~~META: title = Hunt 27: Chapter 4 ~~ ====== Hunt 27: Webs - Chapter 4 ====== //Game was Saturday 5/25/19; I had planned an NPC for Anne Marie, but she couldn't make it.// ===== Saturday October 2nd, 2010 ===== Before they leave, [[wod:hunter:pcs:josh|Josh]] dashes for a medical closet to grab supplies. He passes gauze and a facemask to [[wod:hunter:pcs:leta|Leta]], grabs a gurney for [[wod:characters:veltis|Veltis]], and a wheelchair for [[wod:hunter:pcs:william|William]]. Luckily, Leta looks human again, while [[wod:characters:heather|Heather]] is in her dire-human form. Veltis is still a human-sized rat, as he is afraid to shrink or shift with broken ribs. Plasm starts bubbling up in [[wod:hunter:pcs:anita|Anita]]’s wounds, and she jokes to Heather, “Let me guess, all you need is ten minutes and a rare steak?” Heather seemingly misses the sarcasm and replies, “That would be great!” Josh tries to get William to sit in the wheelchair, but William stubbornly keeps walking until Josh offers, “I’ll shut up if you sit.” That is too tempting an offer, so William sits and allows Josh to push him. Josh remains quiet while Leta sings herself a nervous ditty as she pushes Veltis. She realizes demonic ichor is still mixing with the blood in her mouth, and the mixture sizzles when it hits the bedpan Josh handed her. She tries to absorb what she can with the gauze. The hunters take the elevator down to W2, the administration core, and walk or wheel to [[wod:characters:ranjip|Dr. Ranjip]]’s office. The good doctor is already present with his team; [[wod:characters:cain|Cain]], [[wod:characters:mick|Mick]], [[wod:geist:pcs:david|David]], and [[wod:characters:lydia|Lydia]] all look uninjured. Dr. Ranjip eyes Veltis and announces, “I’m not trained in that.” He turns to William and declares, “That I can work with.” Leta offers a quick explanation and asks for anything that might help the demonic hemorrhaging; Dr. Ranjip frowns and replies, “I’ve got antiseptic mouthwash?” Leta shrugs in acceptance, but then Dr. Ranjip’s work cellphone rings. He frowns but answers; the hunters hear faint speech on the other end of the line. Dr. Ranjip looks incredulous but says, “Thank you.” He hangs up, and quietly says, “Hospital administration just cleared a surgical bay on the ground floor for our use.” The hunters are immediately wary, but Leta notices her spit forming demonic runes, so she shrugs. The others reluctantly agree, and relocate to the appointed surgical bay. Mick texts the other group with their new location. Once in a proper surgical suite, Dr. Ranjip performs a quick triage and ranks William first, then Veltis, Anita, and Leta. Josh helps William onto the bed and Dr. Ranjip starts work. A few minutes later, the final group of [[wod:characters:hope|Hope]], [[wod:characters:valerie|Valerie]], [[wod:geist:pcs:isobel|Isobel]], [[wod:geist:pcs:peter|Peter]], [[wod:characters:polly|Polly]], and [[wod:characters:abby|Abby]] joins them and the allies start comparing notes. Hope’s group found spiders in the basement, but no one else fought the //Azlu//, and the weird hallway intrigues everyone. Isobel helps Anita on to the second bed and starts work, as she is intimately familiar with the Sin-Eater condition. As they work, Heather, Cain, and Valerie regenerate their wounds. Leta frets over Veltis, and quietly whispers, “You’re hurt, and I’m spitting up ichor and runes. Should we call Overman? Should we make an international call?” Veltis groans in pain but replies softly, “I’ll heal. You, however, are vulnerable. You called on your heritage in ways you’ve never done before.” Before he can continue, Dr. Ranjip finishes with William and administers a painkiller, leaving William awake but slightly fuzzyheaded. Dr. Ranjip transfers Veltis to the bed and starts work. Leta hovers and frets, but does her best to stay out of Dr. Ranjip’s way. Around 2:00 AM, someone knocks gently on the door to their surgical bay. Polly and Mick answer, but then wave Josh over. Josh joins them, and finds two women ((The [[wod:hunter:pcs:flo|non-speaker]] was going to be the NPC. I didn’t describe her, as I wanted Anne Marie to have the freedom to do so.)) in business suits on the other side of the door. The one in front also has an eyepatch, and she curtly introduces herself as [[wod:characters:sarah|Sarah]]. ((I told my players, “Picture Natalie Dormer in a business suit and eyepatch.” [[players:andee|Andee]] approved.)) She states, “This gesture isn’t free. We require information. You answer three questions honestly, and you can have the bay for another hour. After that, you’ll have to vacate, as this is an emergency room.” Josh accepts their terms, and Sarah asks, “Why are you running about and searching the hospital in the first place?” Josh explains, “There was a spider situation.” Sarah looks at him blankly, so Leta calls out, “A big pile of spiders.” Josh sighs and bluntly states, “A spidery-monstery type thing.” Sarah nods as the other woman writes that down. Sarah then asks, “You seem suddenly interested in Dr. Chapman. Why?” Josh replies sheepishly, “He clanged.” Sarah gapes at him, and he explains their brief interaction with the doctor, including the blank stare. Josh concludes, “I tapped his forehead and he clanged. Maybe that was a little rude of me.” Sarah sighs and replies, “Final question. You went up to the roof access and then vanished completely for ten minutes. Where did you go?” Josh hesitates and then ventures, “I’m guessing you’re familiar with weird stuff?” She nods, and Leta calls out, “Use a better lock next time!” Sarah retorts, “Oh, thank you for reminding me. Another perk of our arrangement; you won’t be held liable for the destruction of that very expensive card reader. You are not subtle, Miss Mackenzie.” Josh sighs and murmurs, “I just don’t want you thinking we’re crazy.” Sarah replies, “Oh, you do need mental health counseling, Mr. Troy. But please continue.” Josh explains the high-tech hallway and the Chapman OS as best he can. Leta laments, “This has been a long Tuesday,” but Anita interjects, “Don’t get her started,” when Sarah looks confused. Sarah nods and replies, “Thank you, Miss Perez-Montoya.” Josh asks, “Did you find this hallway?’ Sarah hesitates and then replies, “No. A security team went up thirty minutes ago, and walked through that door right on to the roof without issue.” Josh muses, “Maybe we went through because I banged on Dr. Chapman’s head?’ Sarah sighs and retorts, “We’ll be sure to try that next time.” Taken aback, Josh says quickly, “I was kidding!” Sarah smiles and replies, “I am not.” Leta mocks the card reader and Sarah shrugs and responds, “Lowest bidder, what can I say.” She turns away from Josh and adds, “You have sixty minutes, and then we’ll need the bay. If you encounter this hallway again, please give this number a call.” She passes a business card with only a local phone number on it and says, “Good morning, Mr. Troy.” Josh quickly asks, “Uh, what does this do for our deductibles?” Sarah snorts as she walks away and calls back, “You don’t have to worry about insurance in this case, Mr. Troy.” Josh relaxes and closes the door. He hurries over to his grandfather, proud that he thought to ask the adult questions about insurance. By this point, the werewolves have fully healed and Josh wonders about the shifting and nausea. Valerie frowns and wonders, “Did you cross the Gauntlet?” Every non-werewolf looks at her blankly, but Heahter says firmly, “No.” Valerie quickly explains the Gauntlet separating the world of the flesh and the world of the spirit, but concedes it is possible hey were trapped in the Gauntlet for ten minutes or more. Leta hisses, “Don’t say anything else! This room is likely bugged!” Further conversation halts, especially when Veltis lets out a yelp of pain as Dr. Ranjip resets his ribs and re-inflates a punctured lung. Josh cries out, “I’m sorry! Is there anything I can do?” Veltis wheezes, “Yeah, start a weight loss program!” Dr. Ranjip stitches up Veltis’s side and administers a painkiller, although he’s not sure it’ll even affect the incubus. He then has Leta lie down and uses imaging technology to scan her damaged throat. He frowns deeply and announces, “So, you have runes burned into your esophagus. I’m guessing they’re infernal?” Veltis lifts a paw and beckons, so Dr. Ranjip hands him the tablet with the scans. Veltis eyes it and rumbles, “The good news is that this will heal. And we are not related.” Leta breathes a sigh of relief, but Veltis adds, “The bad news is you are definitely a Belladonna. I don’t know the particular name of your demonic progenitor, but it’s not one of the big ones.” Leta pouts and mutters, “But I wanted a bad-ass demon father, like direct to Satan.” Josh counters, “Isn’t it worse to have it be an unknown?” Veltis grumbles, “That’s the smartest thing you’ve ever said.” Dr. Ranjip interjects, “So basically, it’ll heal on its own and don’t gargle holy water?” Veltis shrugs and replies, “Basically, yes.” Dr. Ranjip grunts, and then eyes the clock. They have about thirty minutes left on their deadline, so he shoos them out and starts cleaning the bay for the next patient. As the allies gather their things, Valerie states, “We still have two things we need to do. We need to check out the roof, and also the corpse the //Azlu// rode here in on.” Dr. Ranjip says, “Then go down to the morgue. I need to finish this here.” William interjects, “And maintain plausible deniability?” Dr. Ranjip shrugs and replies, “Also yes.” The allied cell, krewe, and pack depart the bay without Dr. Ranjip, and they head for the elevator; Josh pushes William’s wheelchair and remains silent. Leta continues dripping bloody ichor into a bedpan, and has discarded one already. They head down to the morgue in the basement of North Building, and find no one on duty. Two corpses are covered by sheets; one being the nurse who committed suicide and the other the UMass student. Every Sin-Eater suddenly looks right at the far corner, where they see the ghost of the UMass frat boy reliving his death as he staggers and then his chest explodes! Anita sighs and says, “I need help; I’m low on the white stuff.” [[wod:geist:pcs:david|David]] nods and slashes his palm; white plasm oozes up and he feeds it to the ghost; the non-Sin-Eaters all hear a hideous slurping noise. The frat boy suddenly goes semi-lucid, screaming, “It put eggs in me!” Anita manages to calm him down, and he asks incredulously, “How did I survive?” Anita says gently, “You didn’t. What happened?” The frat boy rants about a spider monster, but then wonders, “Wait, can I shoot webbing now?’ Anita groans and says, “You’re not Spiderman now; you can’t shoot webbing.” The frat boy ignores her and runs to the morgue wall to climb it; Anita howls, “You can’t stuck to walls either! You’ll just got through them!” As predicted, the frat boy just passes through the wall, and Anita starts cursing about dumb-ass //gringos//. Josh gently asks, “Can you find out if he has a family?” The frat boy reappears, but is back to his death-loop. David sighs but slices his palm again; William turns around as he doesn’t want to see or hear this a second time. The frat boy snaps back to lucidity, and Anita asks him about his family. He starts ranting about his parents in Uxbridge, and Anita sighs as she realizes she’s dealing with a spoiled rich brat. The frat boy does observe, “You have nice tits.” Anita grumbles, “Thanks. Any last requests?” The frat boy nods eagerly and asks Anita to kill his girlfriend. Aghast, Anita refuses, so the frat boy asks instead she kill his best friend, who seduced his girlfriend. He also asks her to delete his porn stash on his laptop. He then catches sight of his corpse, and reverts to the death-loop. Anita reports what little she learned from the ghost, so everyone turns to [[wod:geist:pcs:isobel|Isobel]]. She grumbles but uncovers the corpse. She starts examining it, and everyone sees waxy yellow nodules inside the chest cavity. People gag at the stench, but also notice spider webs inside the torso, connected to the major muscle groups. Josh covers his mouth and leans forward, as does William they both realize someone has surgically excised at least one nodule and some webbing already. (([[wod:characters:groups:cheiron|The Cheiron Group]])) One of the nodules starts pulsing, and Josh quickly pleads, “Stay spiders, stay!” The nodule stops pulsing, but then more nodules start pulsing, and they seem to lean towards Josh! ((The spirits contained within find him an excellent potential host…)) The frat boy’s corpse starts to tremble and twitch, and Josh yells, “Dr. Chapman?” He gets no response, so Josh cries, “Stop!” The nodules stop moving, and appear dejected. Isobel finishes her exam quickly, and tersely reports on the excised nodules, although she has no clue what they are. The hunters decide to burn the body, and Leta is gung-ho to do it now, but Mick argues, “Fire alarms?” Leta grumbles and then gets angry when Mick makes a joking comment about Templeton. Josh texts the number on the business card, //“OK to burn it here?”// He gets no response, so Anita pulls out a match, lights it, and stands directly under the smoke alarm. The alarm suddenly blares – and then goes completely silent. Taking that as tacit permission form their administrative hosts, Anita declares, “Burn it here.” Mick counters, “Here, or bring it outside the hospital and burn it somewhere else?” That brings everyone up short, and they have a quick discussion before deciding the risk of accidental spider explosion is too great to risk moving the body out of this room. Leta jokes, “Somebody wheel Grandpa out,” as Josh steps back to watch from a safe distance. The werewolves quickly move the corpse to the far end of the room, away from the cooling units, while Leta and Anita build a firebreak out of gurneys. Once everyone has stepped away, Leta and Anita unleash their respective powers and green and magenta fires arc up and consume the corpse! They hear sizzling and popping and after a few minutes, the sprinkler system kicks in – only in the far corner. The allies hustle out of the morgue, and Valerie insists they check the roof next. Most of the cell isn’t sanguine about that, but Josh is willing to accompany the pack. The others exit the hospital quietly and regroup near their cars at 3:00 AM. William reluctantly passes his keys to Polly, and agrees to let her use his Buick Skylark to drive the Sin-Eaters back to Springfield. Josh brings the pack first to Dr. Chapman’s office, and they find his shell still sitting there. Josh asks, “Goldenrod?” in the hopes of provoking a response, but gets nothing. The wolves sniff him, and Cain declares, “He smells… antiseptic.” They depart, and head to the stairwell. Josh leads them up to the roof access, and they see the card-reader spitting sparks. Josh carefully opens the door – and stares out to the roof. The werewolves all take deep sniffs, and Valerie tentatively steps through the door. She exits to the roof without issue, and then steps back through. Valerie says firmly, “I believe you. We all do. Everyone’s scent just… stops right here. You went //somewhere// for ten minutes.” Josh insists knocking on Dr. Chapman’s head triggered the transference, and asks about the pack totem. The pack escorts Josh out to the others and Hope declares, “You definitely went somewhere. Your scents just stopped at that door.” Josh reiterates his "banging on Chapman’s head" theory as he looks for spiders. Valerie rumbles, “We need to reach out to the Road Runners. Something like this that happened to the White Noise pack a few years ago; someone abducted and kept them in a high-tech facility in central Massachusetts. Athol, I think.” With that, the pack shifts to wolf-form and they dart to the bike path. Polly herds Anita, David, Peter, and Isobel into the Buick Skylark while Josh gets into his Ford Explorer with his grandfather, Abby, Leta, and Veltis, who has shifted back to a small rat safely. Mick follows them as Josh makes a quick stop at the 7-11 for apology-Cheetos for Veltis before driving them back to their apartment. He says goodbye to Abby and then drives William home. They arrive around 4 o’clock in the morning, and William shuffles off to bed. Mick comes in to nap; he’ll bring Polly home after she drops off the Sin-Eaters. Polly reaches Springfield around 4 o’clock as well, and drops the Sin-Eaters off near the First Church of Springfield, where they all parked before going Down Below. They get out, and Peter says to Polly, “While I don’t understand 90% of what just happened…” and then he flips Polly off. She returns the gesture, and they both start laughing. Polly drives off, and the four Sin-Eaters share goodbyes. They get into their cars and head home. Anita pulls up to her home around 4:30 in the morning, and notes the house is dark. She slips inside quietly, and heads up to her room. She enters her bedroom – and then the light switches on as [[wod:characters:abuela|Abuela]] glares at her from the chair. The older woman starts to demand an explanation, especially when she sees Anita’s burns. Anita gently but firmly shoves her grandmother out of her room and then collapses on her bed. ---- [[{}wod:hunter:recap:27_chapter_3|<= Chapter 3]] [[{}wod:hunter:recap:27_chapter_5|Chapter 5 =>]]