Charles

This is the story of Charles.

Early years

Charles was born in the mid-to-late 1950's.

Awakening

As a teenager he was drawn to the emerging genre of harder rock-n-roll music of the early 1970's like that of Black Sabbath. During that time he had is own very unexpected brush with death. Walking home a car was hurled through the air knocking him down as it flew by. He surely would have died, but as he lay bleeding-out on the street, he heard a voice apologize and he felt almost as if he returned to his body, and his whole being seemed to almost knit back together. Then the sirens, the medics, the hospital, doctors, his parents, and later the police. Eventually, he was sent home. His broken bones healed and he seemed fine. Except, that he could see spirits all around him. After some confusion with the doctors he kept to himself this new-found spirit sight.

Girl's ghost

While Charles sees spirits and ghosts that others do not, mostly these pay little attention to him. One however, started speaking to him. The ghost's voice was that of a girl, probably younger than Charles, speaking in what seemed like snatches of thought, as if re-experiencing moments of pain. Charles follows the ghost to a spot in the church lawn, and indicates that is the location of her body, at the hands of the abusing priest. With his friends, Charles and crew spray-paint accusation of murder and unholiness over the church lawn and draw particular attention to the spot. This causes enough of a spectacle, that not only does the news camera crew come out, but so do the police. Eventually, the spot is dug up, the body exhumed, and the priest exposed.

Recognized

Having graduated high school, Charles decides to leave his hometown. Before heading to yet more school, he takes a trip to New Orleans where he will be able to drink at age 18. Not knowing anyone there, he doesn't have too wild of a time, rather he takes in a bit of the music and the atmosphere. Also, there are plenty of wandering spirits and ghosts. A street preacher singles him out and tells Charles that he can see that Charles has "the sight". Charles leaves, but takes note of the preacher.

Charles catches up with the preacher that evening in a now empty street. The preacher says that he knew Charles would follow him. In their conversation the Preacher asks if Charles can give him his gifts, but Charles has no idea how it came to him and can not pass it to another. The preacher is disappointed but wishes him well. As they part, the preacher assures him that stranger things lie ahead.

Chicago

Graveyard acquaintance

A few minute's walk from Charles' apartment is a graveyard with what was once a small church and a small house on the property. The oldest gravestones are from the 1910's and the latest ones are from the early 1950's, after which the graveyard seems to have been treated as full. The church is now a seldom-used administrative building for the graveyard, and the small house is now rented out as a lawyer's office. Unlike newer graveyards which are completely fenced-in after hours, this one has an area near the church's parking with stone benches looking out over the gravestones.

Charles makes an evening routine of studying on these benches below the large lamp while listening to the spirits and ghosts which come and go from the area. It might be trespassing, but there is no sign which says so, and no one has ever asked him to move along. He is particularly fond of the beautiful and gentle singing that a ghost named Mary has a habit of engaging in nearly every night.

One evening, while reading, Charles sense someone approach. With his supernatural mage sight, Charles can see this person has a black void within them where they should have a soul. The woman introduces herself as Diane. Diane confronts Charles about why he is in her demesne. Charles assures her that he simply enjoys reading while surrounded by the comfort of spirits which appear to dwell within her domain; undisturbed and free of interruption by the living. Diane appears to accept the explanation, and informs Charles that she permits him in her demesne for the time being.

Unlikely mentor

(meeting Bob, super-natural bar)

Murder next door

(TODO: tracking down serial killer)

Fight

(TODO: fight with vampires)

Kingpin

(TODO: meeting Capone)

Revealed

(TODO: revealing hunter)

Hunted

(TODO: meeting "Alice", hunter-girl, half-vampire)

Fight with hunters

(TODO)

Flee to safety

Diane wanted to consult with her priest in Gary, IN. The priest indicated unspoken support for Diane to flee Chicago. Obtained vehicle from Bob and his blessings (magical walkie-talkies). Settled in Victoria for about 6 months then to Mexico for a few. Now headed to Las Vegas (reputed to be a wild free city).

A show like no other

Charles and Diane arrive in Vegas, get a hotel, and plan to spend a bit of time to get a feel for the city before they try to settle in. Diane spots a bar that is marked; inside they see the staff are ghouls and patrons are all sorts of super-natural: vampires, mage, and werewolf. They get introduced to James, an old-west era vampire who explains that if you have any trouble, take it out to the desert and keep it outside of Vegas then everyone can get along. James describes Vegas as still "the wild west" without the same law as other places. Charles discovers that one of the smaller newspapers also contains magical news that can be read with his mage sight, it includes help wanted ads. Given the number of missing persons posters, Charles starts collecting some to try to get a feel for how big of a problem it is. After some weeks, he estimates that it is higher than the national average but not absurdly high. While collecting sample posters, Charles is warned by a woman on the street that there is a cult who has taken her now-missing son. Charles and Diane get an apartment, Diane starts advertising as a dominatrix and starts separating men from their money and the clients willing let her feed upon them and they all leave feeling fulfilled. Charles discovers Mr. Wonder's Wonderous Emporium, and the woman working there provides him with a magical guidebook for Vegas; among other things, it spells out the rules (which align with what James said) and makes an extremely strong point of not endangering tourists or drawing attention from outside. Charles follows up on a magical help wanted advert and gets hired to work in a library run by a woman, Martha, who is very old and seemingly quite powerful, but physically starting to fade; Charles helps out 4 days a week, gets reasonable pay, and has access to an incredible library for his studies.

Charles discovers a link between missing people and a club just outside the city called The Temple of Isis, and so Charles and Diane elect to go check it out. A ghoul is at the door, who lets them pass, and they get their tickets to the show. The club is not too busy, but the acts are good, then comes the main act: Isis herself comes out on stage and begins to sing beautifully. Diane insists they leave immediately, which they do, and remains tight-lipped about the reason until they are back at the apartment. She explains that Isis is a vampire who is ancient, at least one thousand years old maybe two, maybe more, who knows? Charles, wanting to ensure they have not created an enemy, pens a card to the club, thanking them for the opportunity, complementing them on all of the performances, and expressing regret that they had to leave at the start of the very best act. About ten days later, a letter arrives containing VIP tickets for an upcoming evening. They rent a limo, dress up, and attend. The others in attendance are mostly people Charles recognizes from politicians to Madonna. The show is mesmerizing, and all in attendance are nearly captivated by the performance of Isis. After the show, Charles and Diane are invited to the opulent back-stage lounge, where a few other super-naturals are relaxing. Isis comes into the room and mingles with the small number of guests. Charles and Diane each introduce themselves and freely give candid, if brief, accounts of themselves. Isis says that she hopes they will become friends. When they leave Diane still seems a bit captivated by Isis, and Charles comments that he can imagine people easily lose themselves in Isis.

Return to Isis

A month or two later, and another VIP invite to The Temple of Isis arrives. Charles and Diane attend again well dressed, but this time electing to drive themselves in the van that Bob souped-up, rather than bother with a fancy limo. The are seated at a table for four, and shortly after they are seated in walk a pair of women who are directed towards them. Charles smiles and shakes his head a bit; with his mage sight he can see that one of the women is a powerful mage and the other is a vampire. The stunningly beautiful mage looks too young for the power she radiates. Charles thinks she looks like she might come from the Pacific Archipelago, perhaps Indonesia, and if so, also notes that she's rather tall for someone of that region. Diane reports that the vampire the mage is with seems to be quite old and powerful as well. A staff member introduces Kailani and Lorraine to Charles and Diane, and gets drink orders. Diane and the mage Kailani decide to dance for a bit, while Charles and Lorraine, the vampire, watch from the table and become engrossed in the topic of ancient languages. When the dancers return, there is chance to switch partners, and the two mages and the two vampires each take measure of each other as suitable small-talk is exchanged. Naturally, they feel rather "set up" by Isis, but all seem to trust her judgement well enough and through-out dinner and the show, hit it off reasonably well.

The evening comes, and Charles offers them a lift back to their flat in town, as Lorraine had expressed interest in seeing the "magic bus". After the crowd has thinned-out, they head out to the parking lot, only to discover that the car has been tampered with. Charles voices that they should return inside to collect a forgotten article and the four nonchalantly go back in and ask to report an incident. A Temple staff vampire arrives and is quite disturbed to learn that a vehicle was tampered with. The five return to the parking lot where Charles performs a ritual to look for matter changes in the van. Sure enough, he discovers a bomb has been wired in, which he is able to remove and hands it to the Temple vampire who will appropriately deal with it.

As they prepare to leave the lot, members of Diane's clan are waiting at a roadblock. Charles asks everyone to tighten their seat-belts and hang on. In a physics defying move, the van goes off-road to whip around the roadblock as it accelerates to over 200 mph. Reaching out with her mind, Kailani reports greater trouble ahead: a tanker truck is heading their way also at high speed and the driver of the truck is exiting the cab. Kailani says she can't get a good read on the driver, but is also aware of a man in a car ways away in the desert, waiting. The van slows slightly as the occupants see tanker starting to swerve out of control and begin to roll taking up all lanes on the road. In a blink, Lorraine exits the moving van, which is still moving at over 100 miles per hour, to find the man in the car. Charles once again takes the van off-road into the desert to avoid the tanker truck. Once distanced from that, Kailani assures the others that Lorraine will be fine and the three elect to go to Kailani and Lorraine's to await her return. There, they draft a letter to Diane's clan explaining that the vampire hunters followed their group in order to locate Diane and Charles and that for everyone's safety they will continue to be in hiding. Lorraine returns, hurt, and having obviously had a very bad encounter. She expresses that the man was very dangerous, but does not share the details. However she sees the wisdom in reporting what has transpired, so the four of them expand the letter and Kailani transports Lorraine to Ohio so that the letter can be delivered. It seems Lorraine may not have been as diplomatic as Diane would have liked, but the message was effectively delivered.

Unexpected Visit

Sr. A. Biaxxa, "Mr. Summer" and a young woman "Mrs. Winter" visited. They are connected to a supernatural Judaic order. Kailani's past reaches back to 1905 or earlier, involves a demon in some way. Lorraine's past is also quite dark. Mister Summer would like the Heart of Solomon returned to his people. The Heart of Solomon may be useful in reconnecting a soul to a person and more.

Ghosts of Prey

Bob calls and reports that he's driving in to town. Charles invites Bob to his apartment and they grill burgers on the balcony BBQ grill, and catch up over some cans of beer. Charles relates all the goings-on to Bob with the Temple of Isis and Kailani and the vampire hunters. Bob reports that ancient vampires are feuding in Chicago, and thus he decided to leave in order to stay clear of the mess. As such, Bob has bought a square mile of desert outside of town to set himself with an automobile shop on the road and a secluded house in the back 40. Bob offers to further soup-up Charles' van with some new magic he's leaned. The two of them work for a few days after which the van now has a button which opens a new door on the inside of the van behind which a large magical space can be accessed, if they wish they could make that an apartment while on the road. Bob then installs a magical maps system which has maps of North America and Europe. They add magic to the van allowing it to operate as a boat or even submarine. Finally Bob installs an autopilot unit and names the van Rover.

A few days later, Lucille, a ghost that Charles knows, and a couple other ghosts are looking for Charles when he comes home. He invites them into the apartment and learns that several ghosts have gone missing. Fearing the worst, Charles goes out to the graveyard where the area ghosts tend to gather to see what he can learn. Using his sight he detects that Death magic has been performed here recently by a group of people, but none of the ghosts know by whom. Charles lays upon the ground and reaches with his mind out to the spirit of the ground around him, and is greeted in the twilight by the spirit, personified as a very old and very hunched over Native American woman. The spirit is persuaded that while the atrocities of the past can not be undone, helping Charles find who has been harming the ghosts could prevent some further atrocities. Next, Charles goes to find the haunt of a ghost who was once a detective in life, and remained after death to find the murderer, but has also gone missing. In the area he finds a bone whistle with some feathers attached; it has been recently used in death magic. Charles pays a visit to James, the old cowboy vampire whom made it clear that he doesn't like trouble. Charles reports the trouble of ghosts going missing via Death Magic, and James tells him that it is a Indian eagle-bone whistle used in dances and rituals. Charles takes the whistle in to work and tells Martha all of what has been going on with the missing ghosts. Martha says she can do scrying and use the whistle, but that naturally comes with risks of being discovered by those that one is scrying upon; he leaves the whistle with her. When Charles next comes to work, he finds her dead; the place has been ransacked and the whistle is gone. Charles calls Bob and he comes out to help; Diane will join after dark. Just as dark sets in, Charles is attacked by three mages who emerge from the twilight with blades shaped from Ephemera. Charles shapes Ephemera armor over himself and creates blinding darkness around the attackers. Tisiphone, the righteous fury grows to be huge with wings, screams as she attacks one of the three. Charles shapes the darkness around the two others, who then vanish to escape. Charles then takes the body of Martha and the assailant to the local head of the Mages and reports what has happened so far. The Mages agree that this is serious, someone is consuming ghosts as a power source and they assign two agents to help Charles find out who is doing it. Charles visits the local reservation and learns that the whistle is not something from their tribe, but more likely Lakota. Charles goes the Native American Heritage museum and learns that the whistle, and a ghost shirt were recently stolen from there. Charles receives the case information and photocopies of pictures of the missing items.

Ominous tidings

Charles dreams of a younger spirit of the land coming to him, in the dream the spirit shows him a ranch-house on the outskirts of town and compels him to go there to track the ghost destroying magic. Charles wakes, calls Bob and tells him where he's going, Bob offers to meet him and Diane on the way. Charles contacts the Mages, and they send an agent out to meet them. Bob and Charles park a ways away from the ranch, they hide the vehicles in shadow. Looking around, Bob and Charles and the agent, can tell there is a person inside the house, and it seems there is also some movement. Bob takes Charles and the Agent through the twilight to get inside of the house. Once inside they find the body of a young woman; there are signs of death magic, but no other signs of life. When trying to determine the cause of death, the young woman wakes. After some initial confusion, the young woman admits that she was trying to hide by playing dead. Tisiphone seems suspicious of the girl. Charles questions the young woman, and it is revealed that she was participating in some of the rituals of these mages who are doing the ghost things in hopes of learning magic herself. A message on the answering machine is from someone warning that "Ominous" is coming and they need to get away. After some exchange with the Agent, Charles tells the young woman that she needs to come with them to the Mages. The young woman says she will refuse, and Charles makes it clear that she will not have a choice in this. At this the young woman reaches out and performs some magic and orders Diane to kill the agent, then shrouds herself in darkness. Diane dispatches the agent seemingly effortlessly. Charles calls to Tisiphone who becomes large, howls, and dives upon the young woman. In that moment, the woman and Tisiphone vanish into the twilight. Charles looks in to Diane's black eyes, and with all his energy and the words "Come back to me", breaks the mind control spell. Bob says that they can try to follow the woman through the twilight, but it will be very dangerous. Charles suggests that they get the body of the agent back to the Mages. Charles' commands his van to head back to the parking garage of his apartment, as the sun will rise soon, Diane will go with the van. Charles and Bob make a full report as they delivers a second dead mage and provide the tape from the answering machine. Fortunately, the mages are able to bring the agent back to life. A Mage with time powers is able to reconstruct some of the goings-on, and it turns out that a young woman was indeed killed and "Ominous", the woman that vanished, had tried to pose as the girl's corpse.

A couple of days later, a ghost says they've found one of the mages who is one of the ghost destroyers. From that clue, Charles, Bob, Diane all follow the man who heads to an old church on the edge of the old city and disappears inside. Oddly, ghosts seem drawn to this church, but it is protected by a large and powerful magical barrier through which ghosts seemingly can not pass. Charles calls the Mages for back up; moments later two mages materialize and ask how they can help. Just then a woman speeds up on a motorcycle, stops, steps off and starts heading to the church with a sub machine gun. Diane says, "that's her" and bolts towards her. As Diane encounters Ominous, she's struck down, seemingly effortlessly by Ominous, who hardly breaks her purposeful stride as she enters the church through the front doors. Bob and one of the agents agree to enter in on the left and Charles and the other to the right. Inside, Ominous and an old priest are arguing. From the argument is seems that the old man may be her actual grandfather and he calls her by what may be her actual name. Shots ring out in rapid fire as she guns down the priest. Bob, Charles, and the two agents all start firing on "Ominous" who laughs as the bullets pass right through her; under her leather motorcycle jacket, the stolen ghost shirt can be seen. Charles can see that she has the eagle bone whistle and some form of Native American head-gear as well. She takes some items from the old priest, and vanishes. Charles runs out to the stairs to find Diane's body, and amazingly Diane is hurt but returns to consciousness, so Charles takes her home. That night, the old spirit of the land returns to Charles in a dream and tells him that he must follow the guide. The dream is broken by the ring of the telephone. On the phone is Susan, the woman from the Native American Heritage museum, who tells him that she's discovered more items have been stolen. Charles drives to the Museum to meet her. After he gets photocopies of pictures of the missing head-gear, the two of them talk. Charles carefully explains that he is not working with the police, because he's with people that have different strengths, and their powers are not all that different than the powers of the shamans of her ancestors. Charles levels with her that the people who have stolen these items have stolen them for the power the items contain. In what strikes Charles as an overly black-and-white question, she asks if he and his group are the good guys who can stop the "bad guys" and get the items back. He tells her that this is what he intends to do.

End of Ominous

• Charles, Kailani, and Susan visit Susan's grandfather at the near by reservation
• He states the items are from a different tradition, but similar, and provides similar example items
• Susan's cousin Hal, a Vietnam vet, recovering alcoholic, and converted christian, is asked by the grandfather to go with Charles and Kailani to help recover the stolen items
• Using the example items, Charles, Kailani, and Bob create a ritual to track Ominous, and discover that she is heading to cowboy James to acquire Geronimo's rifle
• Kailani creates a portal, the team arrive in James's office just in time for Charles to cast a counter spell to prevent Ominous taking control of James
• After James kills Ominous, he thanks the team, and gives the rifle to Hal for future safekeeping, and the stolen items are returned the museum

Interlude

• Librarian's spirit has been hiding in a book
• Librarian's spirit is returned to her body, and fixed up
• All important library books are recovered, some show up eventually after a couple of months
• Charles was granted a large bonus and vacation for his fixing the library situation
• Magus M agreed to do investing and money management to ensure that both Charles and Diane will be financially secure for the future
• Charles and Diane get a larger suburban place on the edge of the city, big enough for a private office and library
• Kailani and Bob help with setting up portals between office and the library, the office and Charles' bus, as well as a extra dimensional safe sleeping space for Diane
• Bob lead the upgrade efforts on Charles' micro-bus, to allow it to have a auto-pilot, magic GPS-like feature, as well as submarine or surface transit functions
• Bob seems to make a new lady-friend while attending a neighbor's party with Charles and Diane

Mob Job

• Charles is contacted by some mobster goons asking him to meet with their boss who wants to do a seance
• Charles agrees, and goes to the location meets the boss, and sees a brutally murdered victim, who is a relative of the mob boss
• Charles creates a channel to talk to the spirit of the dead person; it is clear that he was killed by the mob
• The mob boss asks the spirit to reveal the location of a case with their family member's reliquary
• A priest in attendance threatens the spirit
• The spirit sticks repeats the same story he gave in life, that it was taken by some kids that follow the Grateful Dead
• After the seance ends, the mob boss offers a reward to recover the item, which Charles believes he can do if he get a sample of blood from a relative of the saint
• With this, Charles and Diane are able to track down the item, and thus the kids
• With some scary persuasion from Diane and a friendly pair of good tickets from Charles, the kids surrender the reliquary which is an ornate cross containing a vial of blood.
• Diane is able to hold this cross without problems
• Charles, Diane, Kailani, and Bob all take the reliquary cross to the temple of Isis for examination
• With Isis' help, they determine that the item is not exactly as it appears, the cross was added around the older artifact, and Isis thought that the blood contained may be that of a desert spirit or perhaps djinn
• Charles returns the cross to the mob boss, and receives a huge amount of cash in a briefcase as well as the assurance that he can call in a favor

Martha gets stoned

• From 1985 into 1987, Charles regularly accompanies Martha to London to obtain rare (magical) books and other objects
• Over time, Charles is sent to some of these exchanges on his own
• During the most recent visit, the contact was not responding, so Charles and Martha went to his home
• They were let in by an someone who said the contact was not feeling well and asked Charles and Martha to wait in the foyer, and left through a pocket door
• Shortly thereafter, we hear a window break, Martha slides it open to look inside, and is turned to stone
• Charles catches a glimpse of someone leaving through the broken glass door in the back, with a large pack
• Charles hires a courier, and brings Martha's form (a statue) to the Crown and Anchor which is the British Isles magical customs house, and inform the realm authorities
• An agent of Renier, the vampire prince, expressed appreciation for Charles' candid report and desire to help the investigation
• Magda, another agent of Renier, is a mage assigned to the investigation, she's not pretty, yet overwhelmingly sexually attractive

Paris with a Succubus

• Magda and Charles go to the crime scene searching the premises for information
• Arthur Drodem, possibly a Fay, was at house and looking for information about Grail and the Arthurian legends
• Using fate magic Magda identifies items of interest: book of accounts, a lapel pin, a calendar of appointments, a copy of The Once and Future King
• book of accounts: note: "note handle with care, aegis?", list of names, includes all people there that day, and it's clear that he bought a lot of stuff from Renier, including the pin
• Pewter lapel pin of a humble and simple stemmed cup, Order of the Cup
• Calendar of contains odd appointment with Silvia Aaron Oxford
• Once and Future King contains a note, "ex, does she have it?", perhaps Excalibur?, lady of the lake?
• Magda, Charles and Diane go to Paris to connect with a researcher
• Magda is revealed to be a Succubus/Incubus, and Diane is overwhelmingly drawn to her, but Magda insists that it's best if things stay entirely professional
• Magda explains that she is working for Renier because of a debt
• research material on the Grail and the Order of the Cup
  • order fights super-natural forces
  • were around as late as 1940s
  • evolved from an order of monks that had found the chalice
  • were subject of the inquisition maybe 1400s
  • were in Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Germany, had lot of money
  • seems that some evaded and re-formed the order
  • notes of Christ, Gnostics; the Grail might have been smuggled out
  • notes include the Arthurian legends, Percival, etc
  • cup is reputed to have infinite healing power, will preserve life
• report for the (fay?) Arthur, that the order does exist
  • known to church authorities on the continent
  • the pin is evidence
  • some sources say the order does, in fact, have the grail
• Charles wears the pin, in the off-chance that it will be recognised by a member of the order
• Magda, Diane, and Charles go to Brittany, found a circle of fay stones, and visited Magda's "great grand mother"

Order of the Cup

• Went to catacombs to search for the order, discovered by order by order members
• Escorted to and introduced to Cardinal Richelieu
• Learned name of Brother who lost the pin, Martin
• Used ritual magic and the pin to locate Brother, who was dead in shallow grave
• Located the killer, who said things had gotten out of hand
• Killer got job from a cat burglar, who turned out to be a young woman who stole the Aegis
• Both were hired by the same person, not known who it was
• Aegis turned over to Renier, Charles is knighted
• Renier's "pet Mage" will help restore Martha if we have a plan, but will need many forms of magic
• Returned to Paris, contacted Order of the Cup, returned Pin
• Richelieu, was grateful with finding and returning the body of the missing Brother, may be willing to help with Martha using the Grail
• Upon leaving, followed by some sort of Fay vampire
• Charles, Magda, Diane tried to pursue but failed
• Later, the Brothers in the Order of the Cup safe-house were all slain (not drained, interestingly)
• visited Magda's great grand mother, told her about the Fay vampire, she said that he is Modred
• Ask Magda's great grand mother about the Excalibur note, she warned that Charles would not be worthy and bad things happen when unworthy wield it

Knights of the Round

• Magda asked Charles to help prevent Modred from obtaining Excalibur
• Charles, Magda, and Diane pay another visit to Magda's great grand mother, over tea, they learn that to speak with the Lady of the Lake, they must visit realm
• Being June of 1987, the days are long, nights are short, Magda uses a strange magic allowing Diane to be in daylight for a time, though not at full strength
• Magda takes them to a fairy ring, and leads the activation dance
• As uninvited outsiders, Charles, the demon Magda, and the vampire Diane, are brought before the fay queen
• Charles bows and explains he has brought these unwelcome others as, they wish to speak with the Lady of the Lake
• The queen assigns the hobgoblin "Robin" to lead them there and to lead them back when they are done
• Charles explains that Modred, now a fay vampire seeks Excalibur
• The Lady declares that if Modred obtains Excalibur, this would mean the death of the world
• Charles explains that it is their intention to return Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake, so that that Modred, does not obtain it
• The Lady then charges the three of them with that very mission, and dubs them knights
• When asked for something to help them locate the Future King, The Lady of the Lake, extracts a hair of Arthur from his tomb, and with that creates a vision of a girl who was given Excalibur
• When the three return from the Lady's island, Robin eventually shows back up and starts to take them back
• Along the way, Robin find the ingredients for making some beverage which makes him quite tipsy and continuously offers it to the three
• Robin insists that he has enchanted the drink such that it will send them back home, but Charles insists that this is not the way
• Quite offended, Robin believes that Charles has called him a liar, and angrily creates a portal to send them back
• Back in the mortal world, Charles visits Kailani, she is able to create a painting of the girl via mind reading
• Eventually it clicks that this is a younger version of the cat burglar who stole the Aegis and is a null
• She has moved; Charles leaves his card with the neighbor
• Posing as Interpol seeking an art thief, they get the girls car info
• They track the car to a hotel, and pay a visit to her room
• The girl indeed has Excalibur and is persuaded to go to Avalon to talk to the Lady of the Lake
• The Lady tells the girl that she descends from Uther Pendragon, and thus is the rightful bearer of Excalibur
• Charles suggests to the girl that she should stay with the Lady until she is ready to wield Excalibur to lead the world
• Charles, completes his suggestion with "Your Majesty", and kneels and Magda and Diane kneel as well
• The Future King addressing the three as Knights of the Round Table, and tells them to rise

Return home

• returned to library, set Martha on a pedestal
• Met with Bob, some additional securing of the library
• Loraine came by, needed help with a prisoner, but Charles was unable to help; the prisoner (Loraine called a "nosy person") was almost catatonic after years of isolation
• Charles was upset about the situation and Loraine wiped his memory of the events
• Charles realized she had done something, she told him, offered to restore his memory; Charles declined stating he did not want to be involved with her business, she apologized.
• Paid a visit to Cowboy James, gave him a brief update about his time in the UK and his service to prince Renier, and knighthood, both agreed it was not a problem
• Visit Isis, more detailed update, including discussion of Mordred and mob boss
• received invitation to mob boss' daughter's wedding
• at wedding, during the receiving line, three black SUVs arrived, shooting the crowd
• the daughter and groom each died, Charles caused the lead and trailing SUV's engines to fail, allowing and the capture of the assassins, with Diane's and the fury's aid.
• The mob boss thanked Charles and expressed that was in Charles' debt.

Mob funeral

• Charles contacts the Mages in the city, and starts to work on a plan for restoring Martha, expecting the research to take years, perhaps a decade, and to require casters of all schools of magic to participate.
• Charles attends the funeral of the mob boss daughter and groom.
• At the service, mostly close family members, the mayor, some others; the ghosts present include an elderly couple, a woman, a child, the mob boss daughter and groom.
• The blessing of the deceased and the Funeral Rite is performed by the priest who is a member of the mob boss family, and includes the use of their family member's reliquary.
• Near the end of the rite, Charles observes the reliquary radiating, a hole open in the shadow, something dark seem to emerge, then the spirits of the daughter and groom are sucked into the hole, and it closes and vanishes.
• About a week later, Charles comes home to find his house without its enchantments; strangely, he was not alerted when they were disabled.
• He calls Bob, who comes over to help him investigate.
• Bob discovers a "bug" that Charles overlooked; a mage must have installed as a means to scry upon him; Bob deactivates it.
• Given the timing, Charles seeks out the priest to get leads on who might be after him
• The priest is aware there were some rivals, and assures Charles that the guardian angels shall watch over him.
• While slightly out of place in the suburbs, some mob toughs begin keeping a protective watch on Charles' house.
• Charles starts to investigate the local gang activity; Diane starts trailing some likely leads.
• The FBI show up and have questions about how Charles is mixed up with organized crime and reveal that they don't have information on the woman whom is often seen with Charles, and offer to help Charles if he comes clean.
• Charles conveys that he is a librarian, which the FBI agents know is true, yet find puzzling. Charles doesn't answer questions about the mystery woman, expecting that avoid the topic creates impression that he's likely seeing a prostitute.
• The FBI agents eventually leave a card with Charles and depart.
• Working late on research, there is a knock at the door; Diane is there, behind her is a mage with spirit magic, and flashlight capable of making daylight.
• Charles opens the door; the mage Georgie enters, with his eastern European accent, orders Diane to sit, and tells Charles that there's a problem with his mob boss.
• Charles tells Georgie that he does not work for the mob boss, rather the boss is in his debt; and thus maybe one day Charles will be able to call in a favor; this changes Georgie's tone.
• Georgie proposes that since there's a bit of a corporate take-over, that this is best left to the corporate world, to which Charles suggests best left to the corporial world, and the other spirit mage expresses full agreement.
• Georgie, departs satisfied; the next day Charles arranges to have made a silver ring with a black opal made for Diane such that it will refract daylight around her and deepen shadows to protect her from some magic like the daylight flashlight.
• As 1988 wears on, there is a growing sense that a darkness has awoken, felt by all with death magic, and Diane as well. Is seems to be somewhere in Asia, perhaps Siberia; extremely powerful, ancient, and almost as if it is somehow both of death magic and also vampiric in nature.

Years of Research

• Charles spends over two years researching how to restore Martha
• The final months of it, he spends with Renier's Wizard, and the final steps become far better understood.
• There will be risks, possibly resulting in harm to the casters
• Charles will need the aid of wizards with other types of magic
• Charles delivers a note for Kailani detailing the research he has done in a safe room of a house of hers
• Charles feels something almost tug at him from the Shadow.
• Diane finds the blood painting Lorraine made to be beautiful, it reminds her of birth

Wolves and Vamps

• Charles and Diane are invited to a party at the Temple of Isis
• François introduces them to Sylvie and some members of her family
• The opening band has a member who is a child if Sylvie; he seems strangely familiar to Charles
• The promoter for the band is a vampire who was employing some form of magic to gently boost the emotional impact of the music
• Some were-wolves cause a minor disturbance and leave in a hurry
• Sylvie follows and learns that Carol (a werewolf) is missing, and Greg her vampire boyfriend is suspect
• Cowboy James contacts Charles because they found Carol's body; he wants to find the truth and avoid a conflict between vampires and wolves
• Sylvie and Charles arrive at scene, the spirit is not present
• Sylvie examines the body and finds evidence that a werewolf may be the killer
• Sylvie also spots a rat-spirit spying on the scene, and chases it
• Sylvie and Charles capture it, and coerce it to lead them to its master
• The master turns out to be a senior spiral dancer werewolf
• The killer was the son of the head spiral dancer and jealous would-be-lover of Carol
• Sylvie and Charles report the findings to James and the werewolves
• The wolves and vampires appreciate the information; conflict is avoided

Restoration

• Charles, Sylvie, cross the river Styx to search for Martha in Hades
• Sylvie gave Cerberus a treat, and they get audience with Hades himself.
• In exchange for Martha's soul's permission to exit, Charles tells Hades that Prince Rainier is in possession of the Ages.
• Lorraine's spirit entered Martha's body during the ritual
• Charles transferred the spirit to the painting
• Martha is restored
• By dipping the painting in a tub of blood, Lorraine is restored.
• Charles and Diane take a holiday in Alaska to see the northern lights

Old vodka in Alaska

• Charles and Diane take their holiday in Alaska
• In Anchorage they observe an vampire with a Russian accent and a small entourage of ghouls
• They follow them to the exclusive hotel and book themselves a room.
• The upper floor is secure and caters to super-naturals.
• Charles gets an introduction to the Lord Vadislav the noble vampire.
• Charles and Diane attend dinner and cocktails; Diane sees he is very old
• They learn that Vadislav and his crew is going to Seattle.
• Vadislav spoke negatively about "Anarchs" and how things are better now
• Charles provided Vadislav extensive info on Seattle's politics
• Vadislav expressed thanks for the information

Dreaming of Djinni

• Charles learns that FBI agents contacted Sylvie for info on Charles and Kailani.
• Scrying revealed an FBI office with magical protections.
• Sylvie and Kailani portal in to the office's record room, and memorize many documents.
• They portal-ed out but know that they were seen by someone.
• They followed an FBI agent with a case to a hotel with magical protections.
• Charles goes to the lobby of the hotel and has drinks to observe.
• Charles determined that there was likely djinn magic involved.
• Research on djinn revealed that A. Nelson Jr. is a "genieologist" in San Diego.
• A. Nelson Jr. claims to be the son of Tony Nelson the famous astronaut.
• They made an appointment and visited Nelson's home.
• When they report that the FBI seems to have djinn magic, the bottle in the room shakes.
• Nelson excuses himself, takes the bottle, and shortly returns with Jeanette.

Two Djinni

• Jeanette, brought the FBI agents, the other djinn arrives
• The other djinn takes the agents away; Jeanette brings everyone to follow
• A discussion unfolds where the FBI is concerned about Kailani's involvement with Mossad and the deaths of agents that were in pursuit of the Mossad agents
• Kailani informed them that the one responsible for the deaths had been killed
• Jeanette and the other Djinn have known each other and seem to be a bit cold now
• Sylvie, Charles, and Kailani come to an arrangement with the FBI to act as contacts

Fay Visit

• Martha tell Charles that he had a caller stop by, left a card, Dr. Mode
• They worked out that it is a anagram or Modred
• Travel to England, check-in at the Crown and Anchor
• Informed Rainier that there is a fay vampire
• went to rock circle to enter fay realm (some complications, but worked out)
• reported to future king possible danger of Modred and search for her or the sword
• reassured that she is protected in that realm, and should she need she can call on Charles from afar

Odd callings

• Charles and Diane head to France to visit the Cardinal
• Inform him that Modred has been seen again
• Cardinal appreciates the info and says they are welcome to return
• Even Diane kisses the ring on departure (nothing bad happens)
• Back in the Vegas, Charles begins research into soul/spirit connection with vampires
• Answer a call from police to help with investigating a set of murders
• Detectives Wilma and William describe a serial killer
• Seems occult related: strange symbols; bodies have no sign of damage
• At the scene of death, obvious ritual, no manna, no spirits present
• Upon leaving a reporter tries to snap photos, but camera fails
• At the morgue, Diane's charm allows them to go in, mentions FBI
• Detectives, are unhappy with lying (that's a crime), but Charles shows him the card from the FBI and explains, "not a lie, we consult"
• Detectives notice Charles copying invisible symbols from the body
• Charles hands William glasses and lets him see the symbols, explaining it is like invisible ink.
• Detective Wilma senses there's something strange
• Charles jests that he calls them his "magic glasses"
• All life and manna forces have been drained from the victim
• In a moment of alone time, Charles gets the body to speak
• Charles learns the killer was a white male, 30s, blond, "wild mage"
• There was a ritual with 4 other people, one a woman "Joan"
• Victim met Joan on dating site, was into pagan stuff
• Ritual about spheres aligning and gaining power
• Both high and low Atlantean writing
• Chant lead by Joan

Capture of a hit-man

• Charles goes to Martha's library to learn the nature of the curse
• Silvia, Kailani, Diane keep an eye on Joan
• Learn of another potential victim, a young man is going on a date with Joan.
• He stands her up the first attempted date, but they set up a second one and he says she is taking him to a tarot card reading.
• Following in the van, Kailani magically observes him attempt to attack Joan, who is now unconscious.
• Sylvia subdues the man.
• Kailani reads him and says he is obsessed with power, riches, sex and dominance, especially over women.
• Kailani enters Joan's dreams and learns something bad happened to her; quite scary, someone took advantage of her.
• Try to find out more about the hit-man but don't get much.

Interrogation

• Take the captured man to Kailani's to locked him up.
• Kailani enters his dreams, his mission was to kill Joan.
• Kailani creates a dream where he is successful in killing Joan.
• In the dream, he calls a woman named Georgina to report success.
• Then he cuts off the left hand of Joan and puts it in a bag.
• He heads off to a woods and finds an outdoor Greek theatre.
• When his sleeping body starts to convulse Kailani stops.
• The name of the man is William Wayne Jackson.
• His boss is the "Master"
• Kailani discerns this man's very bad nature
• He thinks we're cops, wants a lawyer
• Charles explains not cops, but suggests Tisiphone will hear him out
• Tisiphone vanishes with William and moments later they re-appear
• William is frightened willing to confess in writing, and go to jail
• He will lead us to the Master.
• Silvia's augury shows us welcome into the circle by the master if we go to the ritual, or we cloak our power and presence and go to observe.
• Now, who to bring to this circle? Lorraine? Tisiphone? Dianne?

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