Post by Adminenkainen on Oct 24, 2017 4:31:01 GMT
January 26, 1942. Monday.
Joe Dreschler was dead. A mobster had shot him and Dark Lash had captured the killer. The killer claimed to work for The Spook and she could get nothing else from him. She wanted more answers, so she brought him back to the Fischer Farm that served as their base of operations and sought input from Batman. They agreed to take the prisoner to the police together.
But Chief Wittenberg heard a different story from the prisoner -- that Dark Lash was the murderer and had tried to force a confession from him. He wanted to hold both vigilantes until he could figure this out. Dark Lash complied, but Batman said nothing doing. He escaped, fleeing back to the farm.
The other heroes wanted to lie low, but Batman remained behind at the farm out of costume. Wittenburg was not fooled and tried to forcibly arrest Batman, but a well-timed sleep spell knocked out the police chief and his two deputies.
Meanwhile, Gracie Heart had come to the police station and broke Dark Lash out of her cell. They all returned to the farmhouse, only to find what Batman had done. Horrified, they came up with a plan that required some sacrifice. Blaze thought they could clear Dark Lash and Batman’s names if they captured The Spook, but someone would have to agree to be the police’s prisoners. White Knight and Gracie Heart volunteered, driving the police back to the station, untying them, and surrendering to them.
That left Batman, Dark Lash, and Blaze responsible for finding The Spook. It was Dark Lash’s thought to check the west side of the Southlands for more hideouts. They didn’t find one, but they did find several curious things…
They found a clearing inside a copse of tress that held an Easter Island-like giant stone head. It was curiously free of snow and did not seem to be ancient, weathered stone, but other than that, they could discern no explanation for it.
They found an old tugboat, half-buried in the ground. They found a hatch that allowed them to enter the hold of the boat, below ground. There, frozen in some ice, was a large toolbox. They chipped the box free -- though Dark Lash’s rifle went off accidentally while they she was using it as a hammer -- and Blaze melted the lock off. Inside, they found only a broken compass.
They also were met by three men with hunting rifles, coming from the direction of the House, no doubt attracted by the sound from Dark Lash’s accidental shot. Batman winged one with a gunshot, but then was shot himself and went down. Dark Lash could not bring herself to shoot them in cold blood. So Blaze sacrificed himself to hold off the three men so Dark Lash could drag Batman to safety.
Safety came back at the ruins where the gnomes dwelt. Dark Lash applied first aid to Batman, and the gnomes kept Batman warm through the cold night. By Tuesday morning, Batman was all better.
They backtracked to where the fight had happened and saw the three men had returned to the House after a fight, but there was no sign of where Blaze had gone. They had no choice but to continue their search, but at the House. And to do that, they needed some help. Two gnomes, Bolto and one of his cousins, volunteered to go with them.
First, they spent some time examining the House itself. They found the colors garish and the decor unusual, but more telling were the appliances they did not recognize and the dates on some items they found that suggested they were in …1954! But how? And why was the house devoid of anything of value, and showed no signs of being lived in?
Perhaps answers waited down below. They braved the hideout, tested the long passage to the north and found it was a sloping passage that led to a hidden door surrounded by tree roots in a copse of trees north of the House.
Then they went back in and found a new section that was an Egyptian-themed set of rooms. They avoided touching anything in them except for a sarcophagus, which they found ominously empty.
They also avoided the maze as best they could. They found their way south past the maze blocked by chains stretched across the hallway, but bolt cutters from the upstairs garage solved that problem. So they next reached a door that led into a room that was as cold a a freezer. Dark Lash opened an old sea chest in the room and jumped back in time to avoid damage from a magical blast of cold. Inside the chest was money, jewelry, and three metal flasks.
Suddenly feeling flush with wealth, they headed out of the hideout, intent on hiding their newfound wealth. The idea was to bury the loot in the graveyard, where they had been digging just recently. But when they arrived, they found someone had disturbed all the graves, as if someone had tilled the earth here. But they dared to bury the loot there anyway, and it turned out just fine.
On their way back to the hideout, Blaze leaped down out of the sky and joined them -- revealing that he too, like White Knight, was capable of super-leaping. He had looked for them at the ruins, but missed them, and returned to town to find the police on the lookout for them. Now reunited with Blaze, they descended back into the hideout.
They avoided a room with seven cowboys in it, and another room with five hoodlums in it (the couch lounge, getting busier), not wanting to face any encounters where they were outnumbered. Then they found a room with a narrow corridor hidden behind black curtains in a room. While exploring the narrow corridor, they found themselves cut off by gunmen on both sides of the tunnel -- but the gunman behind them was the man who had spoken to Dark Lash at the border before. When they led the heroes back into their room, The Spook was now there.
The Spook was dressed like The Shadow, but dressed all in black, while his two apprentices were dressed like The Spirit, but all in black. The Spook heard Dark Lash’s story, but said he never sent anyone to kill Joe Dreschler -- they were all being framed by the Big Boss.
The Spook explained a lot of what he knew -- that he had been establishing himself in Chicago for seven months before the evening of December 31st, when he suddenly grew tired and passed out, and woke up in the hideout. Many of the hoodlums there had woke up in the hideout the same way. The Southlands, the Fog Wall, and everyone’s captivity here seemed to be the result of powerful magic -- more powerful than anything even a foe of The Shadow could do.
The House was not just in 1954; The Spook had gone up there and seen the rooms looking different, as if belonging to other times, on other occasions. Was the House somehow adrift in time, or was this all some powerful illusion fooling them?
The Big Boss was the main boss in the hideout, but there were other smaller bosses with their own gangs who cooperated in a loose affiliation. The hideout was at least 50 rooms in size, with another level below this one. And had more strange things in it, like a nearby lever that no one could budge.
The Spook had some ideas for how to get White Knight and Gracie Heart out of jail. They could hypnotize the police; the Spook here revealed that he knew Jack Gunnel in the past and knew Jack was a hypnotist. Or, the Spook could scare the murderer into confessing the truth, but The Spook needed the heroes to distract the police long enough for him to get into the jail. Dark Lash taunted the police at the window hard enough to get them to all chase her outside, then surrendered to them, and stalled them with talking. It was long enough for The Spook to get the results they wanted -- the murderer confessed he did it, and not for The Spook. The Spook even had time to escape.
The Chief let WK and Gracie out and gave the heroes one last chance to earn his trust. They returned to the Fischer Farm, where Dark Lash appraised the jewelry they had retrieved on the way back to the police station. It was $3,000 worth, plus the $1,000 they had found in bills. The contents of the three flasks they had yet to figure out how to analyze.
Joe Dreschler was dead. A mobster had shot him and Dark Lash had captured the killer. The killer claimed to work for The Spook and she could get nothing else from him. She wanted more answers, so she brought him back to the Fischer Farm that served as their base of operations and sought input from Batman. They agreed to take the prisoner to the police together.
But Chief Wittenberg heard a different story from the prisoner -- that Dark Lash was the murderer and had tried to force a confession from him. He wanted to hold both vigilantes until he could figure this out. Dark Lash complied, but Batman said nothing doing. He escaped, fleeing back to the farm.
The other heroes wanted to lie low, but Batman remained behind at the farm out of costume. Wittenburg was not fooled and tried to forcibly arrest Batman, but a well-timed sleep spell knocked out the police chief and his two deputies.
Meanwhile, Gracie Heart had come to the police station and broke Dark Lash out of her cell. They all returned to the farmhouse, only to find what Batman had done. Horrified, they came up with a plan that required some sacrifice. Blaze thought they could clear Dark Lash and Batman’s names if they captured The Spook, but someone would have to agree to be the police’s prisoners. White Knight and Gracie Heart volunteered, driving the police back to the station, untying them, and surrendering to them.
That left Batman, Dark Lash, and Blaze responsible for finding The Spook. It was Dark Lash’s thought to check the west side of the Southlands for more hideouts. They didn’t find one, but they did find several curious things…
They found a clearing inside a copse of tress that held an Easter Island-like giant stone head. It was curiously free of snow and did not seem to be ancient, weathered stone, but other than that, they could discern no explanation for it.
They found an old tugboat, half-buried in the ground. They found a hatch that allowed them to enter the hold of the boat, below ground. There, frozen in some ice, was a large toolbox. They chipped the box free -- though Dark Lash’s rifle went off accidentally while they she was using it as a hammer -- and Blaze melted the lock off. Inside, they found only a broken compass.
They also were met by three men with hunting rifles, coming from the direction of the House, no doubt attracted by the sound from Dark Lash’s accidental shot. Batman winged one with a gunshot, but then was shot himself and went down. Dark Lash could not bring herself to shoot them in cold blood. So Blaze sacrificed himself to hold off the three men so Dark Lash could drag Batman to safety.
Safety came back at the ruins where the gnomes dwelt. Dark Lash applied first aid to Batman, and the gnomes kept Batman warm through the cold night. By Tuesday morning, Batman was all better.
They backtracked to where the fight had happened and saw the three men had returned to the House after a fight, but there was no sign of where Blaze had gone. They had no choice but to continue their search, but at the House. And to do that, they needed some help. Two gnomes, Bolto and one of his cousins, volunteered to go with them.
First, they spent some time examining the House itself. They found the colors garish and the decor unusual, but more telling were the appliances they did not recognize and the dates on some items they found that suggested they were in …1954! But how? And why was the house devoid of anything of value, and showed no signs of being lived in?
Perhaps answers waited down below. They braved the hideout, tested the long passage to the north and found it was a sloping passage that led to a hidden door surrounded by tree roots in a copse of trees north of the House.
Then they went back in and found a new section that was an Egyptian-themed set of rooms. They avoided touching anything in them except for a sarcophagus, which they found ominously empty.
They also avoided the maze as best they could. They found their way south past the maze blocked by chains stretched across the hallway, but bolt cutters from the upstairs garage solved that problem. So they next reached a door that led into a room that was as cold a a freezer. Dark Lash opened an old sea chest in the room and jumped back in time to avoid damage from a magical blast of cold. Inside the chest was money, jewelry, and three metal flasks.
Suddenly feeling flush with wealth, they headed out of the hideout, intent on hiding their newfound wealth. The idea was to bury the loot in the graveyard, where they had been digging just recently. But when they arrived, they found someone had disturbed all the graves, as if someone had tilled the earth here. But they dared to bury the loot there anyway, and it turned out just fine.
On their way back to the hideout, Blaze leaped down out of the sky and joined them -- revealing that he too, like White Knight, was capable of super-leaping. He had looked for them at the ruins, but missed them, and returned to town to find the police on the lookout for them. Now reunited with Blaze, they descended back into the hideout.
They avoided a room with seven cowboys in it, and another room with five hoodlums in it (the couch lounge, getting busier), not wanting to face any encounters where they were outnumbered. Then they found a room with a narrow corridor hidden behind black curtains in a room. While exploring the narrow corridor, they found themselves cut off by gunmen on both sides of the tunnel -- but the gunman behind them was the man who had spoken to Dark Lash at the border before. When they led the heroes back into their room, The Spook was now there.
The Spook was dressed like The Shadow, but dressed all in black, while his two apprentices were dressed like The Spirit, but all in black. The Spook heard Dark Lash’s story, but said he never sent anyone to kill Joe Dreschler -- they were all being framed by the Big Boss.
The Spook explained a lot of what he knew -- that he had been establishing himself in Chicago for seven months before the evening of December 31st, when he suddenly grew tired and passed out, and woke up in the hideout. Many of the hoodlums there had woke up in the hideout the same way. The Southlands, the Fog Wall, and everyone’s captivity here seemed to be the result of powerful magic -- more powerful than anything even a foe of The Shadow could do.
The House was not just in 1954; The Spook had gone up there and seen the rooms looking different, as if belonging to other times, on other occasions. Was the House somehow adrift in time, or was this all some powerful illusion fooling them?
The Big Boss was the main boss in the hideout, but there were other smaller bosses with their own gangs who cooperated in a loose affiliation. The hideout was at least 50 rooms in size, with another level below this one. And had more strange things in it, like a nearby lever that no one could budge.
The Spook had some ideas for how to get White Knight and Gracie Heart out of jail. They could hypnotize the police; the Spook here revealed that he knew Jack Gunnel in the past and knew Jack was a hypnotist. Or, the Spook could scare the murderer into confessing the truth, but The Spook needed the heroes to distract the police long enough for him to get into the jail. Dark Lash taunted the police at the window hard enough to get them to all chase her outside, then surrendered to them, and stalled them with talking. It was long enough for The Spook to get the results they wanted -- the murderer confessed he did it, and not for The Spook. The Spook even had time to escape.
The Chief let WK and Gracie out and gave the heroes one last chance to earn his trust. They returned to the Fischer Farm, where Dark Lash appraised the jewelry they had retrieved on the way back to the police station. It was $3,000 worth, plus the $1,000 they had found in bills. The contents of the three flasks they had yet to figure out how to analyze.