The day before Christmas, Genevive recieves a letter from Traci Lockhorn, an old Order associate.  She hasn't heard from Traci since Genevive left the Order, and the letter triggers quite the flashback...

    Traci is stalking through the woods, hunting out a new vampire - or so she thinks.  Genny arrives to warn her that she thinks there's more to it than that - and is greeted by "What are you doing out here?  This is MY kill!" - just in time for the two of them to be in a fight for thier lives.  (Much combat and butt-kicking ensues)  There were considerably more vamps than Traci expected out here - and any rational person can see that it's so.  Genny suspects the Order of sending Traci out on purpose, because they happened across some papers they weren't supposed to last week.  Papers about communicating..  Traci refuses to buy it, insisting she could have taken the vamps by herself, and redirecting her anger at Genny, concluding with "Then why don't you just leave?!"

    Fade back to modern day, and the letter from Traci.    "Trouble brewing.  Something's woken up.  They're following me.  Sent trouble to your area for safekeeping.  They may try there - make sure the trouble survives.  The stars will be right soon - the trouble will be around then.  Will contact you later - Traci"

An unusual news clipping is remarked upon by a parent during unwrapping - "George, pay attention to the children, will you?"    The clipping is tossed down, waiting for a PC to read (this is continuity with episode 1.3 Warp and Weave).

PC's are opening presents Christmas day.  One of the PC's gets a box from thier Aunt Lockhorn - apparently a distant relation, as they don't remember them.   Mom and Dad don't know either - the present was delivered UPS yesterday while the PC was out.  It's a small dog - about Jack Russell sized - he is extremely mean looking, with eyes, a weasel-like snout, coarse fur and needle teeth.  He comes with a collar, and a nametag that says "Baldwin".  Baldwin doesn't make a sound or move until the box is opened.  He's affectionate enough with the PC.  Baldwin will bristle and snarl at *any* scent of the supernatural (to include "good" supernatural, such as churches).  Baldwin will NOT let the PC go off and leave him.  Good thing school's out until 6 Jan, huh?  (That's a possible picture of Baldwin on the right - image gotten from Wizards of the Coast's website ).

One of the other PC's sees a guy in a trench coat and hat hanging around, watching the house.  He flees if the PC tries to pursue or call the cops.  This guy was spotted several different times when I ran this.  Creeped 'em out.

(More continuity from 1.3 Warp and Weave ) E-mail or phone call from Erin comes during this period, with some clue as to what's going on in Portsmouth, RI.

A saxophone player - an old black man - is seen playing Christmas carols that are a bit... off.  They're good - just odd.  He's a beggar, with the case in front of him, and if questioned replies in a mumble reminiscent of Ozzy Osbourne on a bad day, with a tish of BB King thrown in... though he laughs at odd intervals.  My PC's ended up encountering him three or four times.

A PC gets a cell phone call:  parent is in hospital, house has been burgularized.

Cops question PC for routine stuff, unhurt mother (who was locked in the basement) is in sobbing hysterics.  PC hears part of father's statement - they said they were from the gas company, and were checking for a leak.  Mom was showing them the way down, then they locked her in the basement, and started searching the house.  They beat on Dad when he tried to stop them.  They had velcro on thier chests;  he ripped one off and saw a strange logo - it's the logo of a company here in town - EG&G.

PLEASE NOTE!  EG&G is a real company, but this is a work of FICTION.

To the best of my knowledge they are no more sinister than any other big DoD contractor... 

A little research will show that they are a DoD and DoE contractor, who mostly works on things that are "under the radar" - not black ops, but non-glamorous things like recovering extra oil from a "spent" oil well, or improving the widget ring that goes in a weapons system.  The CD icon is a link to a screencapture of thier webpage:

When (or if) the PC's go to investigate EG&G, it's closed.  The place is large, with several buildings in a compound, with a tall chain-link fence and barbed wire overtop.  They may see a few people doing overtime work, returning from trips, whatever - but long story short, they don't find anything explicitly unusual about it at this time.  But because EG&G is a defense contractor, you can bet that there's alarms and badge-swipey-thingies and the like all over the place.  Any intrusion (at this point) would be fruitless and get them arrested.

Another PC - different from the first - will find thier car broken into around this time.

On the radio, at least one PC catches the end of a news broadcast, with the "humint" angle of astronomers staying up late tonight at the university, for not only is there a conjunction of Mars and Venus, AND a new moon, there's reports of a nova in the same part of the sky - though millions of light years farther away.  The report slides off into an announcement of the call letters - WHEL - and a reminder to keep listening into the new year, with thier new exciting format!
  And yes, that's me being the announcer again. 

When the PCs stop in some (relatively) deserted area, one of them again begins to hear the soft strains of a saxophone Christmas carol can be heard... then a direct assault on PCs - with Baldwin present - by ghouls.  They've actually got a couple of lines that are necessary - and once they spot Baldwin, they'll try to get him.  The ghouls always speak in rhymes.   Here's three samples - and yes, I meant for them to sound like that...

• "To the observatory you cannot go, so up we come from below!" "Stupid! (Sound of ghoul smacking ghoul)  You have said too much!  They may yet flee from this hutch!"  "It doesn't matter what they know if we eat them head to toe!" 
• "The fleshies try to hurting me!  Perhaps the fleshies should learn to flee!"
• "Doggies should be killed before its time!  It's flesh will most certainly taste quite fine! Oh, wait, that doesn't rhyme!"

The Christmas carol stays as a background until combat is over, at which point it slowly fades....The PC's, I hope, head to the observatory.

The ghouls are lifted wholesale from BTVSRPG.net - with the exception of the rhyming instead of the meeping.  Not sure if that's an improvement. 

The PCs arrive at the observatory;  the parking lot is nearly deserted except for a few cars with EG&G parking permits.  There is a strange green light ... flowing... out of the aperature.  The chanting can be heard, growing louder and louder as they come closer...

Baldwin (who has gone into a frenzy - and even broken out and followed the PCs if need be) growls as the PCs (hopefully) open the door, to see the bestial thing the cultists (thier EG&G lab coats covered up by robes) have summoned, its body protruding from the tear in space-time.

About the time the PC's decide to run, they hear a deep... doggy voice behind them.  "I'll get it - but the cultists are all yours."  It's Baldwin, transformed into a  big, doggie-yet-humanoid shape.  If appropriate, he stops to thank the PC who took care of him, and says "Traci says hi" to Geneva before jumping at the summoned thing and shoving it back through the rip in spacetime, which closes behind them both.

Which leaves a number of VERY unhappy cultists.  Who happen to have... gills....and very weak bones (like those of a newborn).  End result:  Although the cultists' stats are comperable to that of, say, a police officer, they take double damage from bash attacks as well.  That and they aren't really "human" (anymore?) - and none of them survive to spill the beans.   Handle autopsies as you wish - I lean towards explosions rendering bodies unidentifiable.  The cultists have minimal identification - the few driver's licenses among the bunch are readily discovered to be fakes. 

Baldwin was a were-human (as opposed to a werewolf), a very old, very rare race that works to preserve the world.  They have the mind and instinct of an animal - though a high sensitivity to the supernatural - until the time and place of thier need is present.  At that time they become a channel for "good" - which usually ends in thier destruction.  (They, however, don't mind - they have a very fatalistic sense about such things, and see it as thier purpose, true and noble.)
I had Geneva run across this information in her books the day after (it was a single page tucked back behind another...)  

End with them gaming the next time - Erin still in Providence tending to her ailing mother, when the phone rings.

"Geneva, it's Traci.  We need to talk."

Fade to black.

• "Could have been worse - could have been Justin Timberlake's greatest hits." - Brock
• "I hope he gets bit by the puppy and gets demon rabies and..." - Geneva
• "If you had some kind of precog information, you would know, when you told me the lie, that I would call you back!" - Geneva
• "I think we..." "Crispin Steele Investigations."  "And the rest of us." - Geneva/ Crispin/ Josh
• "Can I just call you dumbass now and get it over with?" - Geneva
• "No!  That's one of the rules!  You cannot come up with your own codename!" - Evan
• [Speaking of holy water] "Generally speaking, things that are EVIL recoil from things that are GOOD!"  "Maybe it's Jewish." - Crispin/ Evan
• "Josh, this is your dog, yes?"  "Yes.  NO!" - Crispin/ Josh
• "Would you quit screaming?  You're yelling at a puppy!" - Geneva
• "Are you Roman Catholic?" "That's what I check on the form..." - Crispin/ Josh
• "You don't consider that strange?"  "Not compared to vampire fish." - Geneva/ Crispin
• [Josh burps] "Did you hear what the dog just did?" - Josh
• "Like he got all the way here and couldn't figure out which of five houses it was!" "Maybe..." - Crispin/Geneva
• "Solved!  Get out the big stamp!" "Doesn't happen often with Steele Investigations." - Evan/Brock
• "Books make good English" Evan
• "He said he's got a GAY RAHGE!" - Brock
• "Does everyone have weapons on them?  No?  We'll stop by my house then." - Geneva
• "You don't see stars in the tunnels."  "You do when you're hit in the head." Brock/Evan
• "There's jumping TO conclusions, and then there's jumping PAST conclusions..." Evan
• "Crispin, once we catch him, what do we do with him?" "I hadn't thought that far yet!" Brock/Crispin
• "Yet another ill-concieved Crispin Steele plan." - Geneva
• "I'll have you know that ill-concieved plans are the bread and butter of what we do." - Crispin
• "This is not LICK-PROOF!" - Evan
• "Super HELL puppy!" - Evan
• "So why is it afraid of holy water?"  "Well, it is the government..." - Brock/Evan
• "It's gotta be a certain age before you're housebroken.  Like Geneva." - Brock
• [To Brock] "Speak for yourself - I wasn't the one wetting the bed at the last sleepover." -Geneva
• [Taking pictures of dead ghouls] "Christmas cards for next year!" - Crispin
• [re: wet, dead ghouls] "Oooh!  That's a smell that stays with you!" - Josh
• "But the good news is, they're geekier than we are."  "They're the uber-geek's uber-geek." - Evan/Brock
• "I'm placing my faith in the Christmas spirit." - Crispin
• "I prefer he not run to the bad guy, get his throat slit and bring the apocalypse." "Well, our work would be done here..." Geneva/ Evan
• "[kicking open door] Is this the place with the four pizzas?" - Brock
• "[after baldwin changes] Sorry about the holy water thing..." - Crispin
• "This morning I was opening Christmas gifts, now I'm facing down guns of madness!"  "Merry Christmas, dude." Crispin/ Evan
• "Eat hot photons martian slime!" - Evan
• "This hootenanny of evil ends now!" - Crispin
• "Of all our concerns, that's the worst.  Evil Christmas music." - Evan

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