[color=cyan][color=cyan]Not sure if anyone else has encountered these things, dropped off description in one of the other chat forums. Halloween in Reno, this year, over last 2 months, has been a rash of disappeances of homeless people. Information was being fed to newspapers but the story kept getting buried, interestingly enough, we discovered later that a rash of disappearances by some of the more reputable people in town was being totally covered up. I ran with 5 others in the area, trying to clean up the more paranormal crimes and making sure that humans weren't being used as a food source by the things that hide in the dark.

One of our group is actually a police officer, so we usually hear about things before the papers get a hold of it. This time, someone high up in the station had been sitting on the disappearance of 30 people. Of these ones that had vanished, 20 were in the age range of 25 - 45. Most of them were last seen in bars and casinos around Reno. No place we found out later seemed to be more hunted than any other.

The police had discovered one body, totally desiccated and the internal organs were missing, apparently dissolved, since there was no sign of kind of wounds on the body. When we examined the body, I picked up a very peculiar scent. Something between smelling likes a rotting corpse and an acidic smell.

We heard that homeless people seemed to be getting picked off by a social worker named, Cori. She never told us her last name. Apparently for good reason. Going undercover as a homeless person, I was wandering the areas around the city, seeing if I could pick up a scent. I hit pay dirt outside an apartment complex on 10th St in the city of Sparks.

Calling the others on their cells, they hurried to my position and we got ready to go in for bear. I had assumed my hybrid human/wolf form in preparation for what; we were not sure at the time. The others got their weapons ready for combat, realizing that if I was shifting that meant something bad was coming up.

Our group contained a mage, which now I am eternally grateful for. No sooner had we broke down the door and found Cori, seemingly embracing some poor man that she had picked up in a bar (later found out his name was David Dunn) in an empty apartment, than large black legs seemed to tear from her back. These legs resembled nothing more than a pair of black widow legs, infact, there was a large red hour glass on her back, between where the legs protruded.

The creature tossed the corpse from her, turned to face us, with 6 inch fangs that were dripping acidic venom. We figured, 6 of us, one of her, we were in good shape. Nock one up to overconfidence. She took Uzi fire in stride, the bullets were ripping into its flesh, but the wounds were heading at an incredible rate. I figured I would see how she handled 300 lbs of snarling werewolf. Very well apparently. She snatched me out of the air with one of her human arms, held me at arms length, while I clawed her, and then slammed spider legs into me. One of the legs went clear through, sticking about half a foot out the other side. She then flipped me over her shoulders, and started to spray a web over me, holding me in place.

While I was still conscious, I saw two more of the monsters, one was a woman with red hair, the other a black woman come bursting out of a darkened room. They seemed to just burst out of the shadows, almost like they had teleported in. The odds didn't look good now.

Our resident mage and the physical psychic had early on in our career of monster hunting had developed a unique attack. The psychic would use his pyrokenisis to start a flame; the mage would use an electrical attack to augment the fire. This tended to make things burn very rapidly. Using this attack they actually were able to kill the first one, but the other two struck with a frightening speed.

They seemed drawn towards Mary Robbinson. She was using her Native American magicks to try and shield the others from the creatures. Leaving herself wide open, they grabbed her, bit her several times and then tossed her body across the room.

I was holding my guts in, or trying too at least. They kept leaking out from the wound I had just received when Jerimah Runningbear jumped on the red head. He placed his hands on its head and attempted to mind blast the bitch. Screaming, the creature dropped to the ground. The black one took a direct hit to the face from a .357. It staggered, amazingly still alive, slapped Jerimah with one of its legs, which broke his neck. Grabbing the other creature, it stepped back into the shadows and disappeared.

We got out as fast as we could, trying to avoid the cops. Taking our wounded and dead with us, we got into our van and hightailed it out of there. I tried to track the creatures by scent, and interestingly enough, the scent continued outside the building, but disappeared in the parking lot. Apparently they climbed into a vehicle and drove off.

Sorry to hear about your friends, but don't try going completly on your own, as you said these things did some damage to you as well. It never hurts to have allies.

Thank you for your words Shadowstalker. But I feel that if I had not been so arrogant in thinking that there was nothing that our pack could not stop, that my freinds would not have paid the price. I will think of what you said, and perhaps will not turn down assitance from others.