Jackson White chased Tom Winters off into the woods after an exchange between the two in which Tom trashtalked about knowing Jackson White was closeted.
Tom was then tracked and attacked by an unknown monster with a large number of tendrils. He disappears, and cannot be found.
Day 1
Father Corpheus Scyllo leads a group of unruly followers to the Monroe High School, alleging the wealthy patrons involved were responsible for Tom's "death".
Jackson is notably antsy about his sexuality's perception.
The teens unite in the Tabletop Club's room. Joined by Duane Logan, younger brother of a deceased local football hero, they start planning how to find out more about the disappearance.
Contact is made with Corpheus, and he's persuaded to stop his march on the school.
The students head out to the Sandon Wildlife Preserve / "Phantomwood Forest", which has a ghastly history. Using a drone they see a clearing in the woods. Moving it down, they see 8 dark idols representing a sort of pagan pantheon of gods. They move the drone away when noise approaches the clearing.
It is discovered students from the other local high school - Coolidge High - have disappeared. They are Aaron Cascade (local bully), Elwood Sexton (hedonistic playboy), and Tobias Hynemann (Ill Boy).
Heather meets Daniel and Miles, from Coolidge High.
Jayden possibly encounters the monster and is saved by ducking into the front lawn of the Nyczus Family and seeing the teenage son of the family, Xander.
Mina meets prosperity gospel preacher Kellon Nyczus at her family home, and overhears an argument, as well as seeing a strange item being handed over. She ascertains her father and Kellon are both cultists.
Mina then sees a strange note bearing a name - Zayufur. This is quickly linked to one of the totems in the forest - Zayufur being a god of sexuality, taboos, forbidden pleasure, duality and rebirth.
Day 2
Mina and Duane investigate the photos her club took, discovering a strange red haired young man (identified later as Reiji of the Million Spells) was in the forest and is possibly involved. They also discover a personal investigation by Carter, one of the jocks, into something...
...this something being that Jackson White has been secretly attending gay circuit parties under the identity "Jay-Jay Hotstuff". These photos were apparently dropped off at Carter's home.
Mina goes to the police about events in the forest, leading Damien Winston and other policemen to head out there.
Mina goes to her home to investigate the wine room, leading to her discovering a secret passage which seems to radiate a fearful aura. Passing thru it, she discovers a place called Oron'gur, which had a Scrying Pool...
...Where she witnesses a monster called The Everliving possess the police's cars and sculpt them into a body for itself. It then slaughters the police, except for Damien. The Everliving then reveals it knows Matthew Streiss and wants a message given by Damien.
Mina returns and meets up with Duane Logan, whereupon they see a badly wounded Damien, deciding to rescue him. However a call to the police reveals someone else has taken over the dispatch and Sandfield PD.
Corpheus Scyllo happens to be nearby and helps get Damien medical help in his church.
James, Kyle and Dave go out to Jackson White's rather creepy estate and Kyle discovers the truth about Jackson - including that Jackson is very much into Kyle.
James and Dave discover a book revealing the second deity, The Dark God of Deals, Azekred the Crimson King, who is also associated with spiders.
Dave runs off, and runs into Reiji.
James almost gets into trouble with Kyle and the maid.
Heather and Merry investigate the goings on at Coolidge Central High, discovering Jackson's dad is involved in local student politics to recruit teens early, that a lot of suspicious stuff including ghost sightings went on at Coolidge High. Heather gets the number of Matthew Streiss, who agrees to tutor the teens in "ways to defend themselves".
Jayden returns home after his own run in with Reiji earlier, and sees a strange link on his internet search for info on Azekred. There, he ends up on a Vision Quest where he inhabited the form of his ancestor Sir Rhodric during the Viking Age of England. He swiftly has a nervous breakdown, and is brought back to the modern day by a magical magpie named Isabella whose head can become a galaxy in the process of bringing Jayden to and from his vision.
This leads into the reveal that the cult has been active since the Viking Era, at least. Korir and Wenillro were active a curiously long time, and simply faded from history rather than being logged as ever having died.
Day 3note Technically 5 due to a time skip
The teens review what they know, and decide to go ahead with training from Matthew Streiss. In their meeting they see new athlete in town Pablo, who is curious about their club and what's going on. He gets a little weirded out by them, and decides ultimately to go home by himself.
This marks the beginning of a Genre Shift. The teens begin to learn how to use the setting's vague Magic System to defend themselves against the various forces increasingly prominent in their town.
Matthew brings the team inside after a demo and unlocking their "mana circuits", and begins training them in ways to use magic. The Investigation Club learns among other things how to use magic to reinforce the body, and other ways to use magic, including creating weapons and casting spells - which involve belief at least to start with.
Following Mina unleashing a gigantic fireball, the Investigation Team splits up on their way home.
At roughly the same time, Pablo - heading home - has a quite horrific experience with something lurching out of the woods. Following a brief chase, Pablo is told about where he can go to escape from it by a disembodied voice. It is thus he learns that the creature cannot cross moving water. The voice identifies itself as Tom Winters, and he says he was grabbed up by that thing and taken to wherever it came from. The monster's appearance is also fully revealed.
Mina heads home and encounters two corrupt "police officers" who have some sort of creepy intentions for her. They try to push her against the ground, and when Xander Nyczus intervenes they shoot him - which does exactly nothing to him. Xander kills the cops and acts like this is a regular occurrence for him. He brings Mina back to his father's place for the night, where she sees Carter and Eli training out front, thus revealing their membership in whatever dark organization Xander has membership in.
Heather runs into a rather creepy man on her way home, and he eventually tries to break into her house and ransack it for valuables. He turns out to be her first magic using opponent - Yoji Rikumo "the Spider", a former Yakuza enforcer. Heather is motivated into fighting and using magic more powerfully by Rikumo knocking out her mother spitefully, and ultimately Heather blasts him out of her house - whereupon the criminal's own reinforcement ends the fight accidentally.
Day 4
The team heads to school, and discovers that the student Marco Di Gracia assaulted Jackson White's closest friends, and the confrontational jock immediately leaps to them being involved. While the team gets into a bit of a shouting match, it's Duane who throws the first punch. They're separated, Duane seeming to be under some sort of magical effect. Jackson can notably see the magical effects present without needing to have his circuits opened up. Marco is revealed to be a "disaster freak" / a fan of natural disasters who chases among other things tornadoes just for footage.
It turns out to be another student, working with Marco. This one is named Alan Godfrey, who has a powerful compelling voice, which he used to enthrall the students en masse and create a riotous atmosphere.
He's interrogated - and reveals that Marco has some pretty big plans. The heroes however leave him alone as they go confront Marco, who is indulging his god complex by conducting target practice on the campus security technicians with his lightning bolts.
The team confront Marco, who reveals his rather insane plans to use his power over natural disasters to create a new order maintained entirely by teenagers. The heroes are having absolutely none of his deranged power fantasies.
The fight breaks out, with Marco outright dropping lightning bolts on the team. Some handle it better than others, with Pablo having a rough introduction to magic based fighting. As Mina stomps around trying to unbalance Marco (somehow), the other teens like Heather try and separate Marco from his staff, which seems to be his medium.
Ultimately Marco tries to drop a lightning bolt on Jayden, who winds up channeling his darkest emotions and leaping upon him. James uses a Curse Spell (not that he knows what that is) to sicken Marco. The insane teenager threatens Kyle, using him as a hostage to try and force our heroes to back down.
...Only for one of his followers holding up Kyle to knock out the other follower and reveal it was Jackson White the whole time, who reveals in front of the team that he likes Kyle. Unbalanced by the shock, Marco has six shades of tar beaten out of him by the ensuing All-Out Attack.
A guy in biker gear arrives on the scene only after the fighting is done, and takes off his helmet, revealing Matthew Streiss. Matt admits he brought something along just in case, alludes to people from the magic side helping out with the wounded and dead, and hands James a certain badge of courage as a token of leadership. This however sets off Jayden, still in a jealous rage, who pounces on him trying to obtain it. James tosses the badge aside and calls out Jayden for his behavior. Matthew realizes Jayden is still using his dark emotions.
After a loud argument, Jayden runs off, while the others follow to try and comfort / calm him down. As this goes on, Matthew reveals why using such dark emotions is not a good idea - as it puts the person using them down the path of the Fiendbonder - one who uses their negative emotions to drive demons towards themselves, and then battles the demon until it respects the Bonder enough to sign over a portion of its power in the form of tattoos.
A message on Jayden's phone comes in - revealing that indeed, the demons know about his dark emotions. After some ideas, the team decide to set a trap, Mina infiltrating through her family and the "dark church" of Nyczus, and Jayden seeming to go along with the individual named Reiji who contacted him by phone. It is through this we also learn the name of the cult the teens have been battling - The Umbral Horde.
The teens are introduced to the Orik'eth, a shady group of masked doctors / morticians / jailers / memory changers who alter memories in order to preserve the masquerade, most having disdain for the invasive form of magic they use. The Orik'eth also take Marco away through a portal before disappearing themselves after a brief message.
Meanwhile, it's revealed that the Orik'eth did not take away Kyle's memories or Jackson's, indicating that for whatever reason, they had experience with the magic side BEFORE that day, and thus did not merit removing their memories of the battle with Marco.
Jayden is dropped off by Matthew by the woods, where he meets the clumsy and eager Reiji, Dhakar waiting in the wings.
Day 5
Jackson White has been outed by Carter - now a card-carrying member of the Junior Umbral Horde - in the interest of blackmailing him for more money. He's being attacked by Tristan Frentescu, a brutish East European with connections to a gang of homophobic hooligans.
James, Mina and Pablo step in to stop the fight, to which Tristan pledges enmity and to get back at them.
Jackson reveals his issues, his past, and his father's malign influence over him. He acted as homophobic as he did in order to get his possibly murderous father's attention off of him, fearing he might face the same fate as his adoptive mother - who mysteriously disappeared when he was a child.
Accepting his true self, Jackson decides to make up for his prior misdeeds by helping the team find Tom and resolve the issues at hand.
The team divides into two groups to handle two separate plots;
The Mansion Crew - Mina, Jayden and Heather - heads off with a newly repentant Jackson White to investigate a possible demonic haunting in the mansion Jackson goes to for his parties.
The House Crew - comprised of Pablo and James - goes to confront Carter.
Inside the mansion, Mina Heather and Jayden discover a Demon of Zayufur was sealed there by Mr. Further, due to its idea of fun being a bit too extreme even for him. The demon identifies itself as Kethyll the Perverse, an ancient fiend who has been around since the Roman days...and who seems to know Mina's parents.
Revealing Mina's parentage and what really happened, Kethyll exults in Mina's troubles.
When they move to leave, Kethyll takes advantage of phrasing and the way the seal was constructed to escape the third floor back to the Realm of the Gods, the distortion and alien geometries of the place fading.
The House Crew meanwhile confronts Carter at his place...
At which point Xander, Alan and Eli all show up, and reveal Carter's allegiance. Rather than fight however, Xander reveals his villainous crush on Mina and gives them a "favor" - revealing an apocalyptic prediction of events to come.
James and Pablo do not exactly buy it, though James is rather rattled by the terms used.
Xander reveals that Frentescu's gang of toughs has been stalking them there, out of courtesy for them being Mina's friends. But he likewise indicates this is his last courtesy in such a manner. Leaving through a portal, James and Pablo are left with decisions to make.
They confront Tristan's gang of toughs, and a quick display of magically augmented physical ability spooks the toughs into flight - as well as resulting in Frentescu soiling himself in fear of them. He flees promising it is not over - even though his grip on downtown Sandfield has been irretrievably shaken.
After the confrontation with Kethyll, Jayden is summoned for a ritual to become a Fiendbonder by Reiji and Dhakar. The two reveal some facts about the demon, and when Reiji summons him, there are some amusing details included about the dark duo.
Jayden agrees to fight a "Feral Shadow" - a sort of shadowy demon whose sole ability is preying upon emotional vulnerabilities and growing stronger the more someone falls prey to its verbal taunting. It proceeds to press the wrong button however and Jayden absolutely crushes it after a first blow sent it reeling. Jayden emerges from the fight empowered as a Fiendbonder...though he doesn't know how good he feels about extracting his power from that creature he is.
He is teleported home - and sees his mother is gone, at "work".
The rest of the team arrive home to see similarly tumultuous and rather auspicious scenes at home.
Day 6
The head of the Dark Gods of the Umbral Horde is revealed - Khaos, Dark God of Justice, Curses, Independence, Self Reliance, and Determination. Disdaining his own godhood, Khaos instead leaves the matter of fulfilling sincere grudges to his legion of warrior women, the Furies.
Xander and Bryce are already at each others' throats. Bryce due to My Sister Is Off-Limits and his innate programming to "protect" Mina being interpreted through his human-like biases, and Xander due to his growing and changing feelings for Mina, increasingly toward a real romantic nature.
The Investigation Team arrives at school, frazzled from the recent events. Jayden in particular, in what will become the start of a trend with him.
Damien's headed for the local It Shout-Out house, 92 Neibolt, whereas Mina is supposed to head off to an Umbral Welcoming Gala. Bryce gets super protective before ushering her off.
James, Pablo, Duane (now wearing a very tacky get up), Jayden and Heather all head to the House, while Kellon Nyczus tires of the "pleasantries" and decides to just try and kill everyone pursuing him and what he enabled to happen. So he sends Frankenstein's Monster after Damien Winston as well as anybody else helping him.
Damien is hitching a ride with a creepy southern trucker - but he's disposed of remarkably quick and gruesomely by Frankie. Damien runs off toward the house, bent on escaping the Monster, who is thankfully slow and ponderous... for now.
Neibolt is predictably creepy and haunted looking, and the teens meet Damien there - and the Monster not far behind.
Meanwhile, Mina arrives with a very well cleaned up Xander Nyczus at the Umbral Gala, where a number of people in various seemingly minor roles all go masks off figuratively by putting on literal masks and mingling in their true identity as Umbral Hordiers.
Mina also meets her mother there, a very loud and boisterous - and quite inappropriate - woman who very obviously enjoyed the Umbral life more than she enjoyed being a mother. Mina's mother, despite Xander only being 17, flirts with him - making the young man obviously uncomfortable, though he gets through. Mina for her part steps in for her fake (?) boyfriend.
Back with the teens, Frankenstein's Monster appears, tearing down the fence, and begins to fight. While it has powerful ranged attacks with its bolts and a chain, its obvious weakness is its ponderous speed and lack of ability to keep up with several ranged foes. Only Jayden is scared by Frankie.
At the Umbral Gala, Mina is told she is expected to participate in the yearly sacrifice to mark her debutante occasion. While this time it won't be a Human Sacrifice, it will be a Beast. Xander introduces Mina to the concept of the Dark God of Dragons and Ill Fortune, Varancain the Deceiver, as well as the Greater-Scope Villain - the Dark Father, Antonius Lucidius Malvo, an ancient priest who is superior to even the likes of Kellon Nyczus in the dark hierarchy.
Veronica Parker reveals she had her Coming Out Party in the late 1700s, revealing she is The Ageless. She also reveals she killed a date rapist named Claude - outright ripping out his heart with her bare hands. She also gives her daughter some murder advice. Such a good mother figure.
The teens on their end are blasting the Monster around like a sandbag, at least until it starts throwing lightning around. Though its movement is still slow and poorly coordinated.
Mina plays into Xander's parental issues once her parents go off to look into whatever Kellon's up to.
Pablo lands a kick with a drilling force of mana around his leg that skewers the Monster, which then gets backed up on to an exposed electrical transformer, frying the thing up but good despite its own electrical powers.
Jayden for his part while the other teens talk about what kind of horrid monster would reanimate such a creature starts smacking the downed form of Frankenstein's Monster around to try and make sure it stays dead...
And then it starts writhing again. Cracks formed across it at the conclusion of the last battle start spreading, and the creature itself even seems to find what is about to occur to it horribly painful even in its current state...
Mina goes upstairs in the Umbral Gala, where she discovers Kellon observing the battle, intent on it enough he doesn't notice the door opening - noting that the creature's "Adaptation Protocol" has gone out of control. Meaning even he doesn't know what the Monster is going to become at this rate. He is however quick to see the bright sides of this development.
Kellon snaps at Mina, and leaves to join the gala, but leaves a few things out.
Meanwhile, the Frankenstein's Monster undergoes a Body Horror transformation - its skin melting off its body and its bones turning into armor as reddened remaining tissue clings to its form. Its chain even melts into the form of a hammer. It now goes from groaning and moaning to nonstop screaming. Frankenstein's Monster -> Zombiestein.
The newly transformed monster is vastly more dangerous and incredibly hard to put down. If the earlier phase scared Jayden, this one petrified him. They blind it, damage it, but it keeps on coming. It keeps on coming. It never stops.
Mina manages to salvage some evidence from Nyczus' room - including a diary entry, and the reveal her mother left the note. She then heads back downstairs, her adversaries none the wiser, and is introduced to Antonius Lucidius Malvo - though he seems every bit a doddering grandfatherly type, the fact he presides over sacrifices yearly makes it clear he is not to be underestimated. Though he does embarrass Xander by recounting how much the young man looked forward to being Mina's date. He also reveals the nature of the sacrifice - murdering a Beast of the Light God of the Hunt, Ak-Velar, namely a unicorn.
The teens beat down on Zombiestein, and it more than returns the favor this time around, including electrocuting Pablo severely. The creature does however have a weakness in that it focuses on whatever attacked it last.
Xander offers to conduct the sacrifice in Mina's stead due to being worried about her, though Antonius states that what Mina does should be her decision rather than his or Xander's. Mina however sticks to her guns and goes ahead with being the one to carry out the sacrifice. Though Xander is still very obviously concerned. Antonius also throws Dhakar a bone by praising him for being helpful.
The ghastly procession begins - Attendant Demons and Dhakar wheeling in a gruesomely dispatched barely alive Unicorn for Mina to slaughter. It is obvious by what goes on that there's a lot of hard feelings with the Light God of the Hunt. Dhakar's part in the procession also reveals the Umbral Flag - a spider with a single eye at the middle. Eight legs, eight gods, one body to deliver venom.
Xander recalls his own Debutant Ball - where he apparently had to put down someone, vomited all over himself, and screamed for the individual in question to die while flailing with the Rite Knife.
Mina, enraged by the state of the Unicorn, kills it while making a prayer to Varancain for her revenge...and it seems the Dark God of Dragons heard her. When she vomits into a bucket provided expediently by Xander, her blood in her own vomit literally crawls out of it and becomes an avatar of the Dragon God. Varancain seems to put himself and Mina in a sort of "other state", distant from the real world, and gives her a deal: he is willing to give her one "Out" in any situation where she could only survive by means of fortune. However, she must demonstrate she is willing to "participate in his hateful games"...
He shows her images of Xander and Bryce, throughout their lives - Xander as an insecure and crying 12 year old, forced to start Fiendbonder Training by his adoptive father, and then growing to care for Mina. Bryce and his sincere love for his sister despite his abominable true nature. And so proud when he spoke without stuttering... and so, in exchange for the Deal, Mina must architect the death of Xander or Bryce - and then burn her bridges with the living boy as cruelly as possible. Mina agrees to the deal.
And finally, taking advantage of the creature's lacking attention span, the teens in the field stab it right through the back and then through the head...right as the Fake Police associated with the third faction begin to arrive. Due to all the noise being reported by locals. Whoops!
Mina has apparently fallen unconscious due to the vision of Varancain, and we learn the name of Daeth, Dark God of Time as Conrad reveals his wife also occasionally has visions due to a blessing from Daeth. Xander is concerned. None know of the Deal that Mina struck. She covers up well enough at least.
Right as the Fake Cops try and arrest the teens, James blinds them with the old Solar Flare...right as it seems there's still life in Zombiestein. As the kids make for a better position, Zombiestein starts butchering the fake cops. Damien leads the teens toward one of the police ammo vehicles, officially to try and make a getaway, but discovers the car is holding quite some fire power - the mighty Mana Accelerator Cannon, which has quite some story from New Dawn - and is quite capable of putting Zombiestein down.
The most drastic parts of the Umbral Gala wind down, and Mina starts to dance with Xander while listening in to any of the talk going on. Mina hears that Korir and Wenillro are still alive, Scythirax the Manifold (an ancient Warlord) has come back, and they'll all be converging in Sandfield. Xander for his part explains them as "old guard" - revealing as well the existence of an Ancient Akkadian Umbral Warlord named Nerkhun the Corpse King. Xander also reveals that Mordred Pendragon was the first Grandmaster, and crowned as such by Antonius - who has crowned every Grandmaster since.
The Mana Accelerator does not disappoint, and when the teens maneuver the car into range, they manage to get a clean shot in with the Cannon - which outright disintegrates Zombiestein entirely in a single shot - as well as leaving a trail in the path of its shot.
The Umbral hierarchy is revealed at the Gala - the branches are independent until the Grandmaster is chosen in a long and arduous process by the Eight Gods, whereupon he is crowned by Antonius - who takes on the role of Head Chaplain and senior advisor. When the Grandmaster is chosen, all branches unify under him. Xander continues dancing with Mina until the end of the Gala - whereupon he walks her to her car, and says he hopes to be her spring prom date...until Kellon abrasively calls for Xander to leave with him. Acting the part of the beaten dog, Xander slinks off.
Mina comes home to see Bryce making out with one of the popular girls from school. With a loud "Nope!" she leaves that situation where it was.
Meanwhile, the other teens talk as the situation de-escalates - James worrying about Jayden's mental state after the Fiendbonder training, and Jayden for his part panics when it's revealed Reiji wasn't lying about his mother. She is connected to the fake cops, and has been working on anti-magic materials and weapons. Damien also regrets not getting to interrogate any of the fake cops. And Pablo vomits.
Matthew arrives and takes some info from Mina about what's to come and how the night went. Matthew then sets the date for their big move to rescue Tom - the tenth of March, to intervene before Kellon can complete whatever "The Sculpting" is. They know he's at Orcath Mobile Base through the information recovered in Kellon's Journals and such. Now it's a matter of training for that big day to come. There's also Clara the Car who makes her first appearance - a...possessed car that is the "daughter" of a car that spent three weeks trying to kill Matthew a while back. New Dawn is wild, yo.
The training for the big day begins...
Day 7
Let's Get Down to Business indeed.
The Investigation Team gathers at a gymnasium to train - though Jayden is notably under the weather. So under the weather in fact that they get a call from Kyle. Matthew however manages to diffuse any suspicions about the situation for now. The others back him up on the cover story of a party.
Matthew sets the Investigation Team on to training against Phantom Soldiers, which can be increased in difficulty. The first round, they pretty much destroy the Phantom Soldiers.
The second round also goes well for the Investigation Team, and Mina takes a call from Bryce about the hills near Zanackt. Mina thinks about the Deal she made, and the fact Bryce might head out there, and how easy it would be to also send Xander there... but she also wonders if her sense for vengeance was taking over.
Mina gets a call from Xander next - he wants to go on a date (she agrees to it), and while she handles this, the Investigation Team hits Round 3 with the Phantom Soldiers.
This time however the Soldiers fight back more capably. Jayden retaliates with Confusion Fu, while Heather lets herself get hit and lets out a very refined GLURK, and then Mina rejoins the fight. The Team unites and fights off the remaining Phantom Soldiers, though with a lot of Jayden's panicked flailing. James also shows signs of growing into a leadership role.
At this point, the storyline forks into the first date, and the stakeout.
Matthew basically has Jayden wear a wire during dinner trying to hear any hint of Helen letting slip who she works for and why, but during the dinner, Jayden's anxiety bubbles over. Eventually, he and Heather both voice their frustrations with how things have been going once the stakeout well and truly failed. No new information gained, and Jayden is left substantially dispirited.
Mina deals with her "brother"'s protective nature and then heads out, and has a date with Xander Nyczus, who despite being a teenage cultist is a very charming, good date. Xander and her go to the skating rink, and enjoy dinner, skating, and afterwards, Xander entertains the idea of just running off with Mina. The two of them enjoy their night, enough that ultimately, Xander even decides to turn against his father and hand Mina the Orcath Base Backdoor Key.
Meanwhile, Helen is informed by one of her faction's agents, an Afrikaner Mercenary, about Matthew Streiss - making the Investigation Team's position less secret from her than they thought.
Jayden does eventually get the pep talk he needed - via time travel from Isabela, taking him to meet Father Gorrav, a Beastman Priest who proves very insightful, giving Jayden advice that gets him through a time of crisis.
Day 8
The day has arrived.
The Investigation Team takes a back route, trusting Xander Nyczus' Key to get them past the worst of Orcath Mobile Base. Jayden's glad it's almost done, Heather's...not okay but she's ready to fight, James is fully going forward into the supernatural - ready to ruin Kellon's day, Mina trusts her Umbral boyfriend, and Pablo is eager to jump right into the den.
They take Dominula Side Road to get the location, a safer path - but it's rotten with genetically engineered "Direwolves" off the beaten path - and there's a gargoyle that makes its home on the path. They shortly encounter the Dominulan Gargoyle as the first encounter. The Gargoyle gave Matthew trouble during his first few years, but nowadays, it's dealt with rather quickly by the Investigation Team - it does however have Uncertain Doom: it's not clear if the creature actually died.
They continue on from there and see Orcath Base, where they are able to look down and see what would've awaited them without Xander's help: a full, militaristic response from the Umbral Horde, alluding to the true depth of their resources.
They proceed inside with the key, and no response and no alarm proves Mina's trust is well placed. They end up finding more evidence about Cult Goings-On in a room. Including that Nyczus fooled more people than it seemed - an expy of the Caleb & Sophia cartoon among his many projects. James feels a lot of guilt due to thinking Mina's love for Xander is a farce and that there would be a response on this betrayal, which plays into his interactions with Xander going forward.
The reveals in the room also include that Kellon himself is a treacherous snake, eagerly deceiving his own boss and his own co-conspirator, eager to crown his own Grandmaster that would, predictably, answer ultimately to him. This "toy Grandmaster" being Tom. It's also revealed that Father Corpheus is another Umbral Priest, and is in fact the said deceived co-conspirator.
Matthew tries to guarantee them a return to normal - but it's made quite clear that's not in the cards any more.
The Investigation Team goes in to fight Kellon himself, while Matthew goes to rescue Tom from the Ritual Chamber. Kellon predictably talks a lot as he greets the team, enraging Mina immediately with his abusive attitude toward Xander. Threatening a gruesome end for them, Kellon begins the final battle in full...
James takes the lead and begins a sensible and effective strategy - while Kellon might have experience, he can't attack them all at once. And, realistically speaking, he's an elderly priest mostly involved with the cult's more social aspects - his fighting skills aren't on the level of some others.
Indeed, it doesn't take long for the Investigation Team to begin landing some serious hits on their foe. Kellon however utilizes a spell called Darkness Concerto - sending a screaming mass of human skulls flying at Heather in energy form... and he's immediately hit around some more. The numbers difference, and Kellon's lacking fighting ability becoming evident, he summons back up Zombiestein. His attack on Heather however fails due to Mina's intervention.
This time however the teens leave Zombiestein to Pablo alone, who outright checks the creature long enough to allow the others to attack a winded and increasingly damaged Nyczus. The creature cannot help him, leaving Nyczus to try and use spells to keep his foes off of him - a tactic that doesn't entirely work. Demonstrating that the villain outright couldn't level grind, Pablo singlehandedly sends Zombiestein flying back toward Nyczus, the creature that had formerly been an overwhelming threat now thoroughly handled by one member of the team by himself.
Nyczus in pure desperation summons up the very same Demon Beast that kidnapped Tom - and fuses it with Zombiestein. This produces an undead-demon abomination, with the original head of the undead monster outright splitting in half as a new one formed out of it. The final phase of the Nyczus Battle begins.
Though it's temporarily blinded by James and has its wings damaged by Jayden, it unleashes a grotesque attack at Heather - literally vomiting up acidic puke at her, while it then clashes with Pablo evenly. Heather attempts to run right through the acidic vomit, which leaves her badly scarred and damaged, out of the rest of the fight.
Jayden runs to Heather's side, starting their more friendly turn, while the others continue the fight. Mina fights fire with fire with acidic lances, while James tries burning it - but the creature's regeneration and mad laughter need a precise response. It attempts to finish off Heather and Jayden, but its lightning attack is deflected back via Mina. Seeing that the creature seems to be regenerating though slowly...
James comes up with a plan. The creature, momentarily stunned by its own lightning blown back on it, is unable to stop a metallic spike from being jammed into its chest - and being that the tissue is occupied by the spike, it can't regenerate that area. As it goes for James, it falls into Mina's trap - dirt and mud binding its arms and legs. Pablo damages one of its eyes, and the stage is set.
The teens push the holy stake further into the creature, Mina firing an earthen sphere at it that pushes it in further, followed by Pablo kicking the stake even further in, setting up for James to unleash a pseudo-Aura Braver that rips through the weak point they'd worked so hard to create. The final attack literally rips the Devilstein monster to pieces as the stake and the holy blade of flame spell connect. Jayden impales Kellon several times, but the cowardly priest escapes through a portal, even as he screams in agony.
With the battle won, Matthew enters - beaten up a bit himself from fighting Nyczus' defense forces and helping a battered Tom into the room. The person they'd started this to rescue is at last safe. With that, the Investigation Team leaves the fortress and heads back out - where Mina's continued love with Xander causes a bit of drama.
While the party is underway, Heather seeks Xander out for her own reasons, leading to a meet up on the roof that sees Xander deciding to try and talk to his leaders in the Umbral Horde.
However when the team returns to the bar, they find the clientele gathered around the TV, which displays an ominous message. Dubai had just been bombed and destroyed by the forces of Justin Henderson, the Cyborg. In particular, the Magic God Thor is outraged by this and decides to strike back at the villain. Thor does however also assuage Tom, who is probably feeling a little overwhelmed by this all coming out of nowhere.
This incident serves just as well to shatter the Masquerade into a million pieces.
Coverage of the existence of Magic however is distinctly negative in light of what happened, and Tristan Frentescu leads gangs of magic-hating locals searching for "witches". The Team, having to leave the Bar due to Parallaxus wanting to be sure his location and all its absolutely priceless artifacts are safe, literally drive by these witch hunting mobs - only safe due to the clout of Matthew Streiss as town football hero.
The day ends ominously, with Jayden finally getting an explanation from his mother - and his family driving away from the town...
March 18th: The day it happened.
The Takeover officially begins with Elijah's massive right wing militia army taking over the entire city on the back of their connections and sheer force. Encircling the city with the Green Wall mechanism, the militia hunts the Team throughout the entire area after listing them as agents of Justin Henderson. In the course of this, Mina is injured several times by bullets and the team only barely escape from more serious damages.
Xander stays back, and in a desperation move indeed summons Dhakar forth to distract the militia and assist his new friends in escaping. The last they see of him is a great explosion from that area, and no further sign.
They then have to run from the gargantuan machine-monstrosity called a Thresher (which Matthew has some experience with apparently), stalling it by damaging the ground it treads upon and making their way down the long road to the escape vehicle.
Matthew and Damien drive the teens to a Safehouse, where they would stay for several months. During which, Sandfield would change drastically...
