8

The first thing you and Nin do is scout the exterior of the building. It's a colossal Second Empire monstrosity, a brownstone with a green mansard roof. Recent renovations have turned the lower floor into a loggia—currently open on this warm summer day—and enlarged the windows on the second and third floors.

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No pushback all day, no more trucks full of goons, no police on slow drive bys. And you get tons of usable data on Everlite HQ: Nin stares up at the sky all day, using a Gift to perceive the spirit line. Entranced, the wolf-born is almost sub-verbal: you pull out a notebook and draw Everlite HQ from where you're standing, then follow Nin's drifting fingers with a red pen until you've drawn a kind of jagged arterial network of invisible wires that flow from the Deer Cross Pack's camp to the bowels of the facility.

Everyone reunites that evening at Podge's place to help him load his mini fridge into the truck downstairs, then you eat everything that was in it. It's a rather confused dinner of questionably sourced hot dogs, leftover Chinese food, technically expired but still tasty coleslaw, toast with jam, and mixed vegetables pan-sautéed in the last of the butter. Investigations have yielded multiple ways into the bowels of Everlite HQ, which you discuss over dinner.

"I'm a big fan of the sewer entrance," Podge says.

"You're a cliche," Elton says.

"No, hear me out: this city is old," the Bone Gnawer says. "The sewers are downright roomy. And I have maps. It'd just take some patience to find a way in to Everlite from below. And it's easier than faking badges."

"You can fake badges?" Nin asks around a mouthful of char siu hot dog.

"I'd need some help," Podge says, glancing at you. Mixing up some fake Everlite badges would take brains and computer skill, but with them, you could just walk right in.

"I wonder if we could bluff our way in as journalists," Elton says.

"Actually I've considered that," Podge says. "The answer is a definite maybe. Actually, Thunderhoof, didn't you have a journalist hanging around?"

"I did, but I haven't heard from them," you say. Which is odd. You check your messages, but they haven't contacted you. No updates with their byline on CAHOOTS! either.

"There's another possibility," Elton says. "The barriers between worlds are thin around the Deer Cross Pack's camp."

"Because they were murdered," Nin says.

"Nonetheless," Elton says, "we can use the map Thunderhoof drew to reach the Umbra."

Nin studies the drawing you made, her expression troubled.

"Yeah, I ain't wandering around the spirit world," Podge says. "It's a wasteland, you know. And I can't bring my guns."

"It's not a walking tour, Patrick," Elton says. "In and out, through the walls of Everlite HQ."

Elton is a skilled theurge, but he'd need your help with occult preparations.

"We can't bring anything through the Umbra, right? Can we even bring ourselves through?"

I work with Podge to create fake security badges.

I investigate sewer entrances that will lead into Everlite's high-security areas from below.

We'll pretend to be journalists doing a softball story on Everlite.

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You know enough not to plunge blindly into the sewers of an old industrial city. First, you gather as many plans and blueprints as you can from the city hall (no protests today), then you and Podge conduct scouting expeditions around Everlite HQ. You don't want to run into maintenance workers down here—or sewer gators or vampires.

"I wonder if this town has vampires," Podge says as you sweep your flashlight over a crumbling brick archway, dark with leaking effluent.

"Don't be ridiculous," Elton says.

"I hear there are sewer vampires," Podge says as you work your way around barricades. "They use the sewers to avoid sunlight."

"That's a myth," Elton says. "Vampires aren't harmed by the sun. I've seen them in daylight, you know."

"Bullshit," Podge says as you find a locked gate so corroded that you're able to pull it open.

"More than one scene in Dracula has the eponymous count walking around in daylight," Elton says. "The myth of sunlight harming the undead was invented for the film Nosferatu in 1922 because they needed a dramatic way to kill the vampire, and sunlight made for an exciting special effect. It was more visually interesting than copying the book."

"How does he die in the book?" Podge asks as you test a rusted iron ladder leading up.

"A cowboy cuts his head off with a bowie knife," Elton says.

"Stop telling jokes, El," Podge says. "Sewer vampires are serious business."

"We're going to have to go up from here," you say, "and then cut across the parking lot."

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Satisfied that you know a way in, you get everyone back to Podge's place. Then you set out the next evening, retracing your route until you breach the surface between the exterior parking lot—an endless sea of cracked asphalt—and a parking structure attached to Everlite HQ. The door is open and you slip into the hallway outside the stairwell. You're making plans for where to go next when a security guard stalks up to you. Her badge reads NEO ALBION, and her hand is just a little too close to her taser.

"Excuse me, miss?" she says. "Can I help you find where you're supposed to—"

Podge breaks her knee with a single kick, grabs her mouth before she can scream, and bashes her head against the concrete wall, leaving a dark stain.

"Patrick!" Elton cries, with the same vague outrage he'd muster for someone stirring tea with a butter knife.

"I don't have time for these fucking people," Podge says as Nin pulls out a rag and wipes off the wall. "We'll drop her off in a disused stairwell."

And that's exactly what they do, after gagging her and taking her wallet, taser, and phone. You check for silver, working under the assumption that Neo Albion might've killed the Deer Cross Pack, but don't find any.

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