Nursery Crime
From RPGwiki
Following the raid there was two weeks of training. Major Pitt and Captain Giordino trained everyone in how to SCUBA dive. Captain Lister gave instruction in how to use the NBC suits and gave some weapons training. And Grakulus introduced them to their new vehicles. NLEF 5 were given an old pre-Rifts BMW Wanderschloss (Travelling Castle) as their mobile home, a Mule van for transporting goods, and a Mountaineer ATV outfitted as a mobile clinic. They were also introduced to the mission specialists who would help them in their quest. Calleigh DuPresne would be their mechanic, Doctor Carl Gregory and Nurse Fang their emergency medical team, Antonia Deane their psychic healer and Cat Walker an ‘acquisitions expert’ (or con artist).
When they finally set out they were given instructions to travel to Queenston Harbour. Their trip there would not be uneventful though. Activity from the Detroit rifts had unleashed several Ankhegs, strange worm-insect creatures with acidic saliva in their jaws. Three of them attacked the team, trying to drag one of the vehicles under the ground. The team drove them off, Sir Dominic and Aurora showing some accurate pistol fire. With Cat driving the Mule Ithsaryel was able to stand on the bonnet/platform and show off his shooting talent. Only Ash got caught by the creatures and almost killed by one of the beasts.
As night fell NLEF 5 approached the town of Otley Look, hoping for some kind of hospitality for the night. However Otley Look was a town in trouble. Nightly visits from vampires were draining the adult population of their strength and might soon have finished them off. Sir Dominic was keen to help them, and the others agreed to aid him. With the teams split into several watches it was Ash who spotted the first unusual sight; a light shining somewhere out in the dark. He investigated and discovered several graves, apparently those of children in the village. Unnervingly he had already seen some of those children walking around earlier.
Meanwhile Ithsaryel and Dominic were lured out of the town hall by one of the strange children who claimed to be lost and asked Dominic to take her back. When he touched her offered hand though he felt his soul being shredded, and the demonic creature in the angelic child’s body laughed. The other children emerged out of the dark and surrounded the cyber knight. Ithsaryel found his guns ineffective and only Dominic’s psi-sword and Aurora’s psychic powers seemed to hurt them. Meanwhile at the gravesite Ash tried to hamper the creature’s efforts by damaging the graves, but to no effect. Aurora managed to kill one of the creatures, but it was Ithsaryel who discovered that the real children had died of yellow fever several months previously and then dragged several of the parents over to the graves, forcing them to confront the unpleasant truth that their children were dead. Once the parents accepted that the things wearing their children’s faces were not their offspring the creatures’ grip on this reality was broken, and they vanished, screaming unearthly howls as they went, into thin air.
As they left Otley Look the next morning NLEF 5 had saved the village from the monsters, but only by destroying the last vestiges of the children. None of the parents thanked them as they drove away.
