August 25, 1995

A massacre occurs at the Bayview Halfway home in the early morning hours.  15 people are slain, 13 teenage boys and 2 adult councilors.  The 12 teenage girls who were staying at the house are missing.  That day the administrator of the facility, Mrs. Karyn Atilla, contacts Bill Johnson to find out what happened.  Dr. Thomas James (a.k.a. Hippocrates) begins his own investigation.  Using his contacts, he manages to assist in the corners inquest.  He is able to examine some of the bodies and gain access to the crime scene.  It is at the Bayview house that he encounters Bill Johnson (a.k.a. Hawk).  Dr. James and Mr. Johnson are acquaintances and they soon agree to pool their resources in the investigation.

Karyn Atilla (a.k.a. Atilla the Nun) had indicated to Mr. Johnson that a street punk known, as Shark is likely to know something about what happened.  Over the last few years Shark has been known to pick up runaway girls who later mysteriously vanish.  Since Atilla the Nun has opened the Bayview Halfway home she has been in a constant struggle with Shark over the fate of runaway girls in the city.  Hippocrates and Hawk resolve to pick up Sammy Shark Simone for questioning.

Using the Omega Van, disguised as a city water utility vehicle, they soon locate Shark at a bus station and take him by surprise.  Interrogation with penethol at Omega HQ proves disappointing and they soon dump him in front of a police precinct.  Later it will be realized that Shark is actually involved.  A poor choice of questions failed to get any useful information from him.

Hippocrates earlier examinations of the bodies, and the evidence at the crime scene, indicate that the killer was either a group of unknown animals or strong men with exotic weaponry.  The victims were shredded with large four-clawed hands.  Either a previously unknown martial art weapon was used on some sort of monsters were responsible for the massacre.  The Bayview house reeks with a bad fish-like smell.  In the pantry of the house it is apparent that something burst the door outward, something that came from the basement.

Dr. James and Mr. Johnson were able to find an ancient entrance to the old, abandoned, sewer system in the basement of the house.  They now decided to arm themselves and descend into the sewers to find out what evil may lurk there.

In brief they discover a colony of hideous fish-men that have abducted the girls for use as breeding stock.  They manage to save the girls, kill all the fish-men, and get away with only, routinely, serious injuries.  They also uncover a labyrinth of tunnels and deserted sewer passages that lead under Stewart Bay and out to the Gull Island lighthouse.  They also discover that the fish-men have an enormous golden altar that they intend to retrieve later.  They also have taken samples of fish-man slime, a burst incubation pod and a dead fish-man infant.

Not a whole lot for the police to discover here.  They were never aware of the existence of the fish-men, let alone their demise.  The rescued girls are agreeable to the idea that telling the police what really happened would most likely get them sent to the funny farm.  The girls agree to a story of mad cultists and a daring rescue by the Omega Team.  The police will get misleading information about the Omega Team at best, as long as all the girls stick to the story.

August 29, 1995

After allowing themselves three days to recover, Hippocrates and Hawk get the remainder of the Omega Team to help them in recovering the golden alter of the fish-men.  It is worth over $8 million and they cut it up to make lots of 1oz. gold ingots for various uses.  (Total of 20,064 ingots, 1 troy oz. Each, this campaign assumes gold to be worth $400 an oz.).  2,500 of the ingots are used to anonymously build the Bayview Halfway house a one million-dollar facility (Omega Team now has 17,564 ingots in their vault at HQ).  Realizing that Shark was probably involved with the fish-men they make plans to get him bailed out of jail so they can have another crack at making him talk.

They anonymously pay off a bondsman to bail him out and then capture him for interrogation.  Shark tells them of some contacts he has at an old warehouse.  They are drug dealers of a voodoo posse who dabble in the occult.  They are the ones who introduced him to the fish-men so he could start supplying them with girls.  The members of Omega Team are truly sickened by the depths of Sharks depravity.  For selling out his own kind (humans) to the fish-men, Shark becomes only the second prisoner of the Omega Team to be executed.  The body is incinerated.

Shark is never heard from again.  A warrant is issued for him when he fails to make his court date.  He is still listed as a fugitive from justice.

August 30

Scouting out the warehouse, the Omega team finds that it is located in an area of, mostly abandoned, old brick buildings.  The warehouse looks as dilapidated as the surrounding buildings at first glance.  Returning, in disguise[1], for a closer look shows that the building is actually well fortified with steel doors and concealed video sensors.  Much graffiti covers the outside of the buildings in the neighborhood; the warehouse is no exception.  However, intermingled with the graffiti on the warehouse are several obscure occult symbols.  While the team is able to identify them as occult their meaning is beyond the knowledge of the team members.  They take some quick, covert, photos of the signs in question and retire to try and find some answers.

Consulting with various sources they discover that the symbols they have seen are often associated with a group known as the Red Cabal.  Dancer knows that the Red Cabal is somehow tied in with the mysterious Tarot.  She is eager to raid the warehouse and find out what it holds.  Fortunately, for her, the rest of the Omega team is more than willing to take out the building as well.  The warehouses ties with the Cabal are more ominous since these are apparently the people who fixed up Shark with the Fish-men.  Research by the team also allows them to get a copy of a police report about the Cabal.  The report was filed by Hudson City police Lt. Theron Long who disappeared shortly after filing the report.

It is decided that a raid in daylight is the best approach.  After the experiences of Hippocrates and Hawk with the Fish-men, it is felt that a nighttime assault might be more dangerous.  The assault is scheduled for the 5 oclock rush hour.  Since the warehouse is in a low traffic area the team hopes to move in easily, while the response of the HCPD will be slowed by the traffic of the rest of the city.

The raid gets off to a poor start with the team making some amateur mistakes.  A 40mm HEDP grenade is fired at one of the garage doors from so short a range that it fails to arm.  Two Fragmentation and Two Concussion hand grenades are then lobbed from such close range that two of the team members are stunned and the throw away vehicle they are using is rendered undrivable[2].  Once they are inside the warehouse Hawk is killed by a kamikaze cultist with a grenade.  Nightstick is injured by a bullet that penetrates his ninja suit.  The cultist inside are all killed or incapacitated.  They also encounter a group of people being used to process drugs (mostly cocaine and heroin) for resale.  These people all seem to be in mindless trances and are uniformly pale in appearance.  None of the zombies are slain and one is taken back to Omega HQ so Dr. James can try to determine what is wrong with him.

A quick grab of any relevant looking evidence results in the discovery of several pieces of mail with postmarks from LaForche Parish in Louisiana.  What they are able to decipher of the fragmented and encoded materials seem to indicate that drug shipments are arriving here from somewhere near New Orleans and that the Cabal and Tarot are involved.  Later it is found out that one of the zombies that was left at the scene, and found by the authorities, is none other than Lt. Theron Long, the missing HCPD police detective.

The police recover the wrecked pickup, numerous spent shell casings and spent slugs from a variety of weapons.  There are no witnesses who are able to talk about what occurred.  The Red Cabal cultists who are not dead are very close-mouthed and refuse to even talk about who they are, much less what happened.  The zombies that were found seem to be in some sort of stupor and defy attempts to snap them out of it.  The 40mm grenade that failed to arm was consumed in the explosions of other grenades.  A few blood samples are collected as well but only the blood of Bill Johnson (a.k.a. Hawk) is in great enough quantity to type.  Since Hawks body was recovered by Omega Team this is of little use.  Hippocrates left an Omega Team card at the scene so the police at least know that Omega Team was involved.  A large quantity of illegal drugs is also seized.

That night Andrew Hobbs (a.k.a. Specter) has an unusual nightmare.  He is standing in the middle of a swamp as a headless, handless, body splashes through the green water, desperately running away.  A psychotic voice echoes through the trees. Shoot him, fool!" the voice commands, Yes, you!  Hes getting away!  Andrew turns to see the source of the laughter.  It is a severed head supported by two severed hands, both resting on a log.  He awakens in a cold sweat.

August 31

This day is spent analyzing the materials collected during the raid.

September 1, 1995

The team decides to head to LaForche Parish in Louisiana to attempt to ferret out Cabal influences that they know must be operating there.  Eden Blake knows of a man named Remi Lacroix who operates around New Orleans and is very familiar with the bayou, he goes by the name Phobos.  Ms. Blake contacts him and informs him that she and some friends are going to be heading his way.  Phobos agrees to help however he can.

September 2-3

These days are spent on the road.  The team decides to drive to allow Nightstick extra time to heal and so they will have the Omega Truck for use.  The vehicle is disguised as a Southern Express truck.  They spot an interesting newspaper report.   It tells of the disappearance of three bodies from the morgue in the town of Galliano.  The town is located in LaForche Parish.  The coincidence seems too unlikely to actually be one.  They arrive in New Orleans on the evening of the 3^rd and are met by Remi Lacroix.

September 4

They leave New Orleans around noon and drive to Galliano.  Arriving about 2 oclock, they get rooms at the Hotel Galliano.  They scout out the town and find that most people are a little touchy about the theft from the morgue.  Notable exceptions are the funeral home operator (who also operates the morgue) and the secretary at the local paper, the Timbailer Times.  Evidence at the morgue seems to indicate that the corpses may have left under their own power.  Andrew Specter Hobbs is able to glean useful information form the newspaper files.  Apparently bodies have been disappearing from this area since at least the 1850s.  Local folklore tells of a person (or thing) known at Timbailer Tommy, that is said to live off in the Bayou.  Timbailer Tommy is supposed to occasionally take the bodies of the deceased to raise as undead for his own purposes.  Phobos discovers a few signs of voodoo activity (rock etchings, carvings in tree trunks, etc.) around the outskirts of town that seem to be more numerous to the east.

Phobos knows of an old lady who lives in the Bayou around here.  She is known as Mama Regina, and is a voodoo teacher.  Remi suggests that they should go and visit her to see what she can tell them. The group sets off for Mama Reginas late that afternoon, Remi explains that she is not home during the day, shell be off in the bayou collecting things till near dark.  Mama Regina acts as if she was expecting them.  She tells them of Timbailer Tommy and how to destroy him.  You got to get his body, his head, his hands and his feet all together.  Then burn them till theres nothing left but ashes.  Be careful Tommy is tricky.  She also attempts to interpret Andrewss earlier dream by saying, Tommy can be very deceptive.  Tommy can take on the form of a large fly but normally appears as a headless, handless, footless corpse.

They head back to Galliano and resolve to set out in search of Timbailer Tommy tomorrow.

September 5

Knowing only the approximate location of Timbailer Tommys place the team sets out by 9:00 a.m. to begin their search.  The swamp is hot and wet and miserable.  Mosquitoes are everywhere and the poling of the raft is exhausting work.  It is nearly dark before Phobos believes that they have found the beginning of Timbailer Tommys place.  They decide to camp overnight before continuing.  Andrew begins to have the feeling that something is watching them.  Specter begins to survey the surroundings and finally spots a large fly perched on a branch about 20 feet away, watching them.  When he confides in his comrades they begin to shine IR spotlights about looking for the fly in the darkness.  The fly, and the feeling of being watched, soon leaves.

September 6

The next day they proceed into the domain of Timbailer Tommy.  About noon the raft bumps against something submerged in the swamp.  The body of a man floats to the surface just ahead and to the right of the raft.  Specter quickly draws his Colt Anaconda and puts a .44 magnum bullet through the skull of the body.  As most of the party look at the body a swarm of hands begin to rise out of the swamp and tug at the raft.  All the team members swing on to nearby trees after grabbing as much of their gear as they can.  Several of them fire weapons at the hands or try to beat them back with knives, but it is to no avail.  The hands pull the raft, and some unsecured gear, to the bottom of the bog.  The sense that somebody or something is watching them prevails as the raft is destroyed.  As soon as the damage is done the hands, and the sense of foreboding, fade away.

The group continues on through the swamp, either on foot or by swinging from tree to tree.  Eventually, just as dusk begins to fall, they spot a derelict house, the home of Timbailer Tommy.  They cautiously approach as an alligator, which was perched on the porch, slaps into the mossy water and swims away.  Just as the first of them climbs onto the porch, dead man walks out of the door with a water moccasin draped around him.  Soon the team is involved in a life and death battle with eight of the undead.  Seven of the zombies stay to battle the party while the last one, who is missing its head and hands, tries to flee through the swamp.  The team defeats the zombies and proceeds into the house.  After another battle with a group of six more zombies, the body of Timbalier Tommy is identified.  His head, hand and feet are located and the remains are burned to ashes.

After destroying Timbalier Tommy the team decides to head back for Galliano.  They travel some distance away from the old house and find a marginal area to rest overnight before heading back.

September 7

The team spends the day slogging through the swamp; they reach Galliano as night once again approaches.

As they near the town a group of men armed with assault rifles and grenades ambush them.  The attackers are equipped with Kevlar vests and are wearing the red and yellow pentacle of the Red Cabal.  The fight goes very badly for the Omega Team; Hippocrates, Specter and Dancer are all seriously wounded.  Fortunately Nightsticks An Chi training is ideal for the swamp.  The Forest Demon fades into the shadows and, one by one, eviscerates the ambushers.  The cultists are powerless to stop the unseen predator.  None of them ever see the man who kills them, nor are they aware of their comrades demise.

Phobos and Nightstick are able to obtain aid from Mama Regina.  They take the critically injured team members to her shack where she performs voodoo magic to heal the wounds of Hippocrates that should probably have been mortal.  Phobos heads to town to scout it out and says hell be back before dawn.

September 8

By the next morning many of the badly injured team members are making miraculous recoveries.  Hippocrates remains unconscious.  Even with the (possibly supernatural) aid of Mama Regina it will take him another day to recover enough to be effective.

That evening Nightstick heads into town to discover what has become of Phobos.  He finds out that the Omega Truck is missing and there is no sign of Phobos anywhere.  The Forest Demon glides through the town like a shadow, even animal are unaware of his passage. He stalks the town until an inebriated elderly Negro who is sitting out behind the grocery store drinking shine spots him[3].  He pays little heed to the old man and hopes that he will forget what he sees.  Fortunately the black cowl of his costume hides the glowing red of his face.  Nightstick reports back to Mama Reginas.

September 9

The team is now almost completely healed and decides to head back into Galliano.  They have lost some of their weaponry, but were able to gather some of the weapons that their ambushers had used.  They approach the town cautiously.  They quickly obtain some sacks and a Styrofoam ice chest from the grocery store in which to conceal their weapons.  They next purchase some clothing to wear over, or instead of, their combat gear.  Much of their non-essential items were lost in the swamp when the raft was sunk on September 6^th.

In talking with townspeople they are surprised to discover that everyone remembers the team-leaving town several days ago.  The desk clerk/owner of the Gilliano Hotel is surprised to see them back so soon.  When they inquire about Phobos they find that it was believed that he left with them, but that old Ben, the town drunk, claims to have seen Phobos snooping around the night of the seventh.  Old Ben is the same man that Nightstick encountered the previous night.

They resolve that someone must go and talk to old Ben.  Nightstick is selected since he has, at least, seen him before.  After asking around they find that Miss Rosemary makes the best shine around, she lives just north of town.  Nightstick goes and talks with Miss Rosemary and gets a jar of shine with which to entice Old Ben.  Rosemary mentions seeing the Omega Truck several days ago when, them other visitors left town a few days ago.[4]  It struck her as odd because the Truck took the west turnoff to the deserted town of Katen Creek, and never returned.

Joe next goes to talk with Old Ben who warmly receives his gift of the bottle and talks freely.  He says he saw Phobos on the night of the seventh.  Phobos was searching around and went out west of town.  Shortly thereafter a couple of dark shadowy shapes, black as night and with wings, landed near the edge of the swamp and went west after him.  A little later he thinks he heard screams.

While Nightstick is talking with Rosemary and Old Ben, the rest of team has checked into their old rooms at the Gilliano Hotel.  They search the rooms for listening devices and find something strange.  Behind a dresser Dr. Thomas James finds a thing.  It resembles an insect cocoon of some sort but it is like nothing any of them have ever seen.  It looks like a listening device, but it also looks as if it is, or once was, alive.  Unable to determine its workings, Dr. James attempts to cut it open.  The object is instantly consumed in a burst of flame that even melts the tip of the knife Hippocrates was using.

After Nightstick returns they agree that they must try to resolve what has happened to Phobos and the Omega Truck.  They need to rearm themselves before they go to visit Katen Creek.  Since New Orleans is only a few hours away they decide to head there and use some of Dancers old contacts to obtain the weaponry they need.  A rental car is delivered to them, after Andrew Hobbs calls Alfred, his butler, in Hudson City to make the arrangements.

September 10

The morning of the tenth finds the Omega Team on the overgrown road to the deserted town of Katen Creek.  They have resupplied themselves after spending the night in New Orleans and head from there to the ghost town soon as they awaken.  It is now about 10:00 a.m.

Once they judge that they are getting close the to town they leave their vehicle, a 4-wheel drive rental, and proceed on foot.  The only residents they find are undead zombies and a pair of nightgaunts[5].  Nightstick narrowly avoids being carried away to his doom.  After a fierce fight they manage to slay the two nightgaunts and dispatch about a dozen zombies.

From their examination of the town they surmise that it has until recently been used to house some sort of installation.  Most likely a drug distribution point for shipments the Cabal has managed to get into the US.  There is a partially buried, but well kept-up, boat dock on the banks of the Atchaflaya River, and one of the buildings is in much better shape that it first appeared.  They find the remains of what may have once been Phobos, but the body is too mangled to be sure.  The Omega Truck and any Cabal presence has already been evacuated.  The Omega Team decides that they have done all they can here and prepare for the return to Hudson City.