thirstyEleventh Session
Sunday, April 8th, 2007
It's a bright, sunny morning as Jenny Hansford (Joanne) arrives at the Feldenham Retirement Home in the small town of Feldenham, some 40 kilometres north of London, to visit her grandmother, Katherine. Jessica Ransome (Angela) has accompanied her on the visit, as she's trying to get to know the somewhat shy, anti-social computer geek. The visit is going quite well when one of the retirement home nurses says that she's spotted something unusual outside Feldenham's walls.
Back in London, Amanda Tarrascon (Kathy) is working in an office of the Institute of Zoological Studies (IZS) on the database of creatures that she's encountered so far. Her assistant, Kathy Blaine, is surprised to see her there on a Sunday, but when she sees the information on prehistoric creatures and dinosaurs, Amanda explains to her that she's considering teaching some evolutionary biology courses at Imperial College for the coming season, and thought she'd catch up with that information. Kathy doesn't believe her for some reason and becomes annoyed and a bit resentful, and tells her that their relationship can't continue like this. Amanda's becoming secretive, and others at the IZS are starting to talk about it. She tells Kathy that maybe going to teach full-time at Imperial College would be a good idea. Before they can continue the conversation, there's a disturbance in the hallway.
At his flat, David Bannister (Nick) and his EMT co-worker and now lover, Christine Foster, are having a romantic lie-in on one of their few days off together, but their pillow talk turns into a bit of a discussion about their working relationship and David's involvement with Anomalies and the creatures that come out of them. She's not happy about the risks he's taking, but she understands the reasons for them. Finally calm enough again, David convinces her to get back to "more important things".
At the Home Office, Captain Alexander Taylor (Tom) goes through a series of drills with his men to sharpen their combat skills. Alexander is taken by surprise at the new-found expertise by Cpl. Marie Dommanis with her assault rifle, and the two have a chat. As the two go and towel off, she comes on to him somewhat, but he explains to her that he's happily married. Before they can continue their chat, he's interrupted by a private, who says that there was a message for him from Archibald Lowrie, who wants to see him at his earliest convenience.
Harrison Williams (David) takes the opportunity of a sunny, relatively warm day to visit the London Zoological Gardens, and becomes an impromptu tour guide for a young boy and his mother when the zoo tour guide leads them astray about lions. He is taken somewhat aback when a young woman, Tammy Dobson, expresses an interest in the lions in their cage, and says that she overheard him explaining matters to the young boy. The two hit it off, and Harrison invites Tammy to dinner that evening. She gladly accepts, and after giving each other their contact information, go their separate ways at the zoo.
Back at the Feldenham Retirement Home, Jenny and Jessica talk to the nurse in question, who tells them that she saw an interesting ball of light outside, in one of the retirement home gardens. With a quick glance at each other, the two ask the nurse where she saw it, and when told the location, head in that direction. The two arrive to find a glowing Anomaly pulsing somewhat, but even as they regard it, it regains a normal Anomaly appearance. The two are relieved to find the garden somewhat isolated, as some of the older retirees are unable to walk this far, but Jessica is startled to find what appear to be large prints made by some animal in the soft earth near the Anomaly. Jenny quickly calls London, and speaks to Archibald Lowrie. He promises a team will head out as soon as possible.
Back at the IZS, Amanda and Kathy move into the hallway to see what the disturbance is. They see that two professors, Dulow and Winchester, are having an argument about the nature of birds. Amanda defuses the situation somewhat, and as Kathy leads them towards one of the other offices that is open on the Sunday with Amanda's promise to talk to them, she interrupted by a call from Archibald Lowrie. He tells her of Jenny's call about the Anomaly, and she says that she's on her way to the Home Office. Lowrie tells her that Captain Taylor will pick her up at IZS. Amanda tells Kathy and the two still arguing professors that she has an important date she remembered, but Kathy's having none of that, and wants to come along with her. They're still debating the matter, even as Amanda is packing up her stuff to get ready to leave.
David and Christine are interrupted in their affairs of the heart by a call from Archibald Lowrie. Afterwards, when David tells her that he's got to leave, Christine says that she understands his jobs for the government take priority, but she says that she doesn't like it. Christine tells him that she's coming along, and nothing David can say to her changes her mind. The two grab what they need, and head over to the Home Office via the Tube.
Alexander is told that there's an Anomaly problem up in Feldenham, and Lowrie tells him to take a minimum complement of men. He decides to take three with him on this trip - Donnelly, Marie Dommanis, and another newcomer to the team, Bill Trainor. Donnelly, Dommanis, and Trainor get their kit ready, and then prepare the equipment that Alexander orders them to get. He says they've got to wait for a couple of the others to show up, and then head out on the trip to Feldenham.
En route to his temporary home at one of London's hotels, Harrison is contacted by Archibald Lowrie's office, and told that there's an Anomaly that needs dealing with. He doesn't know if there's an incursion but he's under orders from James Lester to take no chances at all. Harrison says he'll be at the Home Office within the hour, and goes to switch off to a different Tube line.
Back at the Feldenham Retirement Home, Jessica has learned that a couple of retirees, Marcus Crane and Amelia Farrish, have not been seen in several hours. Along with several of the staff, she and Jenny set out to see if they can locate the two senior citizens. Rounding a corner onto one of the retirement home's small outhouses for the guests' convenience, they come upon the horrifying sight of the bodies of the two retirees. Not waiting to see if the creature that did it is still there, the two dash back to the main building.
The Home Office team, with the additions of Kathy Blaine and Christine Foster, arrive in Feldenham. Arriving at the retirement home, they meet Andrew Ferguson, the current owner of the retirement home, who has already been briefed by Jessica about the dead bodies. Alexander takes charge, and has Amanda, Kathy, and Jessica accompany him and one of the SAS soldiers to the site of the bodies. He tells Andrew Ferguson to fetch the doctor who takes care of the retirees and send him along to them. He tells David, Jenny, and Harrison to try and keep the people calm, and relatively in the dark about what's going on. The two groups split up.
This session of the Primeval RPG started off a new scenario, and the player characters were quite intrigued by the premise and the possible events occurring at the retirement home. David and Angela were most intrigued by the scenario's premise, and even made suggestions on some of the stuff that might occur at the retirement home, much to the shock and horror of the other players. (I may actually implement some of these ideas into the scenario, but we'll see.) The players are dying to know what creature they're facing in this one, but will have to wait for the next session to find out. Lovely stuff.