Thursday, February 20, 2020

LeTU Meets The Wolfman

Our erstwhile heroes received a hasty call from Professor Maclanahan to discuss an important new investigation, meeting at a swanky club with a biology professor named Dr. Wayne LeGrevellec. Dr. LeGrevellec showed the students a video of a woman in a lab coat, attacked by some sort of creature, a wolfman perhaps. The creature slammed the woman's head on the table, knocking her unconcious, then grabbed some vials, ripped the hard drive out of the computer, and took off. Dr. LeGrevellec explained that he works in the off-site lab with a few other LU professors, and from speaking with his colleagues, is fairly certain that the attacker was Dr. Allen Miller, who worked in that very lab. The woman, Dr. Miller's research partner, survived the attack but is under observation at the hospital due to a concussion. The attack occurred last night; he isn't entirely certain what Dr. Miller was researching, but he had gotten a fat grant from a private firm, one that had invested in many professors' research. Presumably, Dr. Miller became infected with his own experimental gene therapy and may be undergoing radical mental changes as well as the obvious physical one. While campus security believes the attacker is someone in a gorilla suit, it's pretty obvious that it's no suit.

After answering a few questions, Dr. LeGrevellec handed the group a slip of paper with the addresses for Dr. Miller's lab and home, and his lab assistant's name (Aubrey Wright), and closed by saying that while he and GlenMac are too conspicuous to openly investigate, students are largely overlooked, and should be able to investigate without much trouble.

Together, the students went to visit Aubrey Wright in the hospital; they found her arguing with the doctor, who wanted to keep her for further observation. Finally, she convinced the group to assuage the doctor's fears... by getting them to convince the doctor they would keep an eye on her. After a little persuasion, she was released, and somewhat warmer towards the students. Somewhat.

She wanted to go straight to the lab, and after running some blood tests on herself, was much calmer, and suggested they go investigate Dr. Miller's house. After peering in some windows and trying the door (locked), they found a fake rock in the garden. Bingo! The key to the front door!

Inside, Ms. Wright went through some mail, heading towards the study; the students fanned out, leaving James to keep an eye on her. Apart from a mean-looking full-size poodle in the back yard, and a rather more luxurious house than most (any?) LeTourneau professors, there was little to uncover. The house was there to be fancy, not to be lived in, it looked like. In the den, Will found some important looking papers, but apart from a header that read "SH 211 B, Lab 2" and "SH 211", as if referencing different labs, there wasn't a lot to go on.

After befriending the dog, Priya snooped around the doghouse - the heated doghouse, with its own running water - but found only a squeaky toy. Ms. Wright refused to go anywhere near the dog, as she rather hated it...

After one final sweep of the house, they decided to head back to the lab. A printed note on the door announced that the room was under lockdown, but the students waltzed in, sure that they could find Dr. Miller. Everything had been cleaned up, and the computer replaced, though yet to be set up. The students snooped around, carefully investigating, until finding a trickle of water dribbling out from under a cabinet. Nothing useful was in the cabinet, but when Will dragged the cabinet backward, the wall behind it moved too, revealing a only-just-now-awakened Dr. Miller!

He greeted them, and kept them talking for a few minutes, all too eager to spill the beans... he had been hired by EyePhi to develop what he was sure was some sort of weaponized werewolf drug. He was given some strange ash and a few other chemicals, and after much trial and error, was able finally perfect his - er, the - concoction. Well, almost. It seems that while the user would retain his or her humanity, there was a substantial amount of hair growth.

About this time, the students noticed Dr. Miller was rather bulkier than when they entered the secret lab... and then long, curling hair grew out of his body, as his grin turned a little more feral. Oops.

Will, Priya, and James took the front lines, frustrating the wolfman in doctor's clothing by blocking his (quite powerful!) attacks, and occasionally landing some decent blows. Unfortunately, the damage seemed to just melt away; only silver can harm a werewolf! Or at least, this werewolf. Alistair dashed for his car, realizing he needed his silver bullets. Will took a hit, and Priya narrowly avoided getting slashed, deciding to back out of the fight and look for something helpful. Remembering Alistair shouting something about silver, she grabbed a bottle of colloidal silver from a shelf, and dumped a few ounces onto her spear. She tossed the bottle to Will, and got a good stab in! Will sprayed down his katana, and passed the bottle to James; together, they hacked and smashed, wearing down the wolfman's defenses... then slashing him through the heart, and finishing him off.

Just as the wolfman shrunk back down to dead-human-sized Dr. Miller, Ms. Wright (having heard the commotion) entered the lab. She didn't seem too bothered about the corpse of her former collegue - in fact, she was quite willing to help "sweep it all under the rug", if only they would hand over the hard drives and bottles of serum they found in Dr. Miller's desk. After some thought, they decided they would do just that, and quickly left. Well... almost. James, feeling adventurous, pick-pocketed the hard drives from Wright's pocket, without her noticing a thing.

Back at school, they called up GlenMac, and soon, Dr. LeGrevellec arrived, all too happy to "clean up any mess", including the possibly back-stabbing Ms. Wright... And, for their help in the matter, each student was awarded $500.

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