(...continued)
Everybody (except Arthur and Henrietta) rolled back to Denver a week after they'd left. On the morning of the Thursday before the Labor Day party at the Academy Club, the group assembled in a room at the Motel 6.
From there, Aurelia, Frank and Beatrice headed into Five Points to case the abandoned hotel, and soonrealized that the main reason the Rossonian acted as the center of the community was because it lay at the
center of the
community.
Located on a triangular lot bounded by Washington Street to the east, Welton Street (and the light rail line) along the northwest, and an open alley with a parking lot and vacant lot to the south, the location provided absolutely no cover to anyone trying to gain clandestine entry.
Based on the recon, Aurelia declared the group had to go in during the wee hours of the morning and that a side entrance on Washington Street offered the best chance at entry with minimal risk of discovery. However, because the location was so open, and the main floor had so many large windows blocked (if at all) only by a few handbills, they’d need a distraction, and quickly knocked a plan together.
Beatrice also said she’d purchase an RV camper and park it on the street at the door, to provide additional cover and to give them a means to haul the books away, should they find any. She then proceeded to find a decent bargain on a used vehicle, and stocked it up with supplies as a precaution.
At 2:30 a.m., Doc Bascher drove another rental car (she’d flown back from Moab) up Welton Street, two blocks to the north, and Sunmi tossed handfuls of tens and twenties out of the back-seat windows. Once the hullabaloo commenced, Aurelia and Randy emerged from the camper, crossed the sidewalk to the door, and Aurelia promptly found the lock more difficult than she expected. Frustrated, she took a breath and tried again, more carefully, and got it on the second try.
Aurelia, Randy and Beatrice entered the building and realized the large windows meant they had to use their flashlights sparingly, although the light from the Welton Street side helped a lot. After stumbling around, a bit, and the careful use of Beatrice’s red-filtered flashlight, they found the interior hallway with door to the basement.
The lock on this door also proved of much greater quality than expected, but Aurelia picked it reasonably quickly, and the trio (with Grunt) went down the dark stairs to the deep basement (the building had no power, so the light switches did nothing). Once down there, the group realized that their lights weren’t enough for the large, pitch-black basement, and they called for help.
Frank arrived with his first-responder floodlight, and Doc Bascher with her emergency lanterns (on their character sheets, even…) and they made their way down to the basement. That did the trick, and at about 3:30 a.m., Sunmi noticed that the south wall of the basement was inset at least five feet too far. Beatrice pulled out a pry-bar and peeled off the paneling in a spot Frank identified as having potential, and found a metal door partially welded shut, but with the hinges on the outside.
Beatrice popped the hinges loose, and then she and the rest of the group put pry-bars in that edge and slowly wedged the door partially open. Sunmi wriggled inside, and reported a five-foot wide passageway that seemed to run from one side of the building to the other. The ends of the passage looked to be made of the foundation walls, but the south side was built of old cinder blocks, the entire length.
The group broke a couple of the welds and got the door open enough to get everybody else through. Frank put the end of his screwdriver against one of the blocks and smacked it with the end of his flashlight, and broke a hole. A few more hits later, he’d chipped through to the other side.
He switched the flashlight around and beamed the light in, and saw the spines of old leather books. The party cheered just as two humanoid leopard spirits appeared in green flashes, at either end of the passageway.
The spectral figures roared in challenge and charged the party. Beatrice and Doc Bascher hauled out shotguns and jammed in a couple of shells of rock-salt, while Frank and Aurelia readied their iron breaker bars, and Sunmi and Randy hammered hastily at the block wall.
Bascher dissipated the attacker on her side with a rock-salt blast, while Beatrice hit hers with the edge of a shot and dissipated it, as well. However, in a few seconds, the one on Beatrice’s side materialized right in front of her, and swiped an ectoplasm claw through her. The mechanic suddenly felt cold and weak, missed her return blow, Randy moved to help and got tagged by the spirit, Frank missed as well, and Doc Bascher shouted at everybody to duck. Her rock-salt blast took that one high in the chest, and it dissipated with shriek.
About 30 seconds later, with the hole rapidly growing larger, the spirit on the west side materialized, again, and its claws sliced into Bascher before she could react. She managed to blast it away, again, but now she felt sick and weak, as well.
Realizing the salt blasts wouldn’t dissipate the spirits for good, Sunmi slid out the door and dashed up to the RV to grab the canister of Morton’s salt (“When it rains, it pours!”) that Beatrice had purchased, earlier. The spirits attacked once more, while she was en route, and hit Beatrice, Doc Bascher and Frank so hard that the veterinarian hauled out the epinephrine shots.
Sunmi made it back down to the passageway and, with shaking hands, poured thin lines of salt across the passageways to either side of the group. Just as she finished the second line, a leopard spirit manifested and took a swipe at her, only to roar in frustration as the salt-line blocked the strike. The second appeared shortly thereafter and found itself blocked, as well. The two spirits then disappeared through the wall, out into the basement.
Aurelia filled her pack with a load of books, and decided to make a run for the RV. Beatrice ordered Grunt to “Guard!” and the two struggled up the stairs. About halfway up, the spirits sprung their ambush, hit Aurelia with a glancing blow and hammered Grunt hard.
In return, the foo dog sank its teeth into the leg of one shocked spirit, causing ectoplasm to spray out, as Aurelia defended herself from the other with her iron pry bar. Grunt wheeled and took a chunk out of the second spirit, and both glowing green figures vanished.
Meanwhile, Frank, Aurelia and Randy had started to stack the books outside the door, and Sunmi used the last of the salt to make a thin ring around it large enough for the stack and one person. Frank carefully crossed into the circle, filled his backpack with books, and handed it out. After a few minutes, all of the books were in packs and bags, and the group made their way out of the basement.
The spirits hit the group again on the sidewalk outside, in the predawn light. Beatrice, Bascher and Grunt held them off, while Sunmi, Frank and Randy loaded books into the RV in a haste that bordered on panic. Aurelia shoved her pack in, dashed up to the driver’s seat, started up the RV and yelled at them to hurry.
Finally, the last of the books got tossed on the RV’s table, and the defenders piled aboard as Aurelia screeched tires pulling away. A block later, they slowed down enough for Grunt to jump inside, slammed the door shut, and peeled out as the humanoid leopard spirits faded away in the morning light.
Inside, sick and weak and shivering with cold, Beatrice, Doc Bascher and Frank huddled in blankets and stared out the windows as the camper headed for the Motel 6, and then out to I-70 on the way west to Grand Junction. A few minutes after they made it to the highway, the three passed out from epinephrine crashes.
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Funny Quotes
Frank (realizing that The Roxy might be magically-enhanced to reduce anger and violence): "We need to put this on a conveyor-belt! You just solved 90 percent of cops' problems! We need a Wal-Mart dedicated to selling peaceful clubs!"
Sunmi (upon learning that people might sometimes have
sex in the bathrooms at The Roxy): "Ooh! Eww! Have some pride, people!"
G&AInc (OOC): "McCoy's Diner, at 50th and Federal, just down the block from the Motel 6. Open 24-7, and they serve baked potatoes the size of golf balls. It's the best tiny baked potato you've ever been ripped off by."
Frank: "Maybe this is his beachhead? Maybe he's planning to take over the world?"
Aurelia: "Taking over the world by opening cool, mellow bars? I'm good, I'm there."
Frank: "But what does he do
after he takes over the world? Open up an assembly-line that turns out robotic top-hats?"
DM: "Maybe
you should start a campaign."
Aurelia: "So, do I go straight in and ask about the spirit possession thing?"
Randy: "I wouldn't lead with that."
Beatrice: "You need to go in and man up and say, 'I have it on good authority that you're possessed.' <pauses for a moment to visualize that> I'll do it. I'll go!"
Sunmi (when told she had to help search the abandoned Rossonian Hotel, in the middle of the night): "Hey! I did my part! Y'all do it! I'm not about this life!"