We continue from last time, where the group had plunged Look to the Future into confusion and accessed the mysterious door in the back of the hall.
Vivian
Continued down the street and into a side street, where she
took up a vantage point and watched the proceedings. She remained there until
Johnny came to fetch her later.
Johnny
Got in the car. Saw that the judge was interacting with a
policeman and an old lady and drove over there. He left the car on the sidewalk
near the judge (after determining that Judge Putnam was okay), and went back in
front of the LTF building. He joined Ron, who was being detained by police,
along with the conscious and unconscious Turks that he had been fighting.
Johnny corroborated Ron’s “story” that the Turks had made a pass at Vivian. He then runs to collect Vivian. Vivian further corroborates the story (after a quick summary from Johnny). They are inadvertently aided by the do-gooder banker that Ron knocked over, who provides further evidence that is sort of in Ron’s favor.
Ron and the conscious Turk are placed in the back of the paddy wagon. They trade insults. When the Turk tells Ron that he will, “fillet him like a fish,” Ron headbutts him into a mild concussion. The police, upon discovering that Ron has done this, throw him in the back of a police car to take him to headquarters for booking. Vivian, still playing the part of Ron’s “girlfriend,” goes along with them as a character witness.
Judge Putnam
Informs the police that a murder has been committed and
leads them to the body of the dead Turk in the vacant lot. Three police
officers join him to process the scene. He further explains that he believes
the perpetrator of the crime is in a nearby house (indicating Bryan Slim’s
residence). One cop remains at the scene while the other two go to interview
Slim. The judge follows after them.
Slim answers the door and listens politely to the charges against him. He initially agrees to going downtown with the police, and pauses just a moment to get his coat. Upon joining the police on the front steps, he uses magic to dominate their minds and sic them on Judge Putnam. Judge Putnam flees across the abandoned lot with the cops hot on his heels, while Bryan Slim waves goodbye and goes on his merry way.
Johnny, who has doubled back to look for the judge, sees him fleeing from the police. He and the judge both leap into the touring car and drive away, leaving the two dominated police officers at the scene. The police come around a moment later, and cannot recall why they were chasing the judge in the first place.
Downtown (Where All the Lights are Bright)
While Ron is being processed for his many crimes, Vivian
puts in a call to Vito. She tells him that Ron has been arrested. After Vito
stops laughing, he tells her that he will take care of everything, and to give
him 45 minutes to make arrangements.
45 minutes later, Mr. Vitali, who is the personal lawyer of one Mr. Cacciatore (the gentleman who manages the Bernouse Family affairs in the city), arrives on the scene. He plays the, “do you know who my client is?” card and manages to so badly terrorize the cops that all charges against Ron are dropped. Mr. Vitali wishes Vivian and Ron well before being driven away in his very nice limousine. Ron and Vivian return to the safe house, so that they can call Vince and let him know what’s going on.
On the way there, Vivian informs Ron that Vito really helped him out. Ron is…conflicted about this.
The Break-In
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| The Layout of Slim's House |
Johnny and the Judge do a quick circuit of the harbor area before deciding to return to Bryan Slim’s house. They park out of sight on a back street and approach the three storey house from the back. After some difficulty, Johnny manages to pick one of the doors leading out to the garden patio, and the two go inside.
Johnny and Judge Putnam make a thorough search of the house, making sure that they are alone before getting down to business. They find that the house has no personal touches of any kind, and that three of the four bedrooms are converted into barracks for, presumably, the Turks. Each one contains three bunks and three trunks. The fourth bedroom seems to be used by Bryan Slim.
Upon searching the rolltop desk in Slim’s room, they find: A picture of a glowing disc, a black scroll penned in white ink, an excerpt from a book about Syria, and a formidable book entitled, “The Catechism of the Knights of the Outer Void.” The last book bears a symbol that might be familiar to some of the group.
Realizing that they are pressing their luck, Johnny and the judge leave the house and drive to Kane’s apartment…but not before Judge Putnam opens up the gas valve on the kitchen stove.
What Lies Beneath
Kane, Dr. Black, and Mikhail begin to explore the basement
of Look to the Future, only to be immediately surprised by a pair of Turkish
guards wielding some very futuristic and deadly looking rifles. The group is
ready for trouble, however, and Kane guns down one and the good doctor wracks
the other with magical agony. One Turk does get off a few shots, spraying the
hallway and somehow missing everyone. Kane, cool as a cucumber, executes the
agonized guard.
 |
| The Deadly Future Guns |
Dr. Black and Kane take the guards’ futuristic weaponry and continue onward. They do not get far when a pair of additional guards, having been drawn by the sound of gunfire, attack them. Dr. Black reenacts the finale to Robocop on one of the guards. The other, however, hoses down the hallway and badly injures both Dr. Black and Mikhail before fleeing deeper into the complex.
Dr. Black manages to staunch both his and Mikhail’s bleeding and the group make the decision to get the hell out of the basement. Kane, however, decides to do a very quick bit of exploring around the immediate area first. He hears a strange mechanical noise from a nearby open doorway that he feels compelled to investigate. The rest of the group goes with him into an air-conditioned room where Look to the Future has set up a 1960s Honeywell computer mainframe.
 |
| Quote From the Group: "This Isn't From the 1920s!" |
Dr. Black finds a typed note on some kind of printing press that talks about both the Arc of Vlactos and the Disc, which he takes. Mikhail picks the lock on one of the computer cabinets and finds what he later discovers is LTF’s ledger and a leather pouch containing $15,000.
The group then falls to arguing about what to do with the room. Dr. Black believes it is too dangerous to leave such a powerful machine in the hands of LTF. Mikhail wants to find some way of taking it out of the basement. Dr. Black scoffs that this is impossible.
Kane Eastman, being a pragmatic man, unloads the rest of his futuristic rifle
rounds into the machinery, destroying it and thereby depriving LTF of its use.
The group heads back to the stairs to escape. As they get closer, they hear the door leading to the back of the LTF hall open and close. Realizing that someone is moving in on their position, they hunker down in the guardpost nearest the stairs. Mikhail draws his sword and steels his nerves as Bryan Slim and Lostalus Black step into view.
Mikhail plunges his blessed blade into Bryan Slim, badly wounding him and forcing Slim to retreat. He curses the group as he presses his hand to his wound and stumbles up the staircase. Dr. Black attempts to wrack Lostalus Black with his magic, only to have Lostalus laugh it off. Kane, realizing that his futuristic rifle is empty, draws his .45 automatic and fires point blank into Lostalus Black’s chest.
Lostalus seems more or less unphased by this, and makes sarcastic remarks for several seconds about how his is mortally wounded and obviously dying. He still slumps to the floor though, and appears to die. Kane is relieved, until he and the others notice that Lostalus Black’s body is beginning to swell.
Utterly horrified, the group flee, reaching the top of the stairs and the back hallway to the LTF hall before Black’s body explodes with a nightmarish howling, screaming sound. They fumble their way outside of the darkened hall and out into the light of a normal February day, relieved that they have escaped the basement.
Mikhail suggests that the trio continue to hunt down Bryan Slim, who likely cannot have gotten far. The others, however, feel that discretion is the better part of valor, and decide to retreat to Kane’s rented apartment. Mikhail goes with them.
The scenario ends with Ron and Vivian calling Vincenzio on the safe house phone and the rest of the group huddling in Kane’s apartment, where they share information and lick their wounds. This reunion is briefly interrupted by the sounds of sirens heading toward the harbor. Apparently, a gas explosion has leveled a building nearby…
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