During the post mortem, the examiner noticed a strange mark on one of the vertebrae in the neck. Under closer scrutiny a small device, apparently electronic in nature, was located embedded in the bone. It was safely removed and noted in the report. Once the post mortem was complete I collected the brain, now safely stored, and a copy of the report and left for the hotel. Before I left I made sure to dispose of the chip and I killed the medical examiner as she knew too much.

Back at the hotel I waited for the team to check in before making the autopsy report available to anybody who wanted to see it. While Erica checked it over she mentioned the device found in the spine and it occurred to me that I hadn’t done anything to follow up on that, so we arranged that we would go back to mortuary, with Sparks for company, to look into it further. On a whim I asked to check the back of Erica’s neck and noticed an odd scar in around about the same position as the device was located on Ed’s corpse.

The following morning we made our way to the mortuary to discover a crime scene under investigation. The medical examiner had been found dead when the staff arrived in the morning. Since I was unable to examine the body closely I determined the cause of death via arcane means. It seems that electrocution of the brain was the cause of death, although no marks were apparent on the body.

I took Erica to the x-ray machine ready to examine her neck to see if she was carrying a similar implant as was found in Ed. We turned on the equipment so as to give the appearance of using the machine and discussed how best to proceed. The rest of the team was getting too close to the truth and they had to be stopped. Erika recalled the note that Cooper provided her with that she had passed on to Cliff. It was determined that this note should be destroyed and that we should endeavour to derail the investigation.

We left the x-ray room and found Sparks trying to get hold of the medical examiner’s current files. I ordered him to leave the room but it appears that he has arranged to be given copies of the files. We will deal with this later. Back at the police station Erika is panciking about the note, Cliff has copied it and Cooper already knows what it says. Suddenly Erica is talking about destroying the information Cooper obtained, but that doesn’t make sense. We’re here to uncover the truth and… oh God… I killed her, I killed the medical examiner last night and then I destroyed the chip. I have to stop Erica before she does something stupid.

As I spoke to her she suddenly punched me in the face! I backed off as a spoke the incantation that would soothe her and render her passive. For a moment it seemed to work but then her body stiffened and as she gritted her teeth she made to hit me again. By now several officers and Sparks had been attracted by my shouts and were moving in to disable Erica. As soon as I recovered myself I spoke the incantation again andthis time the spell held. I caught Erica as she stumbled and ordered the officers to back off. Sparks cuffed Erica and we took her to a vacant room. I called Monty and requested a neurosurgeon attend as soon as possible. I think we’re both going to need him.

(Following on from the previous revelation about the magical nature of the induced heart attacks the party split up and variously went back to the temporary HQ or delved deeper into the missing archives.)

After a little more time spent talking at the police station I returned with Beasty and the others to the warehouse we’re working out of in this area. After some discussion we decided it might be prudent to get a hypnotist sent down in an effort to recover the suppressed memories that I witnessed in the mind of the desk sergeant. Erica and Ed were still at the station investigating the hard copies of all the case records.

After a time Erica returned to the warehouse insisting that we accompany her to a possible crime scene that she had discovered in order to secure it and search for clues. She led us out into the countryside to a large metal barn about 10 miles out of town. It wasn’t clear why we were actually here or what bearing this had on the case but Erica was very insistent and so we felt it pudent to follow up on any possible leads.

Once we arrived Cooper and Erica took the lead and made to enter the barn. As soon as Cooper placed his hand on the door handle he blacked out and slumped to the ground. Seeing this I made to follow more closely in case further assistance was required. During this time Beasty remained in the vehicle, Farmer was delivering our hypnotist to her hotel room while Sparks, Erica and Cooper were taking the lead in entering the barn. I was not aware of Ed’s location at this time.

As soon as we entered the barn we noticed that Ed was already present and had been secured as an obvious captive. He had been chained to a supporting girder and was held upside down. In one corner was a shadowy figure who I was unable to make out clearly and before I had a chance to make any further assessment a large biological entity of some type suddenly appeared at our end of the building. The beast was not like anything I have seen before. It was approximately spherical with a multitude of tentacles and was a gory red in colour. Several shots were fired and seemed to do little damage. I got the strange impression that the beast wasn’t entirely real but then I witnessed Sparks being overpowered and engulfed.

During this time Cooper had begun moving the large barrels located at the far end of the barn. Judging by their design and the smell in the room these were filled with some form of gasoline. Suddenly, having tipped the barrel over and rolled it towards the beast Cooper was firing at the barrel! At this point I left the room fearing that Cooper’s actions would have dire consequences. I kept an eye on the room from outside to ensure that I would be able to react to any potetntial problems.

After some time an electrical discharge that appeared to emanate from Ed himself ignited the fuel that was spreading across the floor and shortly after this the beast vanished in much the same way as it had appeared. By this point the fire was beginning to burn out of control and Erica nad Cooper were unable to loosen the restraints holding Ed in place. At some point Cooper had retrieved some sort of plastic explosive based bomb from one end of the barn and brought it down towards me. Concerned that the fire would cause a detonation of the bomb I opened the roller door and moved the bomb outside before closing the door again.

At this stage the fire was becoming increasingly dangerous so I evacuated and examined the explosive device. I noted the crude attempt at boobuy-trapping the bomb, and also that it had not been fully armed. We were fortunate that Cooper moving the bomb had not caused the secondary detonator to activate and I was able to disable the device entirely. By now the entire barn was on fire and Erica and Cooper had also evacuated, bringing the unconscious form of Sparks with them, but there was no sign of Ed.

The emergency services were called, along with Blanket and HQ being informed. The official story will be something to do with a foiled terrorist plot as far as I know. I’m certain full details will be given in our debriefing.

(The following day, the fire is still not entirely dampened and so Ed’s body has not been retrieved.)

Erica and Sparks are still in hospital this morning. I need to understand why we were at the damned barn yesterday so I called Erica at the hospital but she was entirely unable to to explain her actions. With nothing to go on I decided to take the next logical step and ask the other person involved, Ed.

I gathered the team together, including Erica and Sparks on conference call and began meditating until I felt a connection through the hair sample I retrievd from Ed’s room. Suddenly I could hear Ed’s voice, I had penetrated the veil of death!

After several minutes questioning Ed couldn’t really understand how he had ended up at the barn but began talking about SETI and interference from a group working for some ancient demonin entity. I find it hard to be sceptical now that I have spoken to somebody who I know to be dead having witnessed their passing. This feeling of mastery over death is overwhelming and I feel like it must be possible to go further than mere communication. In my arcance studies I have found hinted rumours at a path of magic that can only be called necromancy, the death magic, power over the grave and mastery over death itself. This seems to me to be the ultimate use for magic, nothing I have discovered in shamanistic rituals, the order of theurgy, the divination of the enchanters or the wild energy of the warlocks can bring this same level of mastery over the ultimate ending. I must investigate further and I almost don’t dare to say it, but I think that I am destined to bring Ed back to us!

In fairness to Monty, it is a bit odd. Two young, healthy police officers from the Cambridgeshire constabulary both passed away on the same day, within six hours of each other, both within six hours of each other. So we’ve been ordered to Cambridgeshire to investigate. At least we now get to see what it is that Beastie has been keeping under wraps for the last couple of weeks. He has been busy creating a rather comfortable vehicle suitable for, well, almost anything by the looks of it! He has christened it the Beastie TVT but he completely forgot to include a kettle. Perhaps in the next build, eh!

Anyway, this wonder vehicle has some nice bells and whistles meaning that I’m able to use the full journey to do some covert investigations into the 24 horus preceding the deaths of these officers. They have worked together on cases in the past and seem to have been working together on something recently. Phone and ISP records indicate nothing out of the ordinary occurring in the run-up to their deaths so no joy there.

Upon arrival at the station that we’re reporting to, Sparks heads off to meet the widow of one of the officers while the rest of us head inside to meet our liaison. While we were chatting to the desk fficer he seemed to have some difficulty recalling the details of the most recent case being worked on by our victims. I mutter a few words and glimpse the surface of his mind but without a deeper investigation it appears that some recent memories have been repressed or removed. Stupidly I forgot that I’m not in my office anymore and make no effort to disguise my words or actions and I get a few strange looks. Writing it off as a religious affectation I hope that nobody thinks to push me further! I must remember to try out those techniques for disguising my spell casting for public situations such as this.

Once our liaison arrives we make our way to the offices where our victims were working. Checking out one of the desks I manage to find a physical sample of one of the officers in the form of a single strand of hair. Bagging it I slip it into my pocket for use later. Just after this Beastie beckons me over and explains that he is having trouble locating files pertaining to the last two months of investigations carried out by the former officers. Again I mutter an incantation designed to probe the continuum for information, taking my time to ensure nothing goes wrong in the casting as I think we might not get a second shot at this.

I’m unable to locate the files but I do get a strong feeling that the means of removal was not wholly technological in nature and for the first time I begin to wonder why I thought I was the only person in the world who could access this arcane power! I get an image of the man who removed these files. He is an American dressed all in black, and he was here last week. Rushing downstairs to the reception desk I get hold of a copy of the visitor log for the day in question, in the hope that he slipped up somewhere. I get it faxed off to HQ with instructions to get background checks on all of the visitors.

Returning upstairs I meet the team on their way to the canteen. While we are sat sitting at the table I take advantage of the business and noise in the room to cast another spell. Focusing on the hair I collected earlier and the link it creates to the body I delve deep inside and examine the internal damage, right down to the cellular level. None of this looks like a heart attack, not when you can see as much as I can see right now. Again I feel the traces of some sort of arcane power at work and realise with a jolt that this man was killed using magic.

So, we had been sent to Scotland to investigate some abnormal weather covering a small area with ice and snow. In thissame area we were also looking into a strange murder. There was some opinion that these two events may be related.

We took the helicopter and flew directly to the scene. Some miles out the weather seemed to transition almost instantly from mild to bitterly cold. Having arrived we were preparing to land when some figures moving strangely began to come towards us. As they approached we realised two things, both shocking, one of the figures was carrying a human leg and all three figures were snowmen! By what means they had been animated I do not know but with the gruesome appendage they were carrying we assumed hositility on their part.

Weapons were drawn by various members of the team and shots were fired. Cooper seemed to be shooting wild but as soon as the barrels of aviation fuel behind the snowmen ignited I realised what he was trying to do! I attempted to carry out a new spell to cause damage by hardening the very air around my target but the snowman dodged at the last second and my remote blow failed to connect. The beings didn’t last long once we reached the ground as they had been badly melted by the fire raging behind them and they seemed unable to stand up to bullets or the blows rained down by Sparks.

In an effort to find the owner of the leg, to see if there was anything we could do to help, I took hold of the leg and muttered some words. I was able to perceive the owner of the leg as clearly as I am seeing this monitor as I write my report. Looking at her surroundings I realised that she was in the building alongside the airfield and rushed inside to find her. Ed had applied some dressings to her wounds but she was still in a bad way, what with having lost a leg, so drawing further upon my reserves I restored as much of her being as I could. Skin and muscle knitted themselves together and the colour returned to her face. She came round and immediately started screaming about the loss of her leg. Which is understandable I guess. We sent Beastie to take the lady to hospital while we continued to investigate.

Soon a member of the local constabulary arrived to escort us to the crime scene. A night watchman at the fish factory where it all happened was going on about having seen some sort of beast. From the sketch I drew it appears that the poor soul believes he has witnessed a yeti or some sort of snow-dwelling creature of considerable size. Once I would have dismissed this as pure fantasy but since joining the CPI I’m not so sure anymore so I decided to do some research into yeti myths to see if I could turn anything up.

After some minutes researching the radio squawked into life with Cooper shouting about having found the beast outside! I ran to witness it for myself and found a battle in full flow in front of me. Reaching for my stun gun I prepared a litany I had been waiting for an opportunity to use! With a gesture I pushed the button on the stun gun and using this power source I manipulated and enhanced the energy directing it to strike the beast with as much force as I could muster. Shortly it fled, battered and bleeding from the combined attacks we had made. With nothing more to do we retired to our hotel room for the night, preparing to regroup in the morning and track the beast down.

The following day I spent some minutes meditating over the fur sample retrieved from the crime scene on the previous day. I was unable to get a clear image of the beast and while it felt like it was close it seemed to be, at the same time, completely out of reach. While I was considering how to deal with this information we got a call to tell us that the beast had been spotted again, this time at the home of the owner of the same fish factory as we visited yesterday! We piled into cars and headed over.

Upon arrival at the scene we found ourselves locked out by an automatic gate while the yeti-beast was in the grounds try to gain entry to the house. Farmer, piloting his new exo-skeleton, attempted to scale the fence but seems to be having trouble controlling the new device. Remembering the spells I had used the day before I took out a cigarette lighter obtained from Farmer and drew upon the flame to manipulate the energy in the same way I had yesterday. As the ball of fire I was able to create hit the yeti-beast it screamed as if in agony and I knew that somehow I had truly managed to hurt it. Again and again I drew upon the inner power that I still cannot believe I have managed to tap into until I heard the beast expire behind the house, its body charred and steaming.

 The scene was secured and Blanket were called in. After some waiting for a warrant, and some questionable investigation of the house we discovered that the two daughters of the fish factory owner had mistakenly summoned the beast, and the weather, in a misguided attempt to drive local fisheries out of business. We secured the corpse of the beast, and also an interesting tome entitled The Santanomicon. I look forward to taking time to study this book as soon as we get back to London…

The next time I woke up I was strapped to a gurney in the back of a military ambulance with Ed and Erica. Ed was unrestrained but Erica and I were both restrained, presumably to keep us from falling off while we journeyed. Ed freed us and I released the securing mechanism on the door in case we should need to make a run for it later. We spent some time thrashing out a plan finally deciding to vent the gas/air mix into the cockpit, unfortunately by the time we put the plan into action we found the ambulance pulling up outside Exeter Hospital.

As soon as the vehicle stopped we leapt out of the back door and I ran into the A&E department looking for a phone. I managed to get through to HQ and request a pickup for the three of us. While I was there I noticed the news stories about the bombs and realised just how long I had been kept sedated for.

We finally made it back to the police HQ and joined the rest of the CPI team for a debriefing before we made our way back to CPI HQ in London.

As you will remember, I became embroiled in a strange investigation into werewolf activity while working in Leeds. Since then I have spent several weeks in quarantine and been made an offer I literally couldn’t refuse. So now I’m working with the CPI as a civilian consultant, which is a good thing as it appears that my position at Leeds is no longer available to me.

Almost as soon as I left quarantine with my new found team we were sent to Dartmoor to investigate reports of some sort of reptilian beast that has been roaming the moors. I’m really not sure to make of all this, but it all seems terribly exciting!

We traveled down to Dartmoor and met with the local police force who furnished us with the details of the most recent spate of sightings and the name of the most recent witness. It appears from the map that we have been given that the sightings all appear to be approximately equidistant from some central point and it was determined that this would be worth investigating.

I went with Erica to look into whatever it is that is in the middle of this mess while Yaki and Drazzt went to interview our witness.

We discovered that there is a relatively new laboratory that has been opened in the area that Erica and I were investigating so we travelled there to take a look around. The facility is being run by a Dr Fulbert, a paleobiologist of some reknown. We went in and I’m afraid that my new position got the better of me as I starting throwing my weight around in an effort to speak to Dr Fulbert without an appointment! Unfortunately my efforts failed to work and Dr Fulbert spoke with us only briefly and we were unable to gain entrance to the laboratory.

It was about this time that we were joined in the area by Beasty, a mechanic from the CPI HQ. We all returned to the station to discuss the days work and Yaki and Drazzt told us that the witnesses story checked out but that he, the witness, had been spoken to by some other government official.

While we were comparing notes and discussing the day’s work a call came into the station about a local murder which appeared to be connected with our current case and so we were on the road again! We traveled to a local house where a body was found in an outhouse. It appeared that the victim was some sort of drug dealer who had been attacked by the beast we were seeking during a sale gone wrong. We attempted to follow the trail of the creature but soon lost the track and made our way back to the station again.

Eventually we determined that a visit to Dr Fulbert would be in order and so Erica, Beasty and myself made our way to his home address. Upon our arrival we found the house deserted, a quick examination of the back door lock and then the alarm box inside allowed us access without alerting the neighbours! Inside we discovered notes relating to a secret project to engineer living dinosaurs, specifically deinonychous. This was of course somewhat unexpected, but the rest of the team seemed unperturbed by it so I did my best to take it in my stride.

The notes mentioned a tracking device that Fulbert had been working on, and the problems he had found in using it to track down the missing specimens. Upon hearing this we decided that it would be best to travel immediately to the laboratory in an effort to track down the beasts before any further damage was caused or lives lost.

As we traveled we had a message that Yaki and Drazzt had been ordered to return to London but that we had two new team members joining us and that they would be meeting us at the lab. Leon is some sort of police inspector who appears to be very blunt in his manner while [Pete] has an air of intellect about him.

We arrived at the laboratory and found it abandoned by the good Doctor. Managing to bypass the security devices on the door we entered the laboratory proper. Inside we found more papers and some tracking equipment that had been alluded to in the papers we found at Fulbert’s house. Exploring the area we found the maturation chambers where the first specimens had been grown and to our surpirise one of these chambers was still occupied and the display indicated some sort of countdown. Fearing the worst I attempted to slam the door shut but the sheer bulk of it meant that I was unable to close it quickly enough before the enraged beast escaped and lunged towards us!

The battle was soon joined and my fellow agents began to fire upon the beast. Soon [Pete] was down with a gaping wound in his chest. I leaped towards the liquid nitrogen cylinders and wrenched free one of the hoses, turning it on the beast I hit it squarely with the jet of supercooled liquid causing it to turn tail and flee!

Having spent some time improving the tracking devices that were in the lab, and collecting Fulbert’s shotgun, we decided that we should follow the beast and attempt to track the other three in an effort to stop them causing damage. After several minutes waiting we set off, myself in the police helicopter and my colleagues by road, our fallen companion was taken to hospital and was still breathing last I saw him.

I tracked the most recent escapee to a local farm and ordered the helicopter to put me down. As my feet hit the floor a crazy notion came to mind and I recied the words and actions that I had previously read in Wolfmen of the Magyar, I have no idea if it worked but what harm can it do to try?! I soon located the deinonychous by following the trail of dead bodies. In an attempt to keep it cornmered til the rest of the team arrived I followed it to a shed and tossed in a canister of tear gas. Some minutes later and I was still alone so I steeled my resolve and went to face the beast alone armed with a weapon that I am unfamiliar with. As I faced the beast I stared down an enemy more ancient that any man has seen before and some instinct in me told me to run, run until I was free or dead of trying. I quashed these emotions and fired upon the beast scoring a hit. In retaliation the creature came for me but due to some miracle missed, perhaps this incantation does have something going for it! Finally my colleagues arrived and a few shots from Erica’s hefty sniper rifle had the dinosaur dead on the floor!

The cleanup crew arrived and we set off to find the remaining escaped specimens who had been tracked into a local network of caves. After a night resting we tooled up for an underground excursion. the caves were interesting with many examples of fossilised remains and ancient strata but I shan’t go into detail here.  We followed the signal underground until we came upon the lair. Another canister or tear gas gave us the advantage for a while but the last thing I remember is seeing those razor sharp teeth lunge towards me and the feelingthat my rib cage had exploded and then darkness…

LonelyLibrarian28: You’re never going to believe what happened to me last night!
MissBookworm: wot?
LonelyLibrarian28: Well, I was up at work as usual speaking to Ian in the zoology department when a team of people turned up calling themselves the CPI – Criminal Paranormal Investigations!
MissBookworm: omg!
LonelyLibrarian28: They were interested in this sample of fur that had been found at the site of those prostitute killings in Leeds
LonelyLibrarian28: It turns out that the fur wasn’t from any animal that has been seen before and Ian couldn’t say for certain what it could be
MissBookworm: probly a student, lol
LonelyLibrarian28: Probably.
LonelyLibrarian28: Anyway, Ian decides that he wants to go and set some snares up at the site of the killings to see if he can catch this creature, I think he had some delusions of discovering a new breed and naming it after himself!
LonelyLibrarian28: These CPI people are also headed that way and they insist on keeping an eye on us – they said for our protection but I’m not so sure.
MissBookworm: ****ing pigs
LonelyLibrarian28: Quite.
LonelyLibrarian28: So, I’m keeping an eye on the car when suddenly we’re trapped in the middle of some sort of gang war!
LonelyLibrarian28: This group of Chinese gangsters pulls up and start shooting at the local ‘pimp’. I mean, this is pretty terrifying stuff!
MissBookworm: wtf! omg!!1!
LonelyLibrarian28: So guns are firing everywhere, the pimp kills a man and then the CPI people start pulling weapons out and restraining people, I was even so bold as to try to prevent the escape of some of them, although I think if they had hit Ian’s car I would have had some explaining to do – you know what Ian’s like about his car.
MissBookworm: whos ian?
LonelyLibrarian28: Nevermind.
LonelyLibrarian28: So we end up at the police station and I’m waiting for my statement to be taken while the pimp, one of the Chinese gangsters and one of the working girls are questioned.
MissBookworm: so u got 2 no the prossy quite well I spose?
LonelyLibrarian28: Umm, no.
LonelyLibrarian28: The next thing I know is that an alarm is going off and the police station suddenly locks all the doors!
LonelyLibrarian28: There was some sort of disturbance in the holding area and everyone was locked in.
MissBookworm: wow!
LonelyLibrarian28: To cut a long story short I found myself behind the desk looking over all the security monitors when I catch sight of some great hairy creature attacking people!
LonelyLibrarian28: It was horrific.
MissBookworm: OMG!!!!1!!1
LonelyLibrarian28: There were some police officers still trying to subdue the beast but they were cornered near one of the entrances to the cells.
LonelyLibrarian28: I noticed an emergency fire door system that I was able to use to corner the creature but I had to lock the door with some of the police officers still… hang on, I’ve… got something in my eye, I’ll be back in a moment.
MissBookworm: u still there?
MissBookworm: R U OK?!?
MissBookworm: HELLO!!!1!! WHR R U?
LonelyLibrarian28: Sorry, I’m back now.
LonelyLibrarian28: So the CPI team ran around to the barred door that the creature was up against and they killed it. In cold blood they just shot it.
MissBookworm: *gasp*
LonelyLibrarian28: The strangest thing happened when it died though – the body on the floor wasn’t that of a wolf but that of the pimp from the estate.
MissBookworm: OMG! R U OK?
LonelyLibrarian28: Yes, I think I am. It was all strangely exciting, and at least now the monster isn’t still out there killing I suppose.
MissBookworm: wow –cool story
MissBookworm: so, wanna cyber?

++++ TRANSCRIPT ENDS +++
++++ APRIL 4 2008 23:36:54 ++++

Personnel File: Daniels, Rupert

Age: 28
Height: 5′11″
Weight: 75kg
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Green
Born: March 15 1980

Education
BSc. Chemistry, Oxford University, graduated first with honours
MSc. Life Sciences, Edinburgh University

Bio.
After a promising early career as a research assistant at Edinburgh, Daniels took the position of Senior Librarian at Leeds. He seems to take little interest in his career, instead choosing to take posts that interest him at the time. With his background, this is not surprising. The second son of Richard Daniels, CEO of the international Vestal Group with interests in transport, entertainment and currently investing heavily in consumer space flight, he has had a privileged upbringing and has access to a valuable trust fund along with a carefully built portfolio of shares.

His formal studies have encompassed the sciences thus far but outside of this he has shown a formidable aptitude for languages and has often been seen to get a basic understanding from a new language after only a few hours study. He also has a keen interest in the study of ancient civilisations and despite the lack of formal study has written several historical papers that have been well received by his peers.

Rupert Daniels is a Smart Hero with the starting occupation Academic (specifically Librarian) and his role is one of research and general bookishness - think Giles from Buffy although currently slightly less kickass!