Winner Takes All

Prolog

    Weeks after the incident at the Speakeasy, and shortly after Peter had fully recovered, the investigators all received notice of an assignment in Madison, Wisconsin. They were told that five disappearances had taken place over the last four months, and that the last one had been a Xenobiotics field agent.
    Soon after they had all checked into their pre-registered rooms, the party split up to check out the last-known locations for each disappearance. Only one site had any real clues, as the tracks had not yet been erased by time. The tracks of the missing girl had almost been obliterated by the tracks of a large man; both sets of tracks stopped in the middle of the road. About a mile away, the investigators found a run-down shack occupied by an old man. The man claimed to be a hermit, but admitted to having a weakness for McDonalds. In the meantime, Darren broke into the police files remotely, and found the local police to be largely incompetent.
    Soon after, six teenagers were killed in an abandoned house. The killings were ritualistic, and showed that at least one person, perhaps as many as three, were vampiristic. Troy managed to see one of the perpetrators just before the murders, but did not realise who or what he had seen. Several of the investigators stayed overnight in the abandoned house to see if anyone would come back, but it was a quiet night. In the meantime, Troy and Peter went to the old hermit's shack to talk with him again, but could not find him. They did, however, find a hidden trapdoor in the floor, which lead to a circular stone stairway. They left without exploring, so that they could get the rest of the group.
    The next day, everyone (except for Nathaniel, who had paperwork to do) went back to the old man's shack. Darren had managed to get a search warrant, so nothing stood in their way except for the mangy old dog on the doorstep. The dog was rather surprising in that is would not stop defending its home until it was killed. Troy and Peter led the others inside to show them the circular stairs, but found the trapdoor locked from below. While Troy began to pry the hinge-pins loose, Darren went to check behind the shack. On his way, he noticed that the dog's body was missing. Peter, wondering if he could get some good photographs of the government agent, turned around and saw the mangled dog standing in the doorway, growling, and staring back at him with glowing red eyes.
    The death dog proved easier to kill this time around (it was almost falling apart anyway), leaving the investigators free to explore the dark cellar under the shack. They found it to be fairly big, very dark, and rather ominous. The main feature of the room was a huge 100-gallon vat, which was about one-quarter full. Entering through a door on the far wall, the investigators found three upright coffins, one of which was emitting loud snoring.
    The ensuing battle severely wounded one man, outright vaporized another, and killed Ben, the old hermit. Before he died, Ben produced a large gem from his pocket, and the world became intently blue for the investigators. They found themselves in a strange place, with no apparent horizons, walls, or even floor. The "death dog", looking slightly younger, ran past them, toward the waiting (also younger) Ben. The dog was then hit by a passing semi, and killed. The investigators watched in confusion as Ben healed the dog--and gave it red, glowing eyes. Ben seemed to become aware of his audience, and died again in a similar fashion to his REAL death. The blueness faded away.
    After interrogating the first "vampire", Claire decided to experiment with Ben's sapphire. Pricking herself and applying the blood to the gem, the investigators in the room were transported to Claire's home. Returning, Troy was able to momentarily bring back a candlestick. Agent Carlyle submitted the gem for analysis, the "vampire" for suspected murder, and the facts as he saw them to his superiors.

Note: The "vampire" died after ten days of isolation in a federal prison.
Additional Note: The supposedly mystical sapphire was removed from the National Security Agency's Criminal Analysis Lab not long after initial studies.

    After a briefing in Nebraska, the crew is flown to San Francisco to find Mr. Arthur Williamson, an agent formerly associated with Xenobiotics. To assist them, they get to talk to the overly emotional Frederick, Arthur's ex-partner. They discover that Arthur had left the agency only a month before, and had stopped using his credit cards at about the same time. They found that he had bought a full set of fishing gear, and has been visiting low-class bars throughout the San Francisco area.

    After two nights' work, they find Mr. Williamson, and find that he is in an advanced state of shock. They eventually discover that he really wants to go home, and must take an envelope which contains three invitations back with him. They drive him to his house, and are almost immediately assaulted by [put name here later]. They shoot him enough times to liquify him, and then search the house. They find the remains of the elderly lady from whom Arthur and [name] stole the house, as well as a bed with handcuffs and whips. They turn Arthur over to Christopher for medical treatment, and then get ready for the party.

    Using the invitations they got from Arthur Williamson, the group goes to the costume party, located on a remote island in the Gulf of Mexico. Following is a list of their costumes:

• Troy Blake - Traditional "Bela Legosi" vampire
• Claire Braddock - Victorian lady
• Duncan Carlyle - Death in large, flowing robes.
• Peter Jamison - circa 1920's reporter

• Edward Wills, about 40, a heavyset white man. The host the party
• Jackson Green, about 30, a tall, thin black man with a gravelly voice. He appeared to be a security advisor to Mr. Wills. He seemed to recognize Claire.
• John (no last name yet), about 25, a medium-height, thin white man. He was very talkative, and seemed to recognize Claire.
• Catherine (no last name), about 25, a bordering on short thin white woman. She turned out to be a vampire Troy had seen before, and eventually tried to hunt him.

Note: For the next month, Claire tried to get a hold of Jackson Green. He had hinted privately that he knew somthing about Claire's mysterious mother. However, he remained completely unapproachable to her for the entire month.

    On April 1, 1997, Christopher asked the investigators to meet him at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chicago. In attendance were Claire, Duncan, Peter, and two newcomers. Christopher told them that Xenobiotics would like them to investigate a supposed haunted house. The strange (and possibly unhinged) owner, Maurice Van Laaden, refused to sell the house until it could be proven to him that the house was no longer haunted. The investigators drove to Grand Rapids to check out the house and meet Maurice.
    Agent Carlyle drove on ahead so he could check some of the city records on the Van Laaden family. He did not find much, but he did discover that they had owned the same property for over one hundred and fifty years. The rest of the investigators arrived later that morning, and they all went to meet Maurice. He proved to be a slightly slimey sort of man with very little useful information. Reluctantly agreeing to Michael's offer to hypnotize him, Maurice revealed that his grandmother had heard voices in the sitting room, and had sung Celtic lullabies to him. After some fierce legal negotiation (and some contract re-writing), the investigators agreed to help Maurice. Duncan, Peter, and Michael went to the house that evening to check out the grounds outside the property fence, while Samuel went to talk to the minister that oversaw Maurice's grandmother's funeral.
    Though Samuel's investigations proved useless, Duncan, Peter, and Michael found much to keep them busy. As they walked around the property, they discovered a family cemetary close to the border of the property. Michael scaled the eight foot wrought-iron fence, and used Peter's handcam to tape the faces of the headstones. Michael scraped his leg fairly badly on the return climb over the fence, but was able to stop the bleeding quickly. At the back of the property, the group found a winding path, which ended 1/4 of a mile away at a huge Ottawa burial mound. Finding no clues, they continued to circle the property. Aside from the constant background feeling of despondancy and jealosy that Michael felt from the plantlife in the area, they did not find much of anything.
    The next morning at dawn, the entire group went back to the house to try to see anything suspicious. They found nothing. They met Maurice, who introduced them to the housekeepers, Karl and Hildi. The couple seemed nervous for some reason, especially when Maurice mentioned that the couple cleaned the house once a week. Marice left a set of keys with them, and left.
    Working clockwise around the property, they checked the cemetary (nothing of note), the toolshed (found a shovel with some rust-brown stains on it), the carriage house (stuffed full of boxes, crates, etc.), then the house itself. Michael was actually the first to enter. He tried to talk to the spirit, asking it to go away, but it responded by making footsteps on the second floor. He called for the rest of the group, who arrived too late to hear the footsteps. Claire started to write in the dust on a mirror in the foyer--until the reflection changed to show her flesh melting. Suitably on guard now, the group began to explore the rest of the house.

***Chapter not complete***
***Volume not complete***

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