Updated the entry for scary Businessman with a picture that I find fairly appropriate...
The very Brief Synopsis (Note: maybe slightly out of sequence)
The Agent and the Loremaster went to Club Siren to speak to Kalliope. On their way in they briefly encounter a strange, very large and intimating man in a business suit who was just leaving the club in the early evening. An attempt to communicate was quickly brushed off and the stranger left.
She readily identified Marius Vulpas as the body of the Shark and was devastated by his death. He had been her bodyguard, head of security, chief Agent and best friend since they were children. She has no opinions on his relationship with Marcie, she was a sweet girl after all. When the strange man is mentioned Kalliope has an obviously fearful reaction and is clearly terrified of the man but due to political considerations she cannot tell them anything about him other than to warm them away as the stranger is a Descendant of one of the Greater Powers. She also says that the Agent may want to look into any recent arrivals form her homeland.
Also of Note at the location was another stone tablet she had in a glass bookshelf. It is similar to the one that was found at Marcie's apartment. Lastly the wall of Kalliope's office was occupied by a large Salt-water aquarium that looked out into the club itself but no one on the outside could look into the office. In the Tank was one over-large, jealously protective and angry lion fish that watch them like hawks.
In the meantime The Shyster bailed the Warrior, and the Redneck out of jail then they got together with the Photographer to go back to the scene of the Gator attack. While there the Photographer found a voodoo doll hidden under the driver's seat of the SUV and also noticed a pair of metal stakes out in the swamp in the direction the gators had attacked from. While looking around the dead gator with the strange spine started to move, illiciting an almost immediate reaction from Marty who promptly shoot it in the head again. The shot dislodged the spine which promptly jumped off the head and started to skitter away as fast as it could. Several shots were made until final the Warrior potted it with an Evocation and vaporized it and a two-foot circle of muddy earth. However the Photographer did get several pictures of it while it was escaping.
Later Marty, Ethan and Brian went to have a chat with Papa Zidane while Melon went to process the film. After some brief and amusing interaction that resulted from them being 3 white guys in a Jamaican-Cajun eatery they got to meet with Papa Z. Papa examined the Voodoo Doll and told them that it was a fake designed to look real, but was otherwise worthless. Otherwise Marty made a new friend ...maybe, he IS white after all...
After some discussion the group with Marty realizes that Ethan has not actually met the Rabbi or really been brought in on the whole Solutions Unlimited group though that was part of his express purpose in traveling to Miami. So Marty calls the Rabbi who arranges for everyone to meet at the Winchester to make introductions all around and discuss the nature of events in the city. During this time Agent Fabian gets a message with the results of the Autopsy of Marcie/Marius. The results state that Marcie was hopped up on some bizarre blend of chemicals that the M.E. believes may have been a Hallucinogen of some kind. The Examiner also believes that it was the Chems that killed her; Marcie was known to have a weak heart and was in fact slated for Heart Replacement Surgery in the coming weeks. He also receives a callback on the prints run from the hand at the SUV scene which belonged to one of Eduardo's bodyguards. They part ways and agree to meet in the morning to go out to Olympic Key to look for some more clues.
Eventually things broke up and most folks went home and most went to sleep. Gavin stayed up to do some research on the new tablet and found a reference to something called the "Font and the Tree". Marty paid a visit to Renato Trujillo to bring him up to speed. He gives Renato the Desert Eagle and told him what he knew and that his brother was likely dead. Renato tells him he had no idea who his brother was meeting, he had a lead on some kind of new business. As they are talking Renato receives a call from the Lobby Desk and once he gets it he drags Marty out front to find Eduardo's body dangling naked off a lamp-post outside, his body covered in bloody marks. Naturally this gets Agent Fabian woken up a mere 30 minutes after he went to sleep so naturally he gets a hold of Gavin to get to the scene. Melon is called in as well. When the body is finally cut down the Examiner finds that it is covered in carved lines apparently meant to represent Vodoun Script, but Gavin believes it is badly done script designed to throw suspicion onto some local Bokor or another.
Eventually everyone gets back together the following morning to take the Pirates boat out to Olympic Key. There they meet Etahn’s friend Hiapo, a big Samoan Hawaiian who runs the only real bar on the Key, “Volcano”. He is able to tell them that some stranger, who matches the description of the Strange/Scary Businessman from outside of Club Siren, came through not too long ago and apparently went up to the Riley Estate but he has no idea who he is. So they rent a pair of old VW “Things” Hiapo has available and head up to the house. After some brief discussion Agent Fabian contacts Elias Donovan, the son of Nolan Riley (The Infamous Explorer and Adventurer), who gives him permission to enter the Mediterranean-style house (Red tile roof with a central courtyard) to search it for clues and gives him the entry code. In the house they find lots of random things including a two-hundred foot long study/office that Dr. Riley used for his research. The walls were full of shelves occupied by books, knick-knacks, tools and various archeological treasures. The wall facing the Courtyard is occupied by a vast sea-water aquarium full of brightly-colored fish, sea-urchins, coral…and three large oddly-colored lobsters; one blue, one white and one yellow. On one of the long row of trestle-tables in the middle of the room they find a recently cleared space that is now occupied by copious notes and photographs (Including one of the stone tablet from Marcie’s apartment) sadly all of the writing is in Greek but at least Melon was able to take several pictures before she and Ethan went down to the lower level of the Estate to examine and empty shark-tank. Before they could continue their investigate Marty just HAD to taunt the Lobsters…
Who promptly leapt to the attack and transformed into giant lobster/man hybrid monsters.
What followed was an epic battle, a tale to be told throughout the ages…or at least later on this week it will be told in detail. The end result was a lab full of precious ancient relics smashed to pieces, nearly consumed in fire and filled with the delicious scent of cooked lobster…and that’s where we left off.
