Okay I am among the living again, (from sleep nothing more serious) and have two things to report involving this Dybbuk, first it is now a dispersed swarm of beetles, it was a hard fight and my armor is totaled out. As I was watching the beetles scurring away a man stepped out of the shadows and had some not too pleseant comments for me.

"You fool do you know how hard it is to get one of those to obey you? I should kill you were you stand!" he screamed in near hysteric rage.

Now I have never been one to stand still when some one threatens to kill me and I have delt with a mage since getting here, magic was not unknown where I am from. I shot him with a clip of .45 and watched it deflect with out touching him. He snarled some thing and a bolt of heat smashed into me, this is what finished my armor off. As I rolled to try and stand he laughed and started the villian monolouge, you know the old how he was going to rule us and how great he was. I was tired and hurting before the flash fry, I pulled my vehicle stopper and fired it at him. As with the bullets it stopped on the shield he had up, but unlike the bullets it exploded with a shaped charge that sent him flying into a old abandoned house, from the blood I found I guess the stopper took down his shield and the house hurt him pretty good. Now I've got a looney I have no way of taking down unless I catch him with out all his protective spells and wards up. And some how I doubt I'll get that luky now, any advice on how to get a good defense ready fot this idiot?

And for the last item on the menu, I found a guy stumbling along a little after all this and thought it might be another Dyubbuk. I was in no condition to fight a second creature at the moment, but I was not going to not at least do recon on it. The guy fell over in a heavily over grown secton of trees, I hide and waited for the thing to do it's ghosting in but it did not. I went to check into the guy to see if he was just drunk. He was dead, I have had some forensics training and felt I needed to find out what happened so I moved the corpse to one of my hidey holes and did a autopsy. THe guy was in good physical health and did not have any of the tattle tale signs of drug or acohol abuse visible or in the basic blood work I can do. I did find a wound on the back of his head that was not healed but a substance sealed the wound.
I decided to cut in and check the internal damage to the victim, imagine my suprise when I found a eel like creature with a mass of hair like tentecles. I managed to catch it in a large leaded glass container that seals air tight. The wierd part of the victim's condition is about 2/3 of his brain was missing. I think this thing was using him as a moble snack. Any help on what this thing is?

Not one of those brain sucking things again!

Ugh!

Someone tried to assassinate me once with one. I'd ordered a few helmets military surplus and someone stashed one of those things inside my order in one of the helmets.

I was boiling water for pasta at the time, and I set the box down on the table in the kitchen. The water comes to a boil and I turn around and it lept onto the back of my head. I grabbed my grandfather's knife out of the knife block and with a few stabs pry the thing off and drop it into the pot and slam the lid down on top. The thing went nuts and it was all I could do to keep the pot on the burner and the lid on the pot. It ate its way through the side of the pot within a few seconds but I brought the knife up again real quick and skewered it and it poofed as is usual after turning into black goo.

Sounds like fun, and Ron I normally only carry one of the vehicle stoppers and may carry more now that this mage is on me. Any suggestions for the brain sucker or sould I just roast it?

Well, with the mage your best Defense is a good Offense. You need to strike when he's vulnerable, and if he's watching you then you need someone to come in and watch him watching you; preferably someone with a high powered rifle.

As for the Brain Burrower, if you have it solidly contained then someone might be willing to buy it off of you. Maybe take it to the local University and have the "new species" named after ya haha.

Those things again I would say KILL IT! They are vile creatures, normally you aren't going to find them in groups, but If this is another thing that Mage summoned I would be careful,there could be more. As Bert has said some like to use them for removeing enemys. That brings the question up as to do you know who sent that little surprise Bert and if so have you returned the favor. Oh Crosshair MT bert's suggestion is your best bet unless you know a magic user who owes you or is a friend.

Greetin's from Maine

Just kill it. I have never personally encounted one of those things, Ill be grateful if I never do, but my advice, KILL IT!! I say put it in the microwave on high for 20 minutes until its cripsy goo.

Happy Huntin'

Unless you can find someone that wants to try dissecting it for science the Brain Burrower isn't worth much. And its not like you captured a super demon or something that could be used to expose the shadowy world of the supernatural to the public, as far as anyone out of the loop would be concerned you only caught a funky eel-thing.

Greetins' from Maine

BRAIN BURROWER....its not even fun to say. Just kill it or you'll wind up regretin it later when it gets out, burrows into ya brain and we wind up reading your obiturary in tomorrows paper. Remember, the road to ruin was paved with good intentions.

Happy Huntin'

Well the Brain Burrower is toast, disolvered ionto a black goo then it evaporated. I can see why it's hell to prove these things exist at all to the mundanes out there. I may have a lead on the mage. my video gear survived and I got a pic of him to run by a friend in the local P.D. Poor man may be getting a visit soon.

Greetins' From Maine

Howdy there GT, glad ya did the sensable thing and toasted that buggar. Thing is, these beasties, they don't like being summoned, controled, or experimented on.
And the fact the go discorpratn they way the do does make it hard to prove the existance of the supernatural. However, if you could capture something alive, dope it p with mega doses of Thorazine (and I mean elephant sized, I can see Elvis in the morning doses), then maybe you can attempt it. But don't forget yer backup.

Happy Huntin'

And wear a helmet. Acid resistant helmet.

Well that won't be a problem as I have a set of acid resistant gear for lab work. I plan to take care of mage boy before he can send too much my way, my contact said they were sending the info to me tonight. Hopefully by Monday night or so he won't be a issue for me to worry about.

Greetins' From Maine

Good luck huntin' that mage. Just remember that magic is 98% belief, if you don't believe, than he can't hurt you. I think I read that somewhere.

Telling yourself you don’t believe in magic wont help you if down inside you still believe in magic, where it counts. Real non belief is uncommon, rare, almost unheard of. No no no its better to get prepared for real then to lie to yourself and get hurt. Maybe you should find someone to help you with the bad magiks man. You should not get close by yourself, never ever, not safe, if you don’t know what your are fighting against then its very dangerous, too dangerous, scary bad dangerous.

Greetins' From Maine

Well ain't that a kick in the rear. Last time I believe anythingI read in The After Midnight. Well if magic is more substantial than just belief, erhaps magic is best used to counter magic. I have a friend (and I use the term loosely) that knows quite a bit about magic. I can ask him if there is anything we can possibly do to help; maybe a charm or an amulet, or something.
Wish I could make a mage seeking bullet...you know something that will lock onto a source of signifigantly high PPE and seek it out, and destroy it. Like a mage seeking smart bomb.

KonThaak wrote:Sometimes, unfortunately, that isn't enough...but unless we learn to control our bodies to the extent that Willie has, we can't squeeze any more of the stuff out of ourselves.

So the others can run out? Huh.

Yes, Willie. They can run out of juice. You dont, and for the most part I never do either. I don't know about Shadow and some of the others, but most psychics and the like getting into this field do.

although my body rarely "runs out of juice" (the side efects of my age) there are times when my abilities to deal with the kami and use their gifts seems to be Very limited. I have found that these times tend to come more rarely when i am dealing with the kami and others like them in close proximity and more often when i am being foolish and salveing my own foolish pride (with age comes wisdom - may yours not hurt as mine has)

hope this is helpfull

I too, seem to have problems with my abilities at times... when I'm not being true to myself. Perhaps this is because of a personal schism between the mind and the spirit, and without them being unified the amount of power available is cut severely.

Or in Shinto's case: spirits.

Greetin's From Maine

Now I ain't got no psychic powers, magic powers, vast arsenal, or no kung-fuystuff nieder. But I do got my trusty .45 and a shotgun. The chainsaw 's in the trunk. But thats the problem with psychics and magic users, they tend to eventually run out of steam. When that happens in the middle of a fight, ya best have someone like me, Ron,or Burt for that matter there to watch yer back. No one can fight a war alone, thats why we got the society here people, were a team, one big ol happy family (ok, more like the manson famly), but a family none the less.

So Happy Huntin'

Well the mage is gone, I don't belive him dead, no body.Of course when a gas main goes boom there usally is not much left to recover in the wreakage. I feel like I have been used by all of the NFL for a tackling dummy. I still have a few Dybbuk and other nasties running loose but they have currently gone to ground, seems a few of the things did not like each other. The mage made a mistake in trusting his shield to save him from any small arms I may have used to try and take him out with. Too bad he did'nt factor in that I may have some knowledge from a source in the know on magic. Seems some good old salt and cold iron can play hell with a spell casting. I laced his home with the material while he was out playing good citizen. For a mage of supposed great power he sure put alot of faith in his paranormal lackies, I almost feel the things let me set him up. I don't know if the paranormal things will allow a mage that is thier "master" to be done in or not.

Now I have a new issue at hand, a old tome that was in the place, I have already tried to burn it, shred it, doused it with acid and nothing is damaging the thing. I have not, and will not attempt to read it, and do not want to rik it falling in the wrong hands. Of course for all I know it's a guide on how to clean a Dybbuk' teeth and nails. Luky for me I got out with severe bruises and a pulled group of mucles in my left leg, the armor is holding everything in a good imoblized state and allows me to continue to function. So any mage types want to check out this tome? Let me know and I can set up a meeting to exchange info on the sit rep.

You could try soaking it in holy water, or dropping it in concrete.

I can look at it for you if no one else is around, later though, not now, too many problems right now, but later there may be less problems. Holy water is a good idea for some things, I like that idea, don’t know if it will work though, never tried on a book. Concrete not as much a good idea, a hammer and chisel and time and then its back causing trouble, bad magic things always turn up again if they are not dealt with, unless you are building a dam over the Yangtze River, then maybe you have enough concrete to keep it buried.

We can decipher it for you. Just give it to us. (sinister laughter).

Does the commentary FAT CHANCE mean anything to you.

Why does this thing think we have the intelligence of a piece of wood?

Intelligence level of wood...I would not insult the wood. As for your intelligence....well a vast majority did walk with open arms right into my TRAP! Now, those of you who survive your past mistakes (snicker) will suffer a fate far worse than you could possibly imagine.