Rebelling Against the Dominion of Death

San Francisco, Morgue, Evening

Lumina had been unsure of how they would make their way into the morgue without being turned back. In hindsight, she should have expected Corinth would bluff them through again. It was a neat trick for sure, but it had been even riskier this go around, and had very nearly gotten them in trouble. But in the end, he had secured them twenty minutes to talk to the victims. That would hopefully be sufficient.

There were five corpses on gurneys in the room that presumably made up the morgue. Ideally, three of those corpses were from the crime scenes involving the Mothman. If things went according to plan, they would find out soon enough.

Lumina had been pondering how best to go about getting the information she wanted from the victims throughout the day. The first question then, was, what information did she want? For starters, Lumina was planning on getting clarification from the victims on what had transpired to them before their demise, and hopefully confirming that the Mothman was indeed involved if not responsible for their deaths. Additionally, Lumina hoped to get clarification from Kramer as to what his interest in the Halliwell sisters had been, and perhaps also ask him what he knew about the Warren family if she still had questions to spare (bearing in mind the general five question limit Lumina had been taught was the rule of thumb for how many answers she could be expected to get with the spell from a given corpse). Lastly, she would ask Oliva about her family, again assuming she had the questions to spare.

Lumina approached the bodies with trepidation. There was nothing pleasant about death, let alone violating the tranquility of the dead. This was going to be challenging to deal with, but there was a lot riding on this. As this was her duty, first and foremost to the Templars, but also to the other potential victims of this monster prowling the streets. She also had a coworker to impress and her career to rescue, so Gail, Turner, and Olivia were going to have to take a break from death to spill their secrets.

She decided to start with Gail, as Lumina had less questions in mind to ask her than the others, so any unproductive questions Lumina asked while getting into a groove could be better afforded from Gail than from the others. Gail was easy enough to recognize from her photos in the newspaper and distinct wounds. Ideally the wound to Gail’s neck would not be problematic, as it was Lumina’s understanding that for the Speak with Dead spell only required the target’s mouth to be intact.

Lumina was so deep in thought as she prepared to perform the spell on Gail that it took her moment to hear the commotion behind her. Not understanding what she was hearing, Lumina turned around… and shrieked.

Lumina had looked just in time to witness Corinth get pummeled and thrown across the floor by a corpse that had been occupying one of the gurneys. As the violent corpse turned toward her, she recognized it as Turner Kramer from the TV News she had seen that morning, except his eyes were glowing red and his skin was rapidly becoming an inky black.

“The Bees, THE BEES! They COME FOR ME STILL! No peace, NO PEACE! Not for me, not while the Dreamers dream!”

Lumina nearly panicked, backing away from the monstrosity that Turner had become. Then she saw Corinth prone on the floor near the door, and she recalled the conversation she had with him in Heathrow Airport.

“Can I trust you to do what needs to be done should things go sideways? To, shoot, to kill… all the things. I need to know you got my back no matter what.”

“I got your back, chief,” Lumina muttered, forcing herself to stand her ground. Taking a piece of leather out of her pack, she quickly performed a Mage Armor spell just before Turner charged. The spell immediately proved its worth, subtle wards considerably tempering what may have been a debilitating blow. But it still hurt quite a bit, and Lumina staggered as the strike was deflected to her shoulder. Turner's next attack was rather clumsy, as perhaps he had been thrown off by her ward. Lumina was able to raise her arm to protect herself, after which she was able to get close enough to shove Turner away. Earning herself a bit of space as Turner staggered, Lumina followed up with Hellish Rebuke, causing flames to sprout up around the fiend for its insolence. Turner howled in pain but regained his balance quickly. Backpedaling to gain whatever space she could, Lumina reached back into her back and felt around for a nail she had purchased. Getting it out just as Turner got ready to charge, Lumina cast a Hold Person Spell as Turner rapidly approached her.

Turner froze only about two feet away from her as the spell paralyzed him. His momentum still carried him toward her, but Lumina had bought herself enough time to get out of the way. The fiend toppled to the floor and came to rest near a pull-out compartment for additional bodies. Unsure how long the spell would last, Lumina started to back away toward where the fight had started, and then she saw that Corinth had recovered and was making his way toward them. Lumina felt her confidence soar as the monster hunter got back in the fight.

“Let’s finish this!”