Session 1 (Nadel's Dark Magic)

Session 0 (Introductions):
The investigators meet each other. Fred Nadel explains his predicament.

Session 1 (Nadel's Dark Magic):
(Game played on Sep. 24, 2009)

Dec. 11, 1913, Thur.
After questioning Fred Nadel, the investigators go to Mr. Nadel's home. They check the room where Patrick disappeared. Simply by looking, detectives Ross and Mark quickly confirm that the dried liquid in the groove on the floor is blood. They take samples and send it to a lab, as well as calling Nadel's doctor for the blood type of each of Nadel's assistants. After, they go to Clive's former apt. and search the scene. They again take samples of the blood but it's too late to send the samples to the lab. The investigators also meet Nadel's two remaining assistants, Tensy and Dora Hurit, and all discuss sleeping arrangements. All are afraid to go to sleep.

It's is a frigid December night. The investigators split up. Millicent starts translating the Mayan Codex.

Antoinette and Kenneth start reading the notes of Bufred Washington and Ambrosio Martinez. Kenneth tells the others that several passages in Bufred's notes suggest that the Missing Beatrice Emerson and her cohorts broke into the Washington Square Arch, and that Bufred suspects a “Gate” might exist in there.

Detective Ross Merrick and Maj. Haywrd go to the Tenderloin (aka Satan's Circus or The Black Broadway) to look for Bufred. After many hours, Maj. Haywrd and Ross find out that Bufred was considered insane and was probably only in NYC for a few days. Bufred was supposedly looking for the resident Voodoo Queen, Nadine, but she passed away in late April, and her student, a girl named Lajidie, left about a month later, so Bufred went looking for a powerful and rich white sorcerer (Nadel?) instead. At around 4am, Maj. Haywrd heads back to Nadel's home. Ross stays behind to flirt with a pretty young thing.

Kenneth and Antoinette read the diaries of Bufred and Ambrosio then go to bed. Milli translates the Codex around 3am and passes out, utterly exhausted from the strain.

Meanwhile, Det. Mark Learson and Leticia go to scout out the Washington Square Arch. They find a secret door in the top of the Arch, but there's nothing in the hidden crawl space, and definitely no signs of what Bufred wrote about (no strange Masonic writings, strong magic, or mystical swarms of bugs). However, they find another secret door in the bottom of the Arch. They get through several locked doors and ladders, which descend deep underground. They end up an abandoned subway tunnel, long unused, but with fresh footprints. They pick the lock of a giant gate, but once they walk through, a second gate crashes behind them. It's a trap! The first gate is also closing, but Mark forces his sword stick in-between the gate and the wall, holding it open. Still, they are trapped underground. Deciding to press on, they crawl through a twisting natural tunnel, which deposits them in a natural cave filled with a collection of massive and advanced machinery. Careful not to touch anything, they look around and find another exit, which leads to a small carved tunnel lined with hundreds of human skulls and bones arranged in intricate patterns. The skull-lined tunnel dead-ends in a painted wall dominated by pictographs. Underneath the pictographs are runes, and underneath those, near the floor, are some other form of writing. Mark tries to copy it all.

Mark and Leticia can't find any way out, so they return to the room with the machinery. Leticia tries to figure out what it is and why it is there, when suddenly the machine loudly turns on with a horrendous clatter, and bellows out massive amounts of smoke. Lightning sparks fly from the large Tesla coils, flickering alarming shadows and blue light haphazardly in every direction. From the shadows, Mark and Leticia are attacked by... something. Mark is slashed in the shoulder and unloads his pistol into the thing, but he can't really see it in the flickering light and his bullets don't seem to put it down. The thing seems to run on the walls like a lizard. Leticia also shoots it, but it keeps coming. Finally, Mark shoots it in the face and it collapses into a pile of dust. Both he and Leticia are trapped and they see shadows flickering above them. They retreat to the small natural tunnel's entrance.

Clues
The "Close the Gate" dream of the Hurit Sisters and Fred Nadel

At a bar in the Tenderloin, they find out that Bufred was only in NYC for a few days, was utterly insane, and was originally looking for Nadine, Tenderloin's resident Voodoo Queen, who had died a month before.

Several passages in Bufred Washington's Notes mention "gates."

Several passages in Ambrosio Martinez's Journal mention "gates."

New Characters:
"Tensy" Hortense Hurit

"Dora" Delores Hurit

Locations:
212 Wall St., temporary headquarters for Bryon Barr's division of the Secret Service;

Fred Nadel's apartment on 18th and Park Av;

The Tenderloin neighborhood, and specifically, a raucous bar on 33rd;

Washington Square Park Arch.

Session 2 (Tensy's Nightmare):
Mark and Leticia get out of Arch tunnels, battered. The investigators save Tensy Hurit, for now.

Session 3 (Archway to the Underworld):
The team goes underneath the Washington Square Arch, ready to kick ass.

Session 4 (Blackwell's Shadows):
The investigators research the clues.

Characters:
Antoinette Sturm, a strong willed anthropologist who is well known for two books detailing with violent cults in war torn societies.

Kenneth Pakes, a young, rich, and arrogant occult specialist who has spent most of his life debunking frauds in various newspapers, but who secretly wants proof that the occult exists.

Millicent Massey, a mousy, shy, and brilliant young archaeologist.

Agent Lawrence Landsburg, a nebbishy but physically tough former structural engineer and cryptologist. Until the Secret Service, he hasn't had a job that he throughly loves.

Maj. (ret.) Piers Haywrd, a well decorated career soldier who was brought into this Secret Service team because of his supernatural experiences in China.

Leticia Haythornthwaite, an extremely fiery and strong willed adventurer, pilot, and captain who is a bit down on her luck. She has worked with Maj. Haywrd several time in the past.

Ross Merrick, a charming and funny detective who is a well-known womanizer, and who is known as one of the best independent detectives in the city. He is partners with Mark.

Mark Learson, a family man who is one of the best detectives in the city, and who loves animals (esp. his dog Boru), is a vegetarian, and who dreams of opening up a school to teach his family's sword-fighting style. He is partners with Ross.