Activity Log, March 12-14, 2001 The following evening, Hannah, Parker and Cliff regrouped for their meeting with the mysterious Robert Brooks. Brooks failed to arrive, but after waiting nearly an hour, the group was approached by a woman who introduced herself as Karen Avery, Brooks' partner. She claimed to be looking for Brooks as well, since he had disappeared the previous day. The group accompanied her to Brooks' place in Williamsburg. Searching the apartment, they found little other than signs of a struggle and a small amount of blood in the bedroom. They were, however, able to fix a time for the disappearance between 5 AM and 2 PM the previous afternoon. Agent Avery suggested Brooks' disappearance might have had something to do with his continued investigation of the Blackwell-Cypress case, despite being warned off by their boss Agent Owen. She cautioned the group, Cliff especially, about the extent of their involvement, as Cliff's voice was on the telephone records in Brooks' office. She also probed the group to see exactly what their involvement with the case was. The subjects claimed to know nothing, and though she was clearly unsatisfied, Agent Avery departed for the moment. Stephen and Jamie seemed the most upset by this development, as it was Brooks they were supposed to leave their package with. They decided to return to Seattle to investigate the sender of the package, but they deposited the package with Hannah, extracting a promise from her to give it to Brooks or Brooks' contact when she learned more. The next few days passed relatively uneventfully. At first I was not sure why the group spent this time making preparations, but it quickly became clear to me when on March 14 they descended into the sewers of New York City. They made their way through the dank tunnels, moving somewhat more slowly than usual as they were encumbered with a great deal of equipment, and passed down through the crack in the earth into the lower level of tunnels. They spent perhaps half an hour setting up a great deal of equipment. Cliff spent time hooking himself into an elaborate harness, with rope that seemed to be attached to a grappling gun of some sort. Hannah deposited an entire dead cow in the middle of the large tunnel, with a radio inside it, while Parker set up a video camera to record the entire battle. Then Hannah and Parker busied themselves with loading and preparing the large assortment of weaponry they had brought with them: grenades, both concussion and white phosphorus, two LAW rockets, C4, handguns, and a chainsaw. When all was prepared, Cliff darted out and turned on the radio -- I assume to act as bait for the worm -- and quickly retreated to the safety of the crack in the tunnel wall. Only a few minutes later, the very walls of the tunnel began to shake and vibrate as the worm approached. It moved toward them at a quite impressive clip, but slowed after consuming the cow. (I was later able to learn that Cliff had drugged the thing, whatever it was.) Cliff fired his harpoon gun into the side of the beast, and, using his supernatural strength, was able to brace himself and drag the thing to a full stop. This seemed to be the signal for Hannah and Parker to open up on it with their assembled weaponry. Between the napalm and the rockets, they cut it nearly in half. The back half of it quickly crumbled to dust, which suggests it is actually of vampiric origin, but I find it hard to believe any vampire could so well resist the flames with which they washed it. It did, however, seem to feel quite a bit of pain. Being cut so deeply caused it to thrash about, dragging Cliff nearly out of the crack and landing rocks behind the group, blocking this entrance to the tunnel. As the frenzied worm dragged Cliff slowly down the tunnel, toward the hugely deep drop at the other end of it, Hannah and Parker ran forward and literally buried themselves inside the body of the worm, squirming closer and closer to its huge heart at Cliff's direction. Perhaps it was the agony of Cliff's hands and feet being worn down to mere nubs from the pressure of the rock and the worm's weight, but his directions were less than accurate: not until the entire carcass of the beast was hanging over the edge, supported only by Cliff's failing body, were Parker and Hannah able to locate the heart and cut it free from its hideous surroundings. The beast quickly turned to ash, and Cliff was able to haul his companions free before collapsing in pain and exhaustion. After taking some time to recover from the worst of their wounds, the three friends limped for the only other exit they knew of: the exit from the Cathedral proper into Central Park. Parker displayed the wonders of the Cathedral to his friends. Little had changed since their last visit, though both Cliff and Hannah were awestruck at the beauty and majesty of the place. Cliff made a point of recording everything he could, while Hannah seemed most intrigued by the great rose window over the door, mentioning to her friends that she had a book with the same symbol on the cover. (I must arrange to get a copy of that text!) Parker, however, seemed more intrigued and disturbed by the minor changes that had occurred since his last visit. Most strangely, Nathaniel's corpse had been moved from one shelf in the colombarium to another, and instead of having the texture of flesh, it seemed to have been turned to stone. Additionally, three of the small chapels under the great windows had objects in them: under the window with the vines, a golden statue of Apollo; under the window with the man with a globe in his lap, a stone candelabrum with seven lit candles; under the window with the wolf-masked man, a lump of river rock worn into an animal shape. Before leaving the haven of the Cathedral, the group spent some time discussing what to do next. After all, they had killed the worm guarding the approaches. Parker suggested calling Angel first, Cliff wanted to turn it over to Jan, while Hannah advocated speaking with the werewolves on the matter. After climbing nearly to the surface, Parker called Angel, while Cliff called Julia (who did not want to speak with him). The group agreed to go see Angel, and pushed open the door to Belvedere Castle. I must admit that even I was surprised at what followed. As Parker and Cliff stepped through the door, they were roughly shoved to the ground and had a number of shotguns trained on them. I immediately assumed what turned out to be the case: werewolves had captured my subjects. I could hardly restrain a groan of despair, but quickly turned matters to salvaging the situation. A simple cantrip was enough to pacify the wolves sufficiently that they did not kill my poor subjects on the spot. I unfortunately could not prevent Parker from foolishly trying to attack one of them, earning himself severe burns from their weapons, but even then they chose not to kill him. The wolves seemed to know and respect Cliff, at least slightly; for some reason, they simply did not notice Hannah, though she then stepped forward and submitted to be bound like the others. The subjects were held like this for only a few minutes before a very old woman appeared and took charge of the group. She explained that she was the Eldest of the tribe and that she would take responsibility for the intruders. Eric, the young wolf who had befriended Cliff previously, referred to her as Grandmother. Grandmother led the subjects through the trees and into a cavern worn into a small boulder. There she explained to them that Cliff's father was known among the wolves of the north as a valiant fighter against the deadly fires that claimed so many of their number every year. For that reason, though she could not adopt him into the tribe, she was willing to spare Cliff's life and even allow him to have a name among the werewolves. Cliff's friends would be suffered to live and to visit the tribe in his company, despite their vampiric nature. I could not help being rather smug, as Lucius has almost never managed to get an informant so deeply involved with the subjects of his research. Unfortunately, I was able to learn only a limited amount. It seems that there is significant enmity between the wolves and the vampires of New York over the matter of the Cathedral. Grandmother seemed to think that the Camarilla had stolen it from her kind shortly after it had been built, and had destroyed the werewolf holy grounds to build their Cathedral there. She told the group that she would send some of the tribe's warriors to see if the place was truly free of vampires, and she thanked them for their valor on behalf of the werewolves. None of the subjects dared disagree with her -- quite wisely as it turned out. She offered them shelter for the day, and promised them that they would be released from the park unharmed. How few humans, let alone vampires, can say that they have spoken with the tribe of Central Park and survived! I am more and more pleased with my subjects with every passing day. Transcribed and maintained Elizabeth Kent