater.

The monster was about to kill him when, for no reason he let him go. The monster then started banging his head on the wall, moaning about how he didn't want to do it. Mihai approached the creature and with his touch cast Bedlam on it, putting him to a kind of calm, before casting Wither again and rotting his head. The creature tried to escape, but Mihai, using his inner darkness he immobilized his opponent with Fey power, before touching him again with Wither. The creature's whole body rotted away and with his last bit of energy, Mihai climbed out of the sewer and called Zora to come and get him.

#### Father Donovan's new allies

On the meantime, Father Donovan returned to his home and while in terrible pain tended to his wounds, sewing the claw marks the wolves gave him, by himself. While still healing his wounds, a knock came from his door. He opened the door, and saw the Hunter Ozek, who was hunting the Wolf pups in the previous game, standing on his door. The hunter told him that he watched the Wolves attack Father Donovan and expressed his disdain for the beasts. He then asked Father Donovan to partner with him to attack the Wolves. Father Donovan asked the hunter, why he needed him. The hunter answered that he had sawn Tainted in combat. He even fought and killed a lot of them. They could be powerful allies and in contrast with the Wolves, they were civilized. Father Donovan tried arguing against his own civility, but was quickly rebutted by the Hunter by comparing Father Donovan to the Wolves and saying that there is no talking to them.

When outside, Father Donovan noticed that the hunters all had expensive large black jeeps. When he asked about the money that this Hunting group had, the Hunter Ozek, answered that a while ago a rich head of a multinational company, called Tarim Mehmet, funded his small underfunded Hunter's group and told him to just keep doing what he was doing. Ozek also told him, that if he liked the taste of hunting with them, being an ally of his Hunter's group, could bring him a lot of profit.

After a long drive to the Wolve's lair, the hunters set up their snipers and send in Father Donovan alone. Fr. Donovan changed into his deamon form, and walked towards where the Wolves were last time, but something was wrong. Nobody was there. Asking guidance from his Patron, gave his Patron, Belial, an opportunity to weight the situation and take advantage of the chaos that would ensue. He commanded Fr.Donovan to go to Ozek and steal his phone.

Only then did Fr.Donovan realize that the Wolves had laid a trap for the Hunters. From behind him, he heard shots and screaming, as the Wolves descended onto the Hunters and tore them to pieces. Fr. Donovan knew from his Patron that Ozek was dead and impaled with the door of his car. He tried to approach stealthily, but after taking a sip from his flask, he couldn't keep all the alcohol in his stomach so he threw up.

A Wolf came after him, but Fr. Donovan let out his dark side, eyes glowing with darkness, and channeling the will of Belial, to threaten the Wolf. This was a success and the Wolf let him be. With his senses heightened from the connection to the darkness, Fr. Donovan found a way to approach Ozek and steal his phone. Only then did he realize that the Wolves had finished off the Hunters and started circling him. Fr. Donovan got into Ozek's jeep, and run off two Wolves off his road to escape, but one managed to claw his arm, before he got away.