Welcome to The Den

Synopsis
After the trail goes dead, Dain reverts back to human form and tells the rest of the team he has lost it. Team Phoenix finds a local guard and ask if they have seen Wendy. Though the guard knows Wendy, he has not seen her in months. He offers to go back to the guard station and ask the other guards if any of them have seen her recently. The group tells him they will be staying at the tavern around the corner and the guard tells then he will stop buy in about an hour or so once he has a chance to talk to the other guards. Team Phoenix continues to ask people on the street about Wendy as they make their way to tavern. Only one person knows who she is, but he also has not seen her. Knowing how sneaky Wendy can be, Fate asks the man where he would go if he didn't want to be seen. Though he doesn't have an answer Dain asks for directions to the nearest manhole cover and they are given directions. As Team Phoenix is about to enter the tavern, Dain and Dalius notice a boy with purple eyes who steps around the corner of a building up the street for a moment, before seeing them and ducking back out of sight! Dain immediately recognizes him as the same boy from before, and shouts out at him before he and the group give chase. Rocko and Dain hop onto the flying broom to chase while the others are on foot. They lose sight of the boy as he runs around a corner, but Rocko and Dain see him on the roof of a building as they are flying over. Rocko hops off the broom to run after the boy on foot on the rooftops while Dain stays on the broom. The boy continues to run and hops to another building before sliding down the other side of the roof and dropping out of sight. Fate Silver jumps through yet another closed window to try for another shortcut. This time the building is to a butcher shop and as he falls to the flood, he is covered in blood. When he exits the house on the other side, there is a woman on the ground with people surrounding her pointing off down the street saying "He ran that way". Fate stays to question her while the others give chase. As Xand is about to run that way, she is hit from behind with a rock. As she turn around, she sees the boy run down the alley in the other direction. Her and Dalius run after him while Xand lets the rest of the group know she saw the boy. She states that she is not sure if it the same boy or not since it was from a different direction. Since Rocko and Dain can't seem to find the boy down the other alley, they follow in the direction that Xand and Dalius headed. As Dain tops a rooftop, he sees the boy in the alley crying to a woman and pointing back behind him. Dain casts hold person on him and the boy freezes, allowing everyone to catch up. The woman doesn't understand what is going on and calls for the guards. When the guards arrive he thinks the group is trying to hassle the boy and threatens to arrest them. Dain tells him that the group in on Vigil Academy business and that they have no problem going with the guards as long as the boy is taken in also since he is wanted for questioning in regards to connections with other investigations. The guard agrees and chains Team Phoenix together and take them and the boy to the station, putting them all in a cell together.

Once they are all in the cell, the guard leaves Team Phoenix chained to each other and leaves the boys hands bound separately. Dain tells the boy that since they are all stuck together that he may as well come clean and tell them what they want to know and the boy gives in. The boy states that his name is Kai, and that he has been watching us for a while. After a moment he says mostly he has been watching Wendy but also us since we are usually with her. Upon hearing of Wendy, Dain starts to get more worried and asks with a little more anger in his voice where she is. Kai tells Team Phoenix that Wendy is safe, and that she is underground. The group presses for more information but are not told anything else. Fate calls for the guard and asks for a washcloth to clean his face and the guard brings a damn washcloth for each of the group. Fate brings the washcloth up to his face, and the rest of the group watch as he falls over unconscious while the guard says "huh.... didn't think he would do it that easily...." Hearing a noise behind them the rest of the group turns to see Kai wrapping a cloth around his mouth before throwing a small pink bead at the ground which bursts into a cloud of smoke, causing all but Dalius to also pass out. Dalius is not able to escape since he is chained to his unconscious friends, but he does slip out of their grasp a couple times as they try to wrestle him to the ground. They tell him to come willingly or knocked out, and that they are taking us to Wendy and only want to ask some questions. Though confused, Dalius eventually gives in.

The group wake up in a room with Wendy and Kai also there. Upon seeing their friend they ask her if she is ok. Wendy tells them that she is unharmed. When asked if she was here by choice or if she is a prisoner, she replies that at first she felt like a prisoner, but that though they have not returned he belongings to her yet, she no longer feels like a prisoner and that she has a lot to learn here. Team Phoenix has been cleaned up and we are in a room carved from a single piece of stone with hieroglyphics etched into the walls. The group is in a huge underground town with us in the center pillar. Kai says "Welcome to The Den." All the people that the group can see have a look similar to Wendy, with pale skin and light hair. Fate tells Wendy that the group had gone looking for her and that we had met her mother. He says that her mother is possessed. Wendy tells the team that when she had gone home she gave her mother the potion from Penny's and that it had cleared her mothers mind for a few minutes. During that time her mom had told her that she was being possessed by The Hunter and that her mind felt like it was being eaten by maggots. Wendy took many notes but the people down here had taken her stuff and she hasn't gotten her things back yet. The group asks why they had been following Wendy and then abducted her, and Kai tells them that the organization he is with is much like our Vigil Academy and that they are known as Skinwalkers. He states that while Vigil Academy looks out and takes care of dangerous Fae-constructs, the Skinwalkers look out for and take care of dangerous people. Kai tells them that the reason they were following Wendy is that they had never seen one of their own topside who did not respond to any of their coded phrases. Kai then shows them that he and his kind are shapeshifters by shifting into the form of Fate. Kai tells Team Phoenix how when they see one of their own topside on a mission, they will use a coded phrase "You have such lovely skin" and wait on a response. A response of "I could use a moisturizer" means they are in need of help, while a response of "I moisturize every day" indicates everything is under control. Fate then turns to Wendy and asks her if she can shapeshift, to which Wendy grudgingly admits that she can by also shifting to look like Fate. Kai then informs the group that when Wendy did not respond in any way to the coded message, they thought that she may be an acolyte of Jin. This surprises the group who start to ask more questions. Apparently Jin is also a shapeshifter, is not dead as was previously thought, and has been causing problems down in The Den recently. After more talking it comes out that the Skinwalkers and Vigil Academy don't always see eye to eye but that headmistress Ishara understands their importance. It appears the school has known about this group for some time. When asked about this, Kai replies that of course Vigil Academy knows of them, that Ms. Crow was affiliated with them. Hearing the name of Ms. Crow, Fate asks if they have a library "secret or otherwise...", and whether or not they have any books written by Ms. Crow. Kai replies that they do in fact have some books written by Ms. Crow. Dain tells Kai that it would help with the current trust issues if they would give Wendy her things back, and Kai has someone fetch her things for her. When the group starts asking more questions there are things that Kai doesn't know the answers to, at which point he takes the group to see the council. As Team Phoenix enters the council meeting room there is a large moon shaped desk on the far end of the room, seating five women all facing the group as they enter. The group gets a shock when they see that all five women are the exact same, and they all seem to be..... Ms. Crow. There is a slight difference however as each women seems to be Ms. Crow but ranging in age from early years to late age. As Team Phoenix approaches the middle woman speaks up saying, "Welcome to The Murder of Crows."

Player Characters

 * Dain Sarkas
 * Wendy
 * Dalius
 * Xand
 * Fate Silver
 * Rocko

New

 * Kai