Daphne shrugged. "Human work best. Goat good too. Important is blood."

Mr. Slate's announcement was met with vague pity. The woman just blinked at him and proceeded to ignore him. There was no reason to get upset. She knew the truth of the matter, and that was all that was important.

Arch's remark caused her to furrow her brow. After a moment, the petite woman shrugged. "Seen it done, once. Hard to do Here, though. Best done in Hell."

Janos sat back listening to the discussion going on around him. He sympathized with Mr. Slate ... a bit. Had he not seen Daphne and the Hell Gate, he would be much more cynical about talking with the dead. Now? Now he wasn't sure it was possible with the resources available, but wouldn't rule it out either. It even opened up the opportunity to one day talk to the entirety of his own family - even the Mother he never knew.

There was enough of a hint of Trouble here tonight for Janos to have discreetly gotten his sword from Stephan. Now he felt ready for whatever might come.

"Okay," he said finally, "what is this going to take - To talk to this man? We have the book, but who can ... channel the power, direct the search for the right man/spirit/ghost, and protect us all from something Wrong coming over to our side? Do we have what it takes, or are we going to have to get more help?"

"If we don't have the capacity to talk with the dead, what other options are open to us? Outside of all of us going to Hell, that is."

"We should be able to do it here," Marion says, rubbing her forehead. Daphne just had to say that... "We'll need something with a link to the man. Something that belonged to him, or at the very least his name. As for the rest, I'll have to check the book. It will have to wait for the other guests to leave though."

"The name of our dear dead Russian was Nikolai Strakovski," Ben supplied. "Unfortunately, if we need anything that belonged to him, we'll need to visit his motherland - the investigators sent everything back to Russia, alas."

Ben turned to Mr. Slate, in an attempt to reassure him. "Don't worry, the impossible always seems impossible before you see it happen. Believe me, I've seen far more than my share of impossible things in this world. Talking to the dead? Not even close to the worst I've seen."

"Box he die for," Daphne said. "Very powerful tie to him. Very strong." She crouched down on the floor, resting on her legs, smoothing her skirt discreetly around her limbs so that she was Acceptable... mostly.

"Have name. Have tie. Oo!" She perked up immediately, tugging gently on Marion's dress. "Came back same night he die! Could be other link!"

Marion looks down at Daphne and nods absently. Her eyes had narrowed to thoughtful slits as she worked at something in her head. Then she looked at Ben, startled by her conclusion.

"What time is it?" she asked. "It's not midnight yet...we have to do this tonight! Excuse me, Daphne..." She gently pulls her hem free of Daphne's grasp. "I have to get the Grimoire, or it may be months before we can try again! The solstice, Ben! The solstice!"

She hurries off towards the stairs to get to the library.

Catori tried to catch Marion's eyes and shook her head smiling at her. "The solstice is not before tomorrow night. That should leave us enough time to prepare for the ghost-journey. If you want to I can help with the ritual - my father showed me how to commune with our ancestors."

Marion pauses when Catori speaks, and blushes a little when she realizes the other woman is right.

"Even so," she says, "It could take me some time to find and decode the ritual, and then to set it up. I'll be right back."

She continues up the stairs.

It's only a few minutes before Marion returns, bearing a large book bound in pebbled leather, like an alligator's skin might be if alligators were red. Gold embossing makes letters along the spine that teased the eye and mind by almost seeming to make sense, but never quite actually becoming intelligible. The same gold filigree made a diagram on the front cover.

She held it open in one hand despite its likely weight, and was flipping through pages.

"Catori, what will we need for your communing ritual?" she asked as she searched.

Catori nodded briefly in agreement. "Yes, our actions should be swift and sharp like the eagles eyes. I will get some herbs from my homeland... everyone who paritcipates needs to be of clear mind and must know the danger that lies before us."

Catori sounded focused and serene. She knew that the easy minded or the uncaring would get easily lost in such journeys. Looking at the men she mentally evaluated who would be of help and who would better stay outside and guard the ritual.

"An honest to God ritual? You don't say." Mia leans forward, all ears. "Might if I take notes and quotes?"

"I'd recommend against the quote-taking," Ben said, "rituals out of context... Not advisable!"

Marion looks up from the book at Mia and blinks.

"Oh...right, the reporter," she says, snapping the book shut on a finger.

"If you've an open mind, you're welcome to stay. If you decide to print what you see here tonight, I'd ask that you omit our names. Otherwise note and quote at will."

She smiles. "Though you may wish to limit the quotes to English phrases, as Ben suggests. You wouldn't want whoever reads your article to be possessed or worse."

"I am worse," Daphne noted, forgetting to add the words 'proof of.' "Going to Hell bad. Coming back hard. No one like friends that come back." Daphne said this with absolute conviction.

"Wanna see spear?" she asked Mia suddenly.

"Honey, I would love to see your spear. And I don't say that to just anybody."

Arch is a bit stunned by Mia's comment. "Does that mean what I think it means?"

"Are you sure that a spear is going to be necessary. Is there going to be any danger?"

Daphne didn't wait. The second Mia's sentence was done, she dashed out of the room, running with surprising speed for a young lady. She was very excited, eager to share this portion of her life.

In her room, Spot woke up as she burst in through the door; the hellhound leapt up from the box of sand he slept in, his tail wagging. "Oh, Spot!" Daphne said, pausing to scratch his head. "You stay, a bit more." She'd snuck him out several times during the party so that he wouldn't get restless. "Back soon."

She dashed back to the group in the study, but this time she had a "spear" in her hands. It was made of bones lashed together by sinew, and tipped by a claw. None of these bones had ever been supported a creature in this dimension. "My spear!" she crowed, holding it so Mia could see it.

Once it became clear that no further progress would be made this night Mr. Slate made his goodbyes and boarded the final ferry back to the mainland. The others were welcome to stay at the manor as guests or return on the last ferry as well. By two in the morning the manor was quiet as night finally reclaimed the property and the manor house light by light.

*****

Morning came and with it the weather shifted. The morning was warm (for winter) and as Marion, Ben, and their guests ate breakfast in the glass enclosed conservatory it was clear that the temperature would rise above freezing today. The sun shone brightly in the clear sky and made a magnificent landscape of the snow and ice.

Marion shuttered herself away in the library with the grimoire in order to determine the ritual needed to summon up the shade of the Russian. After a few hours, as noon was closing in, she emerged with a shopping list for the others; items that would be required for the ritual given their lack of a body or personal belongings of the Russian's. Requiring a few hours more of study before she could begin to prepare the spell she returned to the library leaving the trip to the mainland to the others.

At tweleve o'clock ferry soon left, headed for the mainland, on it were some of those guests who stayed overnight as well as servants headed to town to purchase food and goods. In thirty minutes time it would dock in Boston for four hours before returning to the island just before nightfall.

[OOC: It is now noon on the 22nd, all PCs were invited to stay at the manor. If you didn't stay there say so in your next post and establish where you are and what you are all doing. The items on the shopping list are specific but not uncommon. Those headed to the mainland can assume to be on the boat at this time. As stated you'll have about 4 hours in Boston to shop or go home and kit up or whatever.]

Summoning shades of the past interested Janos, and on a very personal level. He was doing his best to stay close to the ritual crew and making himself useful. If that meant shopping, so be it. Besides, he wasn't alone. Stephan was with him.

Now were did one get powdered bison horn?

Marion clapped her hands to get people's attention as she came into the kitchen, wearing her rumpled pajamas and a light plaid robe, during lunch.

"Good morning everyone. I've managed to find a ritual that will do what we're looking for. It's a bit more...involved than a simple seance, but it's also considerably more reliable and should provide more than adequate protections against possessions, unwanted spiritual influences, and so on."

She held out a sheet of paper upon which was written spidery, somewhat overlarge letters.

"We will need a few things from the mainland though. And be advised, this ritual works better if it's done at the site of the dead man's death...so we'll be relocating to the docks. Since it won't be here, anyone who has a gun or..." she glances at Daphne, "...spear is welcome to bring them. And you can bring Spot too, Daphne. Since this man was murdered, we may not be the only ones interested in that place."

She waves the sheet. "This is a list of the things we'll need. I won't have time to get them myself, as I'll be preparing the ritual site."

"Ben, I may need your help getting the area blocked off for the duration too. I'd rather not have the public gawking at us as we do this."

The List
* A goodly amount of silver shavings or filings. Several pounds at least. Pure silver, not alloyed.

* 12 drams pure water sanctified by a man of the cloth.

* 2 rods, 12 inches long and 1 inch thick, of iron. As pure as possible.

* 2 rods of similar measurements of silver.

* 5 candles, black in color, with human ashes worked into the wax.

* One onyx gem, at least 10 carats.

* One naturally occurring magnet, such as magnetite ore. Can be small.

* One live, white colored animal no smaller than a dove. Exact sort not important. Don't name it.

* One bundle of dried nightshade.

* One vial of powdered rhino or buffalo horn.

Mia shows up dressed for business, with her full kit (notepad, camera, emergency bribe money, etc) slung over a shoulder. She looks at the list, the holds it up.

"Yeah. Question. You actually believe all of this hooey? Half that dinner you all were talking like characters in a dime novel about ghosts and goblins and I didn't know if you were serious or topped up on the giggle water."

Daphne started laughing. "Yep!" she giggled. "It real. Show you - wanna see?"

Spot was just out of sight, waiting for Daphne to signal him to come forward. She's finally gotten the idea that showing Spot to people took a bit of preparation - both for them and Spot.

"I believe it very much," Marion replies to Mia.

She nods at Daphne with an impish gleam in her eye.

"Go ahead, Daphne."

Arch takes a look at the Marion's list and frowns. "Hmm it shouldn't be to much of a problem acquiring these items though some will be harder than others."

Turning to Mia and smiling, "Ah Mia my dear these things do exist, though I have yet to actually witness one in person myself."

"I suggest that we get started on this quickly time is wasting!"

"Spot!" Daphne snapped. The hellhound heard the authority on her voice and came running, eyes glowing and teeth bared.

Daphne still didn't have quite the right idea of prep, yet. Even as Marion acknowledged that she still needed work, the bat-winged dog was in the room, those wings spread wide while a fearsome growl rumbled in his throat.

"Ze'hip!" Daphne ordered and the massive beast relunctantly settled onto his belly, his wings fluttering nervously behind him. "Everyone, Spot. Spot... good boy."

"Holy moley."

Mia blinks. "Well, don't see that every day. Hold on - " She fumbles for her camera.

"Uh!" Marion quickly says, holding up a hand towards Mia.

"No flashes. For your own safety. Spot's obedient, but...no flashes."

Ben looked at the list thoughtfully. "Most of the minerals and metals we can get at a Jewellers. I'll get some money out of the safe and make sure we can pick this up today. A pet store should have the white animal, that should be easy to acquire, the holy water is just a trip to the cathedral, The candles might be a bit more difficult, we'll have to find a chandler who won't ask too many questions who can do a quick order. The last two will be the killers - I'm not sure where we'd find wolfsbane or powdered horn. I'll talk to the docks authority to see if we can get the dock to ourselves as soon as we reach the mainland."

Ben suddenly noticed everything going around the room. "Yes, I'd recommend natural light for that shot, you'll completely lose the glowing eyes with a flash. Also, I wouldn't recommend dazzling a hell-hound, truth be told..."

"Aw, hell. Fine." She unscrews the bulb, and slowly circles the dog, looking for a good shot. Finally, she takes it, and relaxes, putting the camera away.

"Well, this doesn't mean much. My grandaddy had a farm and I saw a bull get born with two noses and five legs. Nothing magical about that, is there?"

Daphne, clad in her preferred outfit - probably something "borrowed" from Ben's closet - sighed and sat down next to Spot, leaning into him. The hellhound stared at the new people, his green eyes studying each in turn with an intensity that was very un-dog-like.

"You not believe all you care," Daphne said softly. "Lived in magic place. Bartered with souls, ran with hellhound pack and danced with succubi. Know it real. Hope you never find out how real." She slipped her arm over Spot and snuggled into his side, inhaling the familiar dog-and-sulfur smell of her friend.

Marion sighs and shuffles through the several bookmarks poking out of her red tome's pages.

"If you're going to be helping with the ritual, we can't leave you a skeptic. It'll interfere with the energy. Here we are Miss Foster...explain this."

With the large red grimoire balanced open in her left hand, she raised her right and began to read. The words seemed to crackle in the air; an invocation in Latin. The temperature dropped twenty degrees in the room, and something began to form in Marion's upraised hand.

White lines of fog made a ghostly spiral spinning inward towards a blue point of light a few inches over Marion's palm. Her breath puffed in mist as she finished speaking the spell and -threw- whatever was taking shape.

It flashed across the room like a tiny blue-white comet, leaving a trail of tiny snowflakes that drifted to the floor in its wake. It struck a vase of flowers on an end table near a window, and vanished with an azure 'paf.'

The flowers and vase were crusted with white ice though.

"Go touch them," Marion encourages. "You'll find the plant quite brittle. Frozen through and through."

(Ice Conjuration...6d roll if you wish to. Spending 1 insp from book's pool.)

"Huh." Mia taps on the vase, which promptly develops a crack. She looks around for a device of some kind, some type of super-freezer. "All right, I can't really explain that one. Could have been set up beforehand, since you chose the mark, but all right."

"But understand, ma'am - " And Mia's tone suddenly turns quite serious. "If me being a skeptic is gonna mess up your ritual, you better not bring me along 'cause I'm a skeptic through and through. The day I take someone's word at face value is the day I turn in my press pass because I would suddenly be the most useless reporter on Earth."

"Point taken," Marion concedes. "I spoke a little misleadingly. The central question is: Do you have an open mind? Can you at least consider the possibility that these things are real? Magic is the imposing of will on the fabric of reality. There are people who are not just skeptical, but actively hostile to these truths...and who unwittingly work against them with their minds and souls."

She nods. "But if you are content to let what happens happen, without trying to impose your own order on it, then all will be well, whether you believe or not."

Mia nods. "I can do that, sure."

There was a moment of silence, then Daphne looked up. "Go, now?" she asked, her fingers running through the hellhound's red-tinted black fur. Spot licked his chops, his ears perking up as he caught Daphne's eagerness. "Get ingredients?"

"We can split up and gather resources," Janos suggested. "Maybe two or three groups? Ben Able could lead one group and Marion the other. It is probably the best way to make sure there are no miscommunications in what we need and what we get."

He looks around the group.
"Herr Abel, it is probably best if Miss Catori with you. Miss Foster could go with Miss Marion to better explain what is going to happen with the elements we are looking for - a real live mystical treasure hunt."
"It is probably best if Ms. Daphne goes with Miss Foster as well. Herr Bannister, you chose what group you want to, " he doesn't so protect, but its pretty clear he means it that way, "be with and I'll go with the other."

Marion holds up a hand.

"Splitting up is fine, but be aware that I won't be going with you. I have other things I have to do. I'll meet you at the docks."

She smiles fondly at Daphne and adds, "I also think either Catori or Ben should be with Daphne at any given moment. They have some experience with her. She can be a handful."

"Besides that, I leave it to you."

Arch speaks up after listen to Janos, and Marion's suggestions.

"I have a little experience with this sort of thing so I don't have a problem taking some of you with me. Ben's gonna be busy trying to get the docks secured I gather."

"I also agree that perhaps Daphne should be around Catori or Ben. I'm not sure that I'd be able to handle her and Spot by myself."

"Spot?"

Marion blinks. "You want to take -Spot-?"

"You want the docks secured? I know a desk sergeant on the police force. If I do him a favor he'll do me one right back. I could see about getting the place sealed off for a few hours."

Catori remained very calm and reclusive during the preparations for the ritual accompanying Ben like the Count suggested. She had taken some herbs from her private little garden which should ease the minds of those who had been too nervous and bolster the confidence of the fearful.

Once it became clear that it would be more adviseable to stay close to Daphne and Spot Catori gladly accepted that suggestion and joined with Daphne. She didn't speak much that evening though, watching closely if anything was amiss. She prepared herself mentally for the task they were about to start and hoped that the spirits would be merciful tonight.