Ghost
Longchester Hospital for the Insane
The specter made itself appear over Tom’s head, an act of will that was not easy for Hiram to pull. In words given life by Tom’s mouth, Hiram explained the situation to doctor Eve Mullins, who only stared in awe or fright at what was happening.

After the rather short explanation, Eve could not move. Her eyes were fixed on Hiram. Then, suddenly, her body reacted. She screamed in fright and without the mind’s guidance she ran out of the room. Her screams could be heard a long way as she ran as fast as she could as far away as possible. Perhaps not what Hiram had expected, but at least now she was out of the picture for the time being.

---

Vampire & Werewolf
Longchester Library
He could feel the rage boil up inside him, but he fought the urge to rip this fool asunder.
“Very well,” the ghoul said hesitating, “I will take you to see master Lopez, but the mortals in the car stay in the car.” The ghoul opened up the door and waited for the two to enter the library.

That fool. How dared he speaking to him like that? Did he not know who was superior here? The rage boiled, he could feel it.
They entered into a long and dark hallway. There was hardly a source of light throughout the hall until they reached a door with a numeral lock on it. The ghoul opened it and on the other side was a flight of stairs spiraling downwards.
“The master is usually down in his study,” the ghoul said.

The rage was boiling. The fool! He dared insult him? There was no longer a reason to hold back. The fool deserved to die! But this was not the time or place. He could feel his anger boiling, but he willed it down.
Ren twitched, although only slightly. If that wolf would make one bad move, something would need to bleed.

((OOC: To clear things up, GT spent a single Willpower to get an extra chance to resist the frenzy. I allowed him it afterwards, because he didn't know about the frenzy bit until after I updated.))

---

Mage
Scarlett Hearts
Piers’s mentor stopped in the hallway. “Yes,” Ryozo said, “you do deserve an explanation. But not here. I’ll explain everything once we get to my sanctum.” Outside, Daiki was waiting in the car. Ryozo and he spoke, again with a language that Piers did not understand but now recognized as Japanese. They never spoke Japanese in front of him, so when they did he could only assume that it was important that they did. The three of them drove off.

***

Ryozo’s sanctum was not very big, although it was obviously bigger than Daiki’s apartment. There were many books lined in many bookcases, and where there were no bookcases to hide the gray walls, there were weapons and Japanese cultural decorations hanging on them. Piers had often been there before, but now it somehow seemed different, he could not put his finger on what it was.

“There was a time,” Ryozo said, “when Daiki and I were young, when we ourselves were training to become masters of the arcane. There was a time before we came to England. Thirty years ago, when we were around your age, a Mage came to our mentors and asked for assistance. Back then, there were more of us. We traveled to China, to a small village in the Chiu-Gang valley. A powerful spirit was trying to enter our world through dreams and we had been called there in order to prevent it. We failed. The beast escaped into our world and escaped from our grasps. We traveled from Asia to Russia, and from Russia through much of Europe to England, where we managed to banish it back to where it came from.”

Daiki handed Ryozo a book which he had taken from one of the shelves. The book was bound in leather, and although it did not seem big it seemed to be old.
“On our way,” Daiki said, “we gathered all the help we could get. One of those who helped us was Baba Yaga, who you have just met. We met her in Russia and without her we couldn’t have managed to banish the beast.”
“That f***ing bitch,” Ryozo said nearly reflexively.
“After banishing the beast, we all stayed here for fourteen years, until the beast tried to enter our world again. This time we were prepared, though, and we prevented it. After that, we assumed that the beast would try yet again, and so we scattered around the globe so that we could stop it before it even began. Until now, we have not seen or heard anything suggesting that the beast is trying to break into our world again.”

((OOC: Just for your interest, the Chiu-Gang valley nearly certainly does not exist. It is a name that I made up because I am too lazy to actually try and find an actual valley in China))

Hiram let out a quiet sigh of exasperation as Doctor Mullins turned and ran, a sharp exhalation of breath from the possessed security guard’s mouth. Whilst the quite natural human fear of the supernatural his appearance evoked among the hospital’s visitors and staff normally served his purposes perfectly well, one would have thought that both the physical appearance he had taken and his general demeanour upon manifestation had been non-threatening enough? Still, Doctor Mullins had at least stayed long enough to hear him out, and thus informed of the nature of his activities within the hospital grounds could choose either to rationalise the encounter and continue as before, or accept his existence and acknowledge the help he was offering. The spectre hoped that she would make no attempt to quit the hospital, in which case it might be necessary to make an excursion and retrieve her, the asylum could not afford the loss of the doctor of her calibre at present. Still, in either case, the decision was hers to make, and her departure did at least afford him the chance to put a few more questions to his patient.

Permitting the apparition which hovered over the possessed guard’s head to dissipate, he turned back to approach his patient. “Annabell. It’s me, Hiram.” the ghost informed her, crouching beside the girl where she lay huddled in the room’s corner. “What has happened here? Has someone hurt you?” Something had obviously shaken the girl up quite badly and, if he’d been forced to hazard a guess, Hiram would have suspected this had something to do with the intruder that had imposed itself upon his hospital earlier that morning- in which case he might be forced to bring matters to a head earlier than he’d originally intended. The questions he’d originally intended to ask, it seemed, would have to wait.

OOC: As far as Hiram can tell, has she been physically harmed in any way or is she just scared?

William resisted the urge to give out a few more insults. He suspected a little more was all that was needed to push the unstable, skinny man off the edge. Doing so, however, would be nothing but a few amusing moments followed by a lot of trouble from their employer. For now, he was William's ally.

They followed Lopez' servant to a flight of stairs. William gave Ren a look. It was obvious William was more unwelcome here than Ren was, so William simply gestured towards the stairs.

"After you", he said carefully, hoping not to piss the little bugger off. "You probably won't get killed on sight"

Ren shot William a chilling glance as he opened his crude mouth again. There weren't many white males in this world he disliked quite as much as the violent brute, if it wasn't for the damn contract he would have already sent him to try and kill off the prince of Rome or some other creature of power that would dispose of him as easily as an annoying fly.

"If i will ever have to bleed because of this i swear i will be the end of you, you damned whore of Luna.."
He hissed in his mind and his hand clenched into a fist inside of his pocket but he merely said

"After that.. Lets hope not.."

And walked after the ghoul, wondering if the large brute even realized what kind of creature he would be getting against him if he angered Salomon.

Ghost
Longchester Hospital for the Insane
Obviously shaken, but without marks of physical injury, Annabell could hardly look at Hiram as he appeared to her. “The dreams won’t stop,” she said, “they won’t stop. He won’t let them. He will just make them worse. They are getting worse. Laugh or cry. Can’t close my eyes. He is gonna make them worse. The good doctor is coming by. I didn’t want to, still don’t. He won’t let them stop. Can’t close my eyes.” She did not look at Hiram, but it she obviously was speaking to him, or at least to someone. Her eyes seemed tired. Hiram could tell that she had not closed them at all since she woke up.

---

Vampire & Werewolf
Longchester Library
Both Ren and William followed the Ghoul down the stairs. They were not long, only lead down a single floor or so. They entered a large room filled with shelves and poor lighting. Every shelve was filled with books, pieces of paper or scrolls. There was hardly enough room for two men to walk side by side. The duo followed the Ghoul deeper into the room, until they came to a table by which a relatively old looking person sat. The person looked like he was in his 40s or early 50s, but Ren knew he was older.

Salomon Lopez looked up as the two of them came closer. “Master, I...” the Ghoul started, but was not allowed to finish.
“Silence,” Salomon said with a rusty voice, “this is a library.” Salomon looked closely at the two comrades as he stood up. He looked really closely, like he was not really looking at them but something even deeper within them. Ren could feel fear rising. Salomon was indeed more powerful than he was.
“You are not one of us,” Salomon said to William, but his later words were pointed at his servant, “and yet here you are.” The Ghoul seemed frightened, and he looked like he was about to say something in his defense, but the words did not leave his lips. “I will deal with you later.” The Ghoul removed himself from the scene, frightened if not terrified of his coming fate.
“Gentlemen,” Salomon said with a voice you would greet your house-guests in, “I assume you have a reason to be here and there is no reason why we can not do this like civilized men. How may I be of service?”

The man was older than Ren remembered, but then again he had never had that good of a memory for faces. Slowly he bowed his head slightly as a sign of respect, knowing that the Ordo Dracul very often upheld some of the same standards of etiquette as the Invictus although usually not to the same extreme level.

"Good evening Most Wise Alder Salomon, My name is Baron Ren Majere speaker of the Invictus and this here is my 'associate' William"

He said with his normal soft fluid voice with a highly respectful tone although it was far from submissive or shaken as he did his very best to hide the fact that the situation unsettled him.

"And don't worry about him, he is more civilized than his looks and nature would hint at when he tries.."

Ren lied with a slight smile, glad that the Vampire seemed to be angrier at his ghoul for letting them in then at them for getting in the way they did.

"We are here in the search of knowledge and know that there is no place as good to find it as in the halls of your library"

He continued, daring to take a few steps forward into the room too seem calmer and more collected then he was.

"We come here looking for a few books, and hope that you can help us out.."

He said, smiling a bit wider, intentionally not mentioning the fact that they didn't expect to get it for free knowing that it didn't even occur to the old dragon.

William remained silent during Ren's speech, scanning his environment and host instead. He'd never really been at home in libraries, and he seemed to be particularly unwelcome in this one. As Ren mentioned, this seemed the perfect place to look for knowledge. Despite being no scholar, William was curious to know what the shelves around them contained.

He decided to remain by Ren's side and not draw attention to himself. He suspected he knew the nature of the two others in the room, and he was really starting to dislike his position.

At the moment, he decided to just watch and be prepared.

Things were becoming a great deal more complicated that Hiram had originally allowed for. Insofar as he had even taken the time to envisage a chain of events the ghost had allowed that he might be called upon for a month or two to ensure that his patient enjoyed a reasonable amount of sleep and to keep predators like Einhart at a safe distance, working with the other doctors to resolve whatever deep-set anxieties had been engendered by her brothers’ murder until she could be released with a clean bill of mental health. With the job completed to his satisfaction, and his professional ability thus vindicated, the spectre could return to business as usual, or perhaps settle into a brief period of dormancy while his energies replenished themselves.

It had become obvious that nothing was going to be resolved that easily and, for the first time, Hiram began to doubt that the battle was actually worth fighting. Beings seemingly more powerful than himself- first the dream-beast and now this more recent interloper- also possessed an interest in the girl, jeopardising any hope of recovery or even temporary release, and whilst he possessed the means to fight the creatures off it was inevitable that his own energy reserves would soon be exhausted in the process. Continuing past that point- which by the ghost’s own estimation would be reached within the next twenty-four hours- would require that he begin feeding from the rest of the hospital’s patients and staff- harming and possibly even killing them in the process- in order to sustain a struggle which brought little benefit even to the one patient on whose behalf it had been initiated. Common sense dictated that he cut his losses, retreating back into the hospital’s woodwork- perhaps for a year, perhaps for a decade- until his strength recovered and the recent epidemic of supernatural intrusions resolved itself. No doubt there would be much the same battles to fight when he reawakened: patients to heal, emergencies to resolve, wrongdoers to punish, a hospital to monitor and a town full of life beyond it for when any further entertainment became desirable. He had no particular attachment to this present age.

And yet… when it came down to it, the prospect of giving up so easily grated a little too much, was anathema to the mantle he had assumed for himself. At a fundamental level Hiram still imagined himself to be a doctor and custodian of the hospital, and it would ill become either role to abandon those in his charge, without at least some semblance of a fight. His pride was at stake and the spectre found himself hard pressed to relinquish the domain he had built up for himself into the hands of the rash of more recent intruders who had imposed themselves upon him.

“Who won’t let your dreams stop?” Hiram asked in a slightly detached tone, tinged with a deep-set frustration at the whole affair. “The burnt ghost or the dream-beast I fought earlier? Really, anything you could tell me about either of these apparitions would be most helpful at this point.” A most unwelcome thought had just occurred to the spectre: if the monsters from Annabell's dreams were being progressively drawn to the hospital then it could not be too much longer before the place was overrun. However burdensome it might seem he would have little choice but to try to nip these incursions in the bud before the problem became impossible to manage.

OOC: Rejigged the second half of my post as requested. If Annabell’s not talking then he’ll go and bother some of the other insomniacs (as I recall from your first post, there’s a lounge somewhere for them all).

Hiram’s Willpower has taken a hit (from “Resolute” to “Timid”) and I’m playing it out.

Ghost
Longchester Hospital for the Insane
Annabell looked upon the guard’s face, who she knew was in fact Hiram. “The Beast is coming,” she said, “he told me. The Beast won’t let it stop. He is coming. The Good Doctor is gonna make sure.” Her eyes started weeping, and then started to widen as a familiar voice was heard in Annabell’s room.

Laugh or cry,
Laugh or cry,
The good doctor is coming by.
Laugh or cry,
Laugh or cry,
Tonight’s the night you’re gonna die.
At that point, Annabell buried her face into her arms. Looking around though, Hiram saw no one in the room beside Annabell and himself.

---

Vampire & Werewolf
Longchester Library
Salomon Lopez looked upon the vampire Ren, who seemed to be the leader of the two arrivals. Salomon’s eyes pierced at Ren, then at William. His eyes looked deep into them.

“You are not looking for just any books,” he said with a victorious smile, “and you are in fact only looking for a single book. If you have any idea to whom you are talking to, Majere, you would have known to tell me straight what you are searching for.” Salomon sat down and opened one of his book. “That being said, you can not have the Diary of Morpheus.”

Piers had followed Ryozo since they left Baba Yabba’s place. He sat waiting while Ryozo told the story of the beast.

“So what information do we have on the beast.”

“I’m not going to have to get drugged again soon am I”

He said as he remember this last time. He still thought he had made the right choice to gather information rather then challenge the beast at that moment. He was glad he had done it now though since it seems he needed almost every surprise he could get his hands on.

Ren couldn't help but shoot the man a slight smile as walked up closer too him

"Cunning o.."
He thought, stopping himself before he let his mind create something he would forget. How did he know all that? Did his information network stretch so far that he had heard all about the deal and everything or was he merely a very skilled user of auspex. Neither of those possibilities where good and just in case he started focusing most of his surface thoughts on an imaginary chess game to try and make a barrier around his deeper thoughts.

"Why do you think we are here for the Diary of Morpheus?"

He asked, just in case the man had just been trying to trick him with a good guess.

William's jaw almost dropped when Solomon mentioned the book they were supposed to pick up. He'd never been any good at hiding his true thoughts, and his hands began to twitch nervously. This old dude was starting to freak him out.

He looked towards Ren who kept up his act as if he didn't know what the hell Solomon was talking about. Maybe he was a capable ally after all. The first impression, however, had been that of a spoiled, useless brat.

William knew this exchange of words was out of his league. Instead he kept scanning the area, figuring out how best to fight in there if it came to that. The shelves were big and heavy, but he could probably tackle them down as long as they weren't bolted down. If they were indeed vampires, he needed fire. It might burn a few valuable books, but it was worth it. If only he had a source of fire. He could probably produce a fire with the electric lights, but that would take way too long.

He sighed and hoped Ren wouldn't screw this up.

Hiram froze, uncomfortably conscious of being watched, the frustration of the past few days bubbling up into a cold anger at the unwelcome intruder.

“This is a hospital!” the ghost snarled, the guard's lower jaw unhinging impossibly wide to expell a cloud of icy mist as he turned to face the source of the disturbance. “And I will not have you disturbing my patients. I will not tolerate it.”
Turning back to face Annabell, the same note of indignant anger in his voice (would the girl never stop crying?), the spectre continued: “Now, this may seem rather cold comfort at present but I want you to understand something. Every time that creature appears, every time it vanishes, every time it speaks and every time it pulls some clever trick it is exhausting a small part of itself. Unlike myself, I doubt it has the means to replenish itself. Even if I’m unable to put paid to the thing personally, as this rate it should have burned itself out in a few weeks at the outside. Remember that much and it will put you in good stead to deal with the supernatural.”
“And personally, I’d not give it half as long.” He glanced back towards the wall, “If our uninvited guest proves unable to conduct itself in a manner better in keeping with our surroundings I’ll put paid to the thing in person. I can promise you that much.”
Practical considerations outside, something would need to be done. Once he was done with this present mortal form the hunt would begin: he would either extinguish this noisome trespasser or quit the place himself. The constant intrusions fast becoming simply intolerable.

OOC: I've got a few predictions of my own about what might be going on here. Unfortunately Hiram doesn't have access to the same sourcebooks.

Ghost
Longchester Hospital for the Insane
Hiram’s words seemed to help Annabell relax, although not much. She managed to lift her head up and to look at Hiram. She seemed like she was trying to say something, but was unable to.
“Hiram,” she finally uttered from her lips, “things are going bad.”

The day pretty much passed on. Not much was heard about doctor Eve Mullens aside from someone seeing her running out of the hospital and to her car. This pretty much messed up her whole schedule for the day, and some of the other doctors had to take on some extra work, which was pretty bad enough already with all the extra work that was available.
Doctor Einhart returned from his couple of hours worth of break. He did not seem as anxious as he had been earlier that day. When asked about it he simply replied that he had not slept well the earlier night, but after getting some rest he felt fine.
Aside from that, nothing seemed out of place in the asylum. But Hiram knew better. Something was hiding in the walls. He could almost feel it breath down his neck, but of course he couldn’t feel anything. Whenever he turned around there was nothing. Was something following him, or was he simply feeling the presence of something new? He couldn’t be sure, but he knew that it was not right. Something bad was residing in Longchester Hospital for the Insane.

So what is the point of waiting for it to come and find you? Better to be the first to strike. And so Hiram began his search for the intrusive being. He began the search in the Western Wards, a whole wing of the building that was still closed due to construction hazards. Unlike the Eastern Wards, the west side of the building had not be cleaned properly or at all. Dust, broken furniture and used needles could be seen lying around, but no intruder. He searched the basement, a dark and never-ending labyrinth for the untrained visitor. Hardly anyone came down there anymore, not after poor old Lester got lost for hours only to be found with less than half the sanity he had at his arrival. The basement was scary, yet there was no intruder down there either.
Below the basement was the boiler-room, a single large boiler in a room that was not nearly as vast as the basement. Back in the day when the Asylum was originally built, it was remarked as a architectural wonder. Shafts lead from the boiler up into the building, spreading into all directions and bringing heating to every room. Of course, during the winter the heating did not serve as well as it should and it could become mighty chilly near the top floors.
During Hiram's time as a living employee, the boiler had also been used to save the trip to a burial office. In the hospital, people were bound to die and the quickest way to get rid of the bodies was to shove them into the fiery boiler for some extra heating. Of course, after the reopening, the boiler had not been used at all. Electrical heating had been added to the architectural design, but it had been done with too much haste and so heating became a problem from time to time. The original shafts from the boiler had not been removed, however, but no one dared near the boiler, if only because they would have to venture through the labyrinth that was the basement just to get there.

Presently, the boiler-room simply stood empty, far below the ground. There was no hint of light down there, not a single spark remained in the rusty boiler. A few pieces of wood lay here and there, covered in cobweb much like the rest of the room. Hardly anything lived down there anymore, aside from perhaps a single mouse skittering alongside the wall. Nothing else seemed to reside down in the old boiler-room, but Hiram somehow could not help but feel like he should be hearing screaming coming from the rusty boiler. The feeling that he had about there being something bad in the hospital, it felt worse down in the boiler-room.

It would soon be getting dark. According to the 'Good Doctor', someone was about to get killed this night and Hiram had decided to do something about it. Seeing as he could not find the intruding spirit, perhaps it was time to start keeping an eye out for the target.

---

Vampire & Werewolf
Longchester Library
Salomon grinned victoriously. “Please, baron Majere,” he said, “a fellow such as yourself should know that a good player does not reveal his cards. You should not focus on why I know what it is you’ve come after, but instead you should think of a way to get it anyway. The Diary of Morpheus is very precious, if not priceless, but believe it or not I am a businessman.”
Salomon sat down and signaled the two to have a seat as well. The chairs were well made. They seemed old, perhaps from over a century, but the material from the cushion had been replaced several times.
“It does not concern me why you need it,” he said, “but what does concern me is what you are willing to do to get it. There is something I need taken care of, and it appears you have the muscle I need to deal with it.”

---

Mage
Ryozo’s Sanctum
As Piers mentioned the drug bit, he could see a small facial change on Daiki, a smile perhaps, but Ryozo showed no change. Ryozo was a serious man when he needed to be, and this was no time for jokes in his opinion.

“There isn’t much we know about the Beast,” Daiki then said, “aside from the fact that it affects people from the world of dream. If it punches through to our world then...”
He was stopped by Ryozo. “That is not something you need to know, Piers, since the Beast will not escape its prison.”
“Alright then,” Daiki added, “but in order to escape into our world, few things are needed. Of course, one of these things is the key, the girl you saw in your dreams. The Beast will violate her mind through her dreams, but a ritual is needed to complete the escape.
“To perform the ritual, a special book is needed. That book is the only text that holds the ritual. Thankfully, the book is in our custody.
“The last thing that is needed is a stone. There are six Cornerstones in this world, a direct link to the dreaming existence. One of the stones is here in Longchester, but it was given to a trustworthy third party which hid it. We don’t know where it is and best it should remain so.”

“Unless we find the girl,” Ryozo said with a serious tone, “there is a chance that the Beast can use her to enter our world even without the other things. The process however could take years, in which time her mind will have been utterly destroyed. Either way, the girl’s life will end if the Beast escapes into our world.”

Ren let out a small but polite laugh, covering his mouth slightly as he let is slip out like an immaculate wave of soft silk slipping through the room.

"But a good business man also knows to try and lower the value of what he wants to get.."

He said with his normal sharp but silky voice as he let his hand slide over the cover of a book laying on the small table besides him, feeling the soft leather feel of the ancient cover, savoring the feeling. He had always loved books even though intellectual pursuits weren't his main expertise. He had always been a great liar and a wonderful charmer but somehow he had never been more then slightly above average when it came too academics.

"But I am truly sorry if i insulted you Alder Salomon"

He continued with a slightly more humble tone as to make it sound as if he actually felt something.

"What is it you would have us do? I'm sure my big friend here would me more then happy to put his big arms too use if it means we can have the book"

He said, smiling slightly as his fingers left the book on the table and fell down to his side