Case 15: Entry 1

I've got a job in Monterey investigating street performers. Huh. I'm really not sure what to expect on this one. It could turn out that they're vampires or something I could wind up running for my life (which is something I'm very good at; I've been putting in time on the treadmill and I can find my way around most cities pretty well) from or it could be more like Case 14, at the end of which I had to explain to my client that his house wasn't haunted and that his real problem was that he had a psychotic desire for self-importance that he was treating with paranoid delusions. My client didn't respond well to that news. Anyway, the client for this case (who just so happens to be obscenely rich) claims that these nomads are up to a lot of general mischief that happens to include the theft of a particular artifact he's eager to have back. He's supplied with with pictures of several members and a list of cities in which they've been spotted as well as any firsthand accounts of them he's managed to dig up. I made sure to send copies of everything to a friend of mine at the Agency. He'll look around the archives and see if the nomads popped up in any old investigations. Which just goes to show that the secret to looking like a miracle worker is not telling people about all the favors you called in or how long you had to practice your inspector from a random bureau impersonation or how many times you just grabbed the police files while no one was looking. Even when you're dealing with real magic the most mundane tricks sometimes work the best.

Anyway, there's all kinds of lore about nomadic groups like this. In some stories they're monsters that come into town, feed, and leave before anyone catches on to them. In others they're under some curse to wander forever, and if you beat them at some challenge then you can win all kinds of treasure but if you lose they become free and you take their place. Then there are stories about tricksters, beggars who test compassion of those they encounter, and all kinds of other beings. The stories cover pretty much everything on the malevolence-to-benevolence spectrum. As things are, all I really know is that this group seems to be made up mostly of street performers and vendors and that whenever they are always accompanied by an increase in odd, possibly supernatural, occurrences.

Well then. Off to Monterey.

Case 13: Entry 4

I'm...not entirely sure what happened. The setup for the ritual worked exactly like it was supposed to. I got a feel for the kid's spirit. I took the tonics and got everything ready to throw down with something outside my weight class. And then he changed and I realized precisely how outside my weight class the wolf was. The ghosts and minor nature spirits I usually deal with couldn't hold a candle to it. I started throwing out every chant and incantation I could think of, including some that invoked various other spirits. I guess one of them heard me.

Something I'd never felt before came over me, something strong. It came in and it kept on going until it crashed against the wolf. I told the parents that the wolf was driven out, but when I thought back on it...I'm pretty sure the thing ate it. All I know for sure is that the kid is back to normal. Also, I heard the name--which I am absolutely not writing down here or anywhere else--of the entity, and after some research I found out it's some kind of bigwig Lord of the Wilds.

So I guess I'd better find what rituals I need to do to honor it. I definitely don't want something like that considering me ungrateful. I feel like I've just been dropped into the middle of the ocean, where absolutely anything could be lurking in the murk and I am quite literally out of my depths. On the other hand, at least this case is done with.

Case 13: Entry 3

Three different rituals. Three different failures.

First I tried putting the kid in a circle and exposing him to a tonic made from wolfsbane, mistletoe, and a few herbs known to absorb or interfere with magical energies in a window of time between the halfway point of the wolf's decline in strength and the moment when it begins to feed on the boy. I was hoping the tonic would have a more dramatic effect on the wolf than on the boy during that time, allowing us to kill it while only causing minor irritation to the boy. The problem was that apart from the zauberstaub I don't have any tools that can really measure the strength or presence of the spirit. Once the physical signs all disappeared I had no way of knowing whether or not it was still there. We went as far with the ritual as we felt we safely go, but apparently it wasn't enough. All physical signs returned within twenty minutes of breaking the circle.

I tried that method first because it was the one that I thought had the best chance of success. The other two were an exorcism and a shamanic cleansing ritual. Neither one had any effect on the boy. I have one other method to try, but that's kind of a last-ditch effort. Supposedly, there's a way to do a sort of Vulcan mind meld that I could use to drive the wolf out directly. The problem is that it can only be done during the change, otherwise the spirit is buried too deep to get at. Oh, and I have to be close--as in, in the same room as the great, big, hyper-aggressive monster--in order to pull it off. If it doesn't work I have some amulets and a bunch of silver that might keep me safe, but I'd have to be on my guard all night long. So we'll see how that goes. I've got about four hours to get ready.

If I survive the night, I'll finish this afterward.