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Check out our last adventure, on The Meeting page.

Thursday, February 14th, 1935

Blood everywhere, and my self control is slipping...

I barely made the woods before the hunger takes over. Friends are safe, and I can see furry delicious treats everywhere. I am stalking the night.

My first kill is a fat deer, it's not human but the blood is hot, and the fear has an exquisite aroma. Next, a vole, a fox, a coyote. The hunger is sated for now.

It's the quiet I notice at first. No insect noise, no bird song. I see the large predators moving around me. I feel the first arrow hit the back of my thigh. And, the hunger comes roaring back to life. My will is weak, I cannot hold back my demons. The hunters become the hunted, as I snap the arrow off. The jackyl screams in surprise when my teeth sink into it's flesh. As I drink the hot blood, the beast turns to a man. I pull myself off, realizing that this is a were beast, and one of those tribesmen. I move through the woods like a wraith, and still they pursue.

More arrow wounds, I feel sluggish, almost poisoned. Which cannot be...

My vision fades, as more arrows hit me, and I fail to avoid a tripwire...

Friday, February 15th, 1935

Shit

I wake up in a cage made of natural materials, hanging from a large tree. Four tribesmen are facing me, watching.

The bars of the cage are laced with small totem bags, bones and feathers. Touching them doesn't burn but makes my hands ache. I am nude.

Time passes.

Many of the tribesmen appear from makeshift huts, from the grass, behind trees, as silent as death.

A monkey swings down from the tree above me. It becomes a lion, roaring, and the tribals give it room. It changes to a masked man.

He hits my hanging cage, spinning me, I snarl. He speaks orders at his people in an unknown tongue. They start to gather wood. Piles of it underneath me.

The old man watches.

In broken English, he speaks, "You are not dead. No power over you. Hmm. You eat blood. Hmm. You not a man. You stand in sun and shade. You make my dead speak. Hmm."

As the old man contemplates what I am, I notice that not all of the people are alive. Maybe a third of the tribe are some sort of animated corpse, and they seem to follow the old one's commands. The old man stops his rambling, and proclaims,

"You are child of blood drinker and man. Hmm. Binding we need must be none and both. Need spirits to make this."

He motions for a boy to follow, and heads off to a spot out of my vision.

That damn wood pile grows higher, and I begin to think I could almost reach it, but the guards are always watching...

Saturday, February 16th, 1935

There is gunfire, and the guards are distracted. I grab a branch through the cage, wait for more gunfire, and snap it in two. The pieces are perfect. Some of the weaved grass and vines of the cage are loose. It feels like a million volts of electricity to pry them loose, but I manage to get enough. I weave the pieces together, always looking at where the guards attention is, stopping when I must. Finally done.

A Cross

Simple, but a powerful weapon against the Darkness. Holding it in my lap, I begin to pray. And calm flows through me.

Howls, screeching, shouts, gunfire, bowstring snapping, smelling blood, sweat, fear. I am the calm center of a violent storm. People are coming. So, I let them know im here, and my wooden cross bursts to life with white light. It burns the guards, They flee to the shadows. Shouts in English can be heard close by. A man , a woman. My light. Are holding back this savage tide. I start to say the Lord's Prayer out loud. With each Word, the cage's trinkets and totems glow red hot. The woman swings a machete into the frame, and I tumble free.

An Infinite number of howling creatures in the dark protest my freedom. They fall silent as a creature emerges. It has bat wings, 2 heads, one a lion and the other a goat. It's body, feline, but with scales. its front legs hooves, it's back lions paws. it's tail is a serpent, with the head at the tip of the tail.

"Well Father," whispers the woman. "I hope you have a trick or two up your sleeve..."

"Or, we could just go with what we do best B," speaks the man.

He holds up a bundle of dynamite.

The crowd steps back.

"As the duly appointed Texas Rangers for this here territory, it is my duty to inform you that this gathering is an unlawful act, and that this crowd must disperse immeadiatly, or I will be forced to use this ghost rock-laced bundle of dynamite to end ya'lls little party."

"Subtle, C. You are always so subtle."

"Thanks B."

The man pulls out a lighter.

The crowd backs further into shadow, leaving the beast alone in the middle of the makeshift village

I whisper to my liberators, "That thing is following your hands, one with each head. It's intelligent."

Both Ranger's nod, their eyes never leaving their target.

"Last chance biggon"

The beast snarls, turns as if to leave, and inhales. As it turns, It's tail with that damned serpent head rears and strikes. The woman is prepared, and fires her shotgun into it. The beast quickly turns around,

And breathes fire!

We madly dodge out of the way, barely escaping the flames. Unfortunately, our bundle of dynamite is not so lucky. The fuse catches, and the man quickly tosses the bundle away, screaming, "Run!"

A perfectly lucky toss puts the bundle directly under the beast, and the explosion eiher sends it flying, or vaporizes the thing.

I lose my hearing, and slowly regain it over time. B. and C. are injured protecdting me, but my quick healing sees them through. We find an abandoned car up the road, and borrow it, heading back to New Orleans.

The Howls follow us to the police checkpoint, and stop. The ranger badges get us through the police, and to the edge of town. As we pull up to the Midnight house, a large figure emerges from the shadows, his hands up. I stop B. and C. from shooting and the giant speaks, "The House has been breached by powerful magics, they went looking for the machine here and at the still south of here. They found things inside. The dogs and the girl were tranked, the wards were temporarily disabled. Whoever broke in has been studying this place...

Our next adventure can be seen on The Meeting, Pt. 2 page.