Due to an annoying puppy and a brief power outage The events herein may not be in proper chronological order Wednesday November 14, 2018 2315 Eldritch arrives and spend 15 minutes casting an identify spell. Standard triggering effects are Midnight, Sunrise, and Sunset. Thursday November 15, 2018 00:00 As midnight approaches the freezing rain stops but it remains bitterly cold. 00:10 Paladin asks Eldritch if he can discern the triggering event and discover who the spell will banish. Eldritch admits that is beyond his power or expertise but he will go to the office and contact Washington to see if there is someone who might be able to help. Eldritch does say that it promising as PRIMUS has been trying to work out the mechanics of the spell since The Exodus. After he leaves the group starts to discuss what options, resources, and help they might be able to pool together. Paladin starts things off by calling Sophitia Alexandria, the demigoddess baker in San Francisco. He boyfriend answered the phone but put her on. Paladin explains the situation and she agrees to contact her relatives on Olympus to see if they might be willing (or able) to help. She says that she will have to journey to Olympus to talk to them so it might take a while. The team discusses contacting the Vampires since some of them might also be sorcerers. It is also suggested that they could contact the Saietta family. The idea of contacting the cannibals and vampires are rejected by the majority. Kismet tells everyone about the Mages of the World of Darkness (which may or may not exist). She also says that the Exodus spell probably removed them from the world anyway. Reaching a bit of a dead end Kismet, Revenant, and Network head off to explore Twisted Thoughts publishing (the place where Gloria Week's work husband worked as a manager). Paladin places a call to Cardinal Thomas Alessi. The phone is answered by a man who identifies himself as Brad Majors. At Paladin's insistence Brad wakes the Cardinal and brings him to the phone. When the Cardinal is told about what has happened Paladin asks if was any resources that the church could provide in breaking the spell. The Cardinal offers to get in touch with a Witch Hunter that the church knows. Cardinal Alessi says that he will contact The Witch Hunter and have him call Paladin as soon as possible. With nothing to do but wait Paladin places himself at the Trouble Alert in case anyone needs help or protection. Okina Maguro (Big Tuna) does a mental review of which organized crime families use metahumans. Among the Italian families he quickly identifies Mr. Fixit, Silvermane, Piranha Jones, and Hammerhead. The Antonov Bratva has made use of a powerful witch called The Crone. She is known to demands very high prices for her services. Okina Maguro himself was an unwilling employee of the Tsukihama-gumi Yakuza. He concludes that every criminal organization will use metahumans when they can afford them or the need is great enough. Okina wonders if The Crone might be able to undo the curse. If not she might be able to provide some answers about it. The Antonov Bratva is currently under new management. The vigilantes Constable and Bear (formerly of the Brooklyn Brigade) murdered the organization's Pakhan. Since the death of Boris Antonov his family has been under the control of Yakim Grigorii Ignatiev. Ignatiev, like Boris before him, conducts his legitimate business by day at his professional offices but at night he runs the criminal enterprise from the Russian Tea Room. Okina Maguro decides to call on Grigorii at the Tea Room. He wants to see of Grigorii will make introductions between him and the Crone. Despite the late hour Mr. Ignatiev is at his table. Okina asks the Maitre D to tell Mr. Ignatiev that he would like to see him. After a brief consultation the Maitre D returns to lead Okina to Ignatiev's table. After being invited to sit (Okina accepts but only after making sure the chair is sturdy enough for him) Ignatiev asks him what does he want? Okina summarizes the issue with the contagious spell and asks if Ignatiev can introduce him to The Crone? Ignatiev says he is not inclined to do favors for Okina and his people. Okina tells him that he isn't working for the Yakuza anymore. Ignatiev smiles and says he is well aware of that but ever since the battle with the Genocide Robots at the Bunker it is know that Okina is associating with the Brooklyn Brigade. Ignatiev tells him that The Crone does not work cheap. Okina starts to dismiss the cost but Ignatiev tells him that The Crone does not always take money. 'Let us say for example that Boris Antonov wanted her to eliminate the Brooklyn Brigade. She might agree but her price might be Boris' eldest daughter or perhaps his first born son. Her price might be very much more than you are willing to pay.' Okina says that they will cross that bridge when they come to it. He starts to rise thanking Ignatiev for arranging the introductions but Ignatiev tells him to wait a moment. He is willing to contact The Crone on Okina's behalf but he is won't do it for free. Okina asks what doe he want? Ignatiev smiles and points out that there are other Bratva organizations operating in the city and with the loss of their previous leader they have been circling him like vultures. There are two in particular that are thorns in his side and he would like the Brigade to neutralize (by whatever means the Brigade is comfortable with) at least one of them. What Bratva groups are they? The first is the Red Ghost Bratva. The Red Ghost is the same one that was one of the nemesis of the Fantastic Four Pre-Exodus. Okina is familiar with the leadership of that organization: The Red Ghost, a mad genius who can become desolid. He is aided by three super powered apes. A shape changer, a brick, and one that manipulates magnetism in the same vein as Magneto. Okina does not know how many soldiers the Red Ghost has in his employ. The other Bratva group causing him problems is run by someone calling themselves 'Mafia Princess'. They are new on the scene. Okina knows nothing about them, neither does Ignatiev. He knows only that their thugs are chipping away at the edges of the Antonov's territory. Okina agrees. He even suggests that they might take both rival Bratvas out of the equation. After all neutralizing criminals is what the Brooklyn Brigade does anyway. The Twisted Thoughts Publishing company is a lonely desolate building among other lonely and desolate buildings, only narrow gaps separated the buildings from each other. The gaps are wide enough for a person to walk down but with very meager clearance on either side. Debris and garbage pile ankle deep or more on the ground. What made Twisted Thoughts stand out was five powerful floodlights on the roof of the building illuminating the front sidewalk. Three of the five lights are working and one of those flickers at random intervals. An alley runs behind the building where trash and dumpsters are located. Using Kismet's broom the group flies to the roof. A heavy air conditioning unit is there, along with junciton boxes for various electronic wiring, a rusty metal door that leads within, and a skylight. The sounds of machinery can be heard within. Using the skylight they see three men working the presses. Two who are collecting the printed pages from the printers, then taking them to the binding press, and one man drinking coffee making sure the others are doing their jobs. Revenant uses his attraction power to pull the door open. The stairs beyond were in good shape and would not creek as they were constructed of concrete with metal piping used for handrails. The team descended to the publishing company's second floor. The sound of the printers running downstairs was clearly audible as well as providing a gentle vibration on the floor. The floor looks like originally it was for offices for the company back when it was more successful, now it was being relegated to miscellaneous storage. A quick check showed several desks, an odd assortment of name plates, and bundles of books from previous production runs. Some of the volumes include: A Report on Canadian Provinces (dated 1965), a text on teaching yourself to be a stage magician, and a book detailing the circulatory system of the North American bear. There were also several filing cabinets with decades old records in them. Nothing current or apparently useful. Turning invisible he crept down the concrete stairs (with metal pipe handrails) to the production floor. The door to the production floor is open ajar. He pushed it open a bit further to slip through. The guy with the coffee seems to notice something amiss but decides to shrug it off. Network and Kismet sneak down the stairs and join the invisible Revenant on the main floor. They exit the production area. The rest of the floor is dedicated to the manager's office, the bookkeeping office, and the employee break room. Their they find two computers (old Apple desktop personal computers) direct connected to each other. Network boots them up and examines the content of each. He searches for any references to the Livre d'Eibon. He comes up empty. There is no reference to that cursed tome. The next step is to examine the company's financial records. There are no large or unexplained influxes of cash for the company. Twisted Thoughts did have its workman's compensation insurance rates go up after Elliot Weeks went mad. Beyond that the only thing that is curious is that each time the company is on the verge of insolvency a contract for a run of a self published book comes in and rescues them. He digs into the nature of the books that saved them. They are books such as a self published collection of poems, someone who wanted mass copies of his travel logs, diaries, and so on. Nothing that, on the surface, shows a connection to Demon. Failing at that he looks up all the information on Elliot Weeks. He gets his pay information, address, and workers review. It looks like Elliot was racking up overtime pay in the time before he lost his mind. Having found nothing incriminating the heroes put everything back they way they found it, except that Network took one of the extra copies of how to become a stage magician, and left. They decide their next stop will be checking in on Gloria Weeks, Elliot's wife. They find her town-home. He car is not parked in front of the building and all lights are dark, considering the hour the lack of lights isn't suspicious. The lock on her door is mechanical so Network is unable to will it open. Revenant floats around the house looking for an unsecured window. He finds one that leads into what looks like a child's room. He doesn't see any sign of the child so he lets himself in. He notices that there is a layer of dust on everything, like the house has not been occupied for several months. Letting the rest of the trio in they do a quick search. It seems like the family intends to come back at some point as the power (and other utilities) are still on. They find uncashed paychecks from the Smiley Brother's Circus Museum made out in the name of Gloria Weeks. She was a tour guide there. Network looks for a computer. There is a desktop PC in the family room that the child (Jesse, age 11) used for homework and to stay in touch with her friends. Hacking Jesse's accounts he find that she is still in contact with her friends but she is in Iowa. Working backward the posts tell that after her dad was hospitalized her mom took her to Grandma's house in Iowa. They went there because mom needed the emotional support of her mom. They have been in Iowa for the last 8 months. It seems extremely unlikely that Gloria and Jesse were in New York for the meeting Kismet had with them and Doctor Cedric Greer. Searching the house further they find a hidden compartment in the master bedroom that contains red robes, the kind of robes you would wear if you were a member of Demon. The robes are much to large for the 5 foot 2 inch Gloria weeks so they seem to be Elliot's. They also find that Elliot also worked part time at the Smiley Brother's Circus Museum. Revenant finds a family photo. He asks Kismet if this was the woman (and child) that she met at Doctor Cedric Greer's office. The pictures match. Since it is unlikely that Gloria and Jesse came to New York for that meeting they believe that someone used a disguise spell to look like Elliot's wife and child.  Revenant suggests that it might be time to go visit Elliot Weeks at the mental hospital and skim his mind to see what he might know. Kismet says she does not have access to Elliot until Friday. In a surge of terror she realizes the trigger for the spell might be dawn Friday morning as it would get rid of whoever was pestering Demon before the Brigade had a chance to discover how to undo the curse! Luckily Elliot Weeks is a patient at St. John's Episcopal Hospital. Kismet is on good terms with the staff there because back during Helping Hands. She hopes that her contacts there will let her see the patient before the Friday permission goes into effect. Finishing at the house they prepare to leave. Network takes the tower of the Week's computer with him. 2:00:00 AM The Witch Hunter calls Paladin. After inquiring about how he might be able to aid the Brooklyn Brigade in the hunting of a witch Paladin explains that what they need is a counter spell and/or a powerful sorcerer to undo the curse. Are you that person? The Witch Hunter regretfully answers that he does not think so but still is willing to aid in any way that he can. Paladin asks how long would it take for him to get here, about three hours. Paladin holds onto the phone number the Witch Hunter called from for future use. During the wee hours of the morning Paladin notices on the internal monitors that Babs (Barbra Satin, their mechanic) doing maintenance on the vehicles in the motor pool while in the nude. 03:00AM Sophita calls Paladin. Her people (the Olympians) are not interested in going up against the Mythos but gave her the name of a goddess who has battled it many times over the ages. Bast has declared herself a defender of mankind against the chaos of the Elder Gods. Sophita is going to try to contact Bast and in the meantime she is trying to convince her boyfriend, Supremacy, to ask his father for help. Supremacy's father is none other than Victor Von Doom. The biggest hurdle in trying to recruit Doom is that he is not particularly pleased that his son decide to become a pastry chef instead of helping his family conquer the world. Paladin tells Sophita to remind Supremacy and his father that it is in their best interested to stop this contagious spell before it ensnared Doom himself. She promises that she will but her boyfriend is very stubborn and does not know if it will do any good. In the meantime she will try to reach Heliopolis, the dimension the Egyptian Gods have retreated to, in order to consort with Bast.