Nocturnum
Episode 5: Neck Deep in It
Original Air Date: 9/10/2006Original Episode notes can be found Here. This episode was greatly expanded (and mostly improvised) as all the Cast really had to do at the end of Episode 4 was wait for news of where the orb was and go fight their way to it, which would've made for one big combat that would've lasted maybe an hour and the session would've ended. So I improvised an extra episode.
Special Guest Stars:
Kari Wuhrer as Katherine Forsythe
Zack Ward as William/Nectanebus
Marisa Tomei as Amara
Hayden Christensen as Matthew
Heath Ledger as Daniel
Lea Salonga as Kay Hito
Synopsis
The Cast sets Cyan's body up in Katherine's room, and has Daniel use his Elemental Air Invocation to reduce the temperature to freezing, just to ensure her body stays preserved. They then await news from Amara about the location of the orb, but Drake gets concerned when she hasn't returned or contacted them in any way. A vision while he sleeps confirms that Amara has been captured and is being beaten severely and somehow prevented from using her vampiric powers to recover and escape. In his vision, her neck has been snapped (a condition that for a vampyre will heal, but is far from pleasant). All he can see in his vision, however, is a dank basement. Daniel attempts a locator spell, which backfires; the group theorizes that William has wards in place against that contingency.
Anita thinks that Kay might be able to help tap into the vision more clearly and that William's magical defenses might be vulnerable to psychic powers slipping through. Kay uses Drake as a focus and uses her own powers to tap in. She is able to divine more details of the room in which Amara is being held; multi-denominational religious artifacts, paperwork, general storage. But then, William seems to make eye contact with her, and she is certain that he knows where they are.
The Cast race to evacuate their headquarters in the South Side, but as they do so, a small army of Deadites surrounds the place. Matthew briefly considers killing all of them...or at least trying to. But the deadites don't attack. Rather, they part like the Red Sea and a woman John recognizes as one of William's lieutenants steps forward. She offers a trade: Amara for John. Then she fades into the crowd, which disperses. John attempts to follow her, but finds her clothes discarded on the street and realizes that she, too, is a deadite, albeit one who sometimes enjoys wearing human form. He goes back inside and helps everyone prepare to evacuate the premesis and make for a temporary safe house until the morning, when Drake knows of another safe place they can use as a headquarters. As they talk, they come to the conclusion that Heinz Chapel is a likely place for Amara to be held, but everyone wants to wait until daybreak when the deadites are fewer in number to travel there. Having none of it, Drake attempts to go by himself. The Cast convince him to wait with them and go after relocation tomorrow.
The next morning, the Cast reconvene at St. Vladimir's Church, their temporary haven, and make plans to head for the old Sanctuary/Altar Nightclub in the Strip District, which Drake says he knows is safe. Upon their arrival, Drake demonstrates that he's got a stockpile of weapons and supplies here but is cryptic about how and when he did all this. Anita informs Drake that she (mysteriously) knows Amara is being held in the basement of Heinz Chapel.
The Cast saddle up and head to Heinz Chapel. When they arrive, they all sense an odd feeling of safety surrounding the place; while the Essence of the rest of the city is tainted with Sadicas, the Essence surrouding the chapel is not. They also note that there are no deadites at all in the vicinity of the chapel. Matthew sneaks up to get a closer look, and discovers a large Elder Sign carved into the door. The cast wonder if this is to keep something out, or to keep something in, and realize that dragging a vampyre across a threshold protected by an Elder Sign would seriously damage the creature, metaphysically speaking. Matthew comes up with the idea of removing the door and carrying it with them when they leave, to ward off the forces of evil as they head home.
The heroes enter, with John standing sentry outside. As they descend into the basement, they see Amara, beaten and unconscious on the foor at the far end of the room. Drake recklessly runs to her, only to be blasted by a spell from William, who emerges from a shadow, points, and whispers, "Yog." Drake is blown backwards into a wall, where he is then set upon by one of William's lieutenants, who is seemingly unkillable.
Anita moves into the room and finds herself the victim of her own trick; she sees her soul from above, and gets sucked back in just as the deadite woman who'd made the offer of trade, and is apparently also a necromancer, steps from behind a pile of boxes and shoots her twice.
William directs a spell towards Katherine. Matthew rushes to help, leaping in the path of the spell, which backfires anyway. Klaus goes to help Drake in taking down the tank-like lieutenant. Matthew pins the villain to the floor with his (Matthew's) sword so he can't rise.
William's next spell summons a massive creature that looks like a tree but is made of stone and concrete, and William hides behind it. Klaus moves to do battle with the thing, which beats him to a pulp, rendering him unconscious.
Drake activates his powers to move about with incredible speed, and rushes to retrieve Amara. He grabs her and runs. As he reaches the stairs, another of William's lieutenants, a half-demon woman, leaps out and spits acid into Drake's face, blinding him. Drake manages to activate a power that enables him to fight and move while blinded, and escapes with Amara up the stairs, the demon woman in hot pursuit.
Katherine is quickly taken out of the fight when a geyser of blood erupts from the opposite wall and strikes her, pinning her to the wall. Anita finishes off the deadite woman, but is shocked when the woman sits up suddenly, fully healed, and shoots Anita several times at point-blank range. Anita falls to the ground, unconscious and near death.
John hears the ruckus and races inside. Drake rushes past him, Amara in hand, and John hits the stairs, coming face-to-face with the acid spitter. She sprays at him, but John dodges out of the way and empties his AR-15 into her, killing her outright. He then draws his sword and rushes to the basement.
Meanwhile, downstairs, Matthew has managed to tumble between the root-like legs of the stone monster and stab William, who steps into a shadow and escapes. William does battle with the stone creature, who takes him, too, down. As the geyser of blood wears out, Katherine finds herself alone in the room with the monster, Drake having run and Klaus, Anita, and Matthew all unconscious.
Enter Dad. John activates a power that makes him partially invulnerable to creatures comprised of Earth, and he and Katherine battle the stone monstrosity. Slowly, Matthew regenerates, and Klaus manages to regain consciousness, enough to heal himself and Anita.
Upstairs, Drake lays Amara down in the vestibule. His regeneration has kicked in and his eyesight is returning. She partially comes to and mutters, "Bruce Hall...it's in Bruce Hall," then apparently dies. Drake is terrified for a moment, until he realizes she's slipped into the death sleep that all of her kind endure during the daytime. He leaves her in the vestibule, unable to take her across the threshold while it's protected by the Elder Sign, activates his power of blinding speed, and races the four blocks to Bruce Hall.
Downstairs, John and Katherine manage to kill the monster, which shows signs of being about to explode. Everyone runs up the stairs just as the thing erupts into a shower of stone shards and debris. When they get upstairs, they find Amara where Drake left her. They remove the door and begin to transport Amara back to their safe house.
Drake, meanwhile, senses his way to the Orb of Thessulah, which is on the top floor of the Bruce Hall dorms, an open banquet hall. His phone rings, and it's John, demanding to know where he is.
He emerges into the large room at the same time as William steps out of a shadow and heads for a small iron box that is radiating power. Still talking to John on the phone, Drake uses his increased speed to get to the box first, then shoots out the window with his 9mm, leaps from Bruce Hall into the open air, shoots out the window on an adjacent building, and tumbles into a roll in the hallway, all without breaking his conversation. When William steps out of a shadow in the new building and drains life energy directly from Drake, however, Drake hangs up on John and runs for the stairs, opening the box as he does so. Inside, he sees the Orb and quickly smashes it against the wall. The Orb explodes in a sheet of white light, and William falls back, weakened and scared. Drake then reveals a new surprise: he's wired his coat with explosives and a dead man's cord. He whips off the coat and throws it at William, then runs for his life.
Just as the Cast pass the dorms on Fifth Avenue, they are greeted by a massive explosion emanating from what was once the Pitt Student Union. Anita, overcome by the sudden release of thousands of spirits, screams and falls unconscious again, blood running from her nose. Katherine picks up her body and they continue their run. John tries to call Drake, but Drake catches up with the group. Anita's cell phone rings. Katherine answers. It's Daniel, calling to report that Cyan's body has just suddenly crumbled to dust. Katherine falls into near-hysterics at the final loss of her mother.
The Cast makes it home. Matthew decides to pull the old front door off the place and "hang our new door in its place." Their H.Q. is now protected by an Elder Sign. Meanwhile, John and Katherine head down to Cyan's room, where they are greeted by none other than the ghost of Cyan herself, who only John, Katherine, and Anita can see. Cyan playfully berates John for taking so long, then congratulates him on a job well done. She informs him that his job isn't done, yet, however; he must now repair the breach in time to stop William once and for all. She tells Katherine not to worry; if they do their job right, then Cyan and Katherine will have a lifetime to get to know one another. She also says that though the pull of the other side is very strong, she's going to try and stick around as often as possible to help the group out if she can. She advises them, based on information she's exchanged with other trapped spirits, to look up breaches in time in the ruins of the old Rare Books collection at Carnegie Mellon University, and to specifically look for mentions of some kind of keys. Then she kisses John (he feels only a slight warmth at her etherial touch) and fades away.
Great Quotes:
Anita: You've never had coffee before? Oh, this'll be fun...you'll love it! (hands Matthew a cup)Matthew (tastes coffee): Not bad...not as good as tequila.
Anita (to Daniel, who wears an eyepatch): Hey, we can be, like, the one-eyed club! Daniel: ...
Drake: We need to do a locator spell on Amara.
Daniel: She's only been gone for a day, Drake.
Drake: She's in a basement, and her neck is broken.
Daniel: Okay, right, locator spell...
Anita (to Kay): So, I'm thinking if we can't find Amara with magic, maybe we can find her with your head.
(Re: Drake trying to go off to save Amara on his own)
John: If he doesn't come back, I'll shoot him in the leg.
Anita: Yeah, 'cuz THAT will help.
Anita (to Drake, re: his going off alone): You know, if you REALLY want to be a zombie, I can arrange that for you.
(Re: a small army of deadites)
John: So, Matthew...you get the 35 on the left. I'll take the 35 on the right.
Matthew: Sure.
Ebonor (to Anita): There are no words to describe how much I love it when you do that.
Anita: Screw you.
(Re: A bit of information Matthew forgot to share)
Anita: So, what was it you were saying about me never telling you anything?
Klaus: He has one strike. You have, like, five hundred.
Klaus: Can we disable the Elder Sign?
Anita: NOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Matthew: BAAAAAAAD!!!
(Metagame Exchange)
Jason (Director): You can engage her next round.
Eric (John): Okay, well, I'd hate to be her, then.
(Phone conversation)
John: Drake, what the hell are you doing?
(From Drake's Phone): BANG! CRASH! BANG! CRASH! THUD! WHUMP!
Drake: I'm sorry, John, I'm going to have to call you back.
Cyan's Ghost: Took you long enough!