ƜуηηєfαƖѕнσηɗ

Astrid, Faye, Fred Jr., Miles, Taradiddle

The Knights were briefed by Wynn about a wild animal attack in London that had just occurred, the fourth assault in a week that had led to horribly mutilated bodies that were partially devoured.  They were tasked to investigate and learn whether the creature was Shadow in nature.  They headed to the abandoned warehouse where the body had been found and found out from the police that the victim was a young street punk who had been found on an anonymous tip.  Taradiddle discovered claw marks on the floor, and that it seemed to have clawed its way in through a window.  Astrid found blood trails indicating the victim was taken down from behind and dragged across the warehouse before being torn apart.  The police headed off, as Fred discovered a metal tag that said "Hilberger Tech-X 433'.  Taradiddle discovered a young punk curled up behind some barrels whimpering.  They finally got him to calm down and learned his name was Desmond and that he was the one who had called with a tip after he and his friend Rico stole a lady's purse, and then a monster jumped out with claws and scales and tore Rico apart.  He hid while it chewed on his friend, and then called the police.  They let Desmond go, and headed for Hilberger Tech.

The Tech building was a biotech firm not far away, and they headed in, posing as buyers.  They were taken in to see Dr. Fulbert, the only man on staff at the moment.  He took them on a tour, where they saw a dinosaur floating in a tube, which he explained that they had bioengineered.  When confronted about what happened to the other three in the empty tubes, Dr. Fulbert admitted they had escaped and that their intrusion had ruined his plans to recapture them alive without anyone knowing better. He closed them inside and released the dinosaur, which they fought and killed.  As Taradiddle healed Miles, Fred, Faye, and Astrid ran out after Fulbert.  Astrid shot out his tires and they captured the scientist, who explained that he had been developing the dinosaurs on a government grant for the military, and had grown several deinonychus embryos to maturity to use as weapons, and was trying to find ways to control them.  They had escaped, instead, and Fulbert said that he had a tracking device implanted in their bodies and had been unable to capture them himself without being nearly killed.  They secured Fulbert inside for the police, and called them.

They headed out to follow the tracked dinos to the sewers, where Faye nearly drowned.  Faye and Fred were attacked by the dinos after they split off from the party, but eventually the team caught up and they took them all down.  They decided to go back and gather up Fulbert's research to keep it from falling into the wrong hands.

Solace, Andie, Scout, Riddick, Nessa

The Knights were briefed on their mission by Solace: they were to had to Khajjair, india, to a mountain temple of the elven goddess of dreams, Sehanine, where two moon elf sisters had quarantined themselves to complete a ritual they believed would seal the Veil entirely.  A large group had gathered to prevent anyone from entering and disrupting the ritual.  They were to investigate the nature of the ritual, and ensure the fanatics didn't injure anyone else.  

They spent a week gathering intelligence in the town near the temple, and heard strange reports about the way these cultists were dogmatic to the point of violence.  They headed up to the temple itself finally, to find hundreds camped in the way.  Riddick caused a distraction, as Andie ran in to scope out the temple, where gifts were left on the steps and discovered a second balcony entrance.  Nessa telepathically lifted them up while Riddick continued to fight in the crowd.

Nessa, Faye, and Andie came upon the two elven sisters sitting facing each other at an altar, a glass bladed knife in one of their laps.  The girls confronted them, and were told that they were doing a ritual of 'truest sacrifice' to summon the goddess herself to mend the worlds.  Nessa brought up that Sehanine was not a goddess who usually supported sacrifice, and Andie talked them into dropping the knife, the two sisters, Aenith and Methenith, crying into each other's arms.  Methenith explained that Aenith had had a dream telling them about the ritual, and said that she was willing to die to save thousands from losing their memories and families.  Their attempts to reason them out of it went south, and Aenith went for the knife, ready to kill her sister, but Nessa psionically froze her and Andie grabbed the blade.  When Aenith unfroze, she sliced at her sister's throat - only to find the knife gone.  Methenith was horrified that her sister would have gone through with it and Nessa quietly implored Aenith to tell her sister the truth, having read her dark thoughts.

Aenith admitted that she wanted to be free of her service to Sehanine, a vow she had taken and held to because of her sister, how she had never been able to live up to her.  Methenith tearfully told her sister that she would have let her leave if she'd only known, and Nessa ordered Aenith to leave and never come back.  Nessa asked Methenith to tell the truth to the cultists gathered outside.

Christos, Anastacia, Emma S., Lila, Faye, Felicity

The Knights were briefed on an elven councilwoman who had been recently elected to office in Paris.  Since her election, she had met with political resistance, even to the extent of assassination attempts.  She had hired the Knights to look into discovering who these enemies were, and to protect her from such attempts.  

Traveling to Paris, the Knights met with Councilwoman Taenya Farstorm, in her office, who explained that others believed her ideas were too radical, because they threatened certain corporate interests.  She explained that her proposal was to tear down a large expanse of city property to make a nature preserve.  Most of these properties would belong to the Renault Group, and would be industrial complexes, which as Lila pointed out, would lose a lot of jobs on top of stopping pollution, a fact which did not seem to bother the elf.  Taenya explained that the last attempt had involved cut brake lines, but that she'd been healed by a cleric since the incident in order to not let them think they'd done any harm to her.  She also accused the police of being in the Mayor's pocket, indicating that he was clearly on the side of corporate interests in this.  As they shared information over tea, Lila grew suddenly ill, and they realized abruptly that she'd been poisoned, drinking tea that was probably intended for Taenya.  In the resulting chaos, Felicity pocketed the cup, while Taenya explained that the tea was specially imported from an elven settlement, and called for a cleric.  Lila was afraid that the cleric might be in on the assassination attempt, but they healed her fully and she expressed her theory that one of Taenya's enemies might be a woman, given that they tended to favor using poison over men.  Taenya named Elode Olympe, one of the Mayor's greatest supporters.

Meanwhile, Faye and Felicity had gone to find Christos with the cup.  He explained that he had gone to spy on the mayor, and discovered he had some kind of diabolical plans regarding relocating Shadowkind in the city, involving a shipment coming in soon.  Christos had snagged the dock number, and so the girls started off that way to try to discover what he was up to.  The shipment was in progress when they arrived, and they managed to get a look inside, where they saw large tanks of some kind of toxic gas being unloaded.  They were spotted by some of the workers and made their getaway.

Christos checked out the poison traces in the cup, and learned that it was from a rare African spider.  Lila recognized it was strange that they could have gotten the poison from Madagascar in the 48 hours before it would lose potency, and Emma concluded that the spider itself had to have been shipped here.  Christos pointed out that it had likely been someone the Mayor knew well enough to trust, and informed them that the shipment would have to have been in the past year, given the spider's lifespan.

Emma and Lila headed to the Mayor's office, where the latter pretended to be asking about construction permits, dropping in an implication that one of the employees there had been to Madagascar recently, and discovering that it was, in fact, Madame Olympe, Chair of the City Planning Commission.  Lila talked her way back to see her, and found her to be a rather cold young woman, who was in no mood to talk.  Lila did, however, notice the spider in her office.  Meanwhile, Emma recovered phone records and records from her trip to act as further evidence.

Regrouping at the hotel, they discussed their plan of action.  Emma, Christos, and Faye decided to head to the docks since Felicity had been spotted and might be recognized.  Lila, Felicity, and Anastacia went to try to break into Elodie's office.  

Felicity employed her experience at breaking and entering to get them in, but they ran afoul of an old security guard, who Lila convinced she was looking for a lost earring.  He helped her look for it, while Felicity snuck inside.  Together, they took pictures of the spider as further evidence.

At the docks, Emma broke open a window and snuck inside to trip the fusebox, Christos used the cover of darkness to take care of the guards, while Emma and Faye discovered the shipping manifests.  The manifest confirmed that the canisters were some kind of chemical warfare, so they took photos as proof, and headed out.

That night, the team headed to the Mayor's home, where Emma, Faye, Lila, and Christos scaled the fence.  After Christos horrified everyone by killing a sleeping guard dog, while Emma disabled the alarm on the home security system.  They snuck upstairs and found the Mayor in bed with Elodie Olympe, They threatened the pair with the evidence they'd discovered, but Faye lost patience with them and set their bed on fire.  They convinced them to find a safe place to dispose of the barrels, to lay off Taenya, and to leave the Shadowkind in the city alone - as well as to resign from their posts.

A press conference held the next day announced their resignations, and Taenya thanked the team for their help, announcing her plan to run for the Mayor's spot.

Part One: The Peterson Counterstrike
Val'drin, Helen, Francesca, Eric, Lila, Tia, Grant

The Knights were briefed at the downtown office on a problem unfolding in London: a hostage situation involving the Knights' archival curator, Grant Peterson.  Wynn played a video for them in which a man demanded 10 million dollars in unmarked bills, the original manuscript of a German text, and a helicopter to depart from the penthouse where he was holding Grant, his wife Audrey, and their guests hostage.  Wynn identified the man as Peter Jayson, a member of the Children of Chaos cult, a group run by Nicholas St. Andrew, known thief and con-man.  Wynn ordered them to infiltrate the penthouse and rescue the hostages.  The scene, however, was swamped with police and media, and Wynn had the feeling that this was meant on some level to potentially expose the Knights.  He leveraged their connection to Anastacia O'Keefe's husband Jared, the London Chief of Police, to grant them authority to act.

The infiltration team landed with the requested helicopter as Wynn, Val'drin, Helen, and Jared watched from across the street.  They called and had the security system disabled and Francesca broke them in.  Inside, they saw many artifacts on display in the private office, and fought their way through a few of the guards.  Francesca and Lila moved into the penthouse and found a guard watching over a person tied to a chair.  They took down the guard and rescued the woman, who turned out to be Grant's wife, Audrey.  She explained that the others were locked in the safe room and gave them the passcode, asking if it was safe to leave.  Lila grew suspicious of Audrey immediately, and convinced her to stay with them.  She sent word to Eric to free the others, as Francesca questioned Audrey more.  They rejoined Eric, who had been unable to get pass the bungled access panel, but Francesca did so, as Tia shifted uncomfortably at Audrey's presence.  Lila immediately questioned Grant as to why his wife was out as a hostage when they had been threatening to kill him at that appointed time.  He wasn't sure but suggested they leave soon - and then one of the 'hostages' drew a gun, shooting another in the back and grabbing someone as a human shield.  Lila talked him into letting everyone else clear out, but Francesca first gave her the necklace that she had been given as a gift from Val'drin - the one that could keep her from dying, which Lila had recognized from her own world.

Lila was left alone with the man and his hostage.  The man revealed himself to be Peter Jayson himself, as Francesca treated the wounded hostage in the hallway.  Tia tried to talk Grant into waiting (with Audrey) but he insisted on getting the hostages out.  Lila tried to distract Peter with conversation, and then took a dangerous shot at him behind the hostage.  The others heard in the hallway, and after Audrey was gone, Tia explained that the woman's thoughts had betrayed her - she knew something about this, and it was some kind of set-up for a robbery.  She also explained that it seemed Grant had no idea of his wife's plan. They warned the others across the street, and Helen & Val'drin booked it down to the medical station to try and intercept Audrey. Eric burst into the room where the shot had come from, only to find that Lila's shot had killed Peter Jayson - but he had taken the hostage down with him.  

Val'drin and Helen found Grant and Audrey, who was complaining of heart problems, and insisting on being taken to a hospital.  When Helen insisted on caring for Audrey as a doctor, the professor's wife withdrew a bottle of pills, claiming to have forgotten to take them.  She slammed the whole bottle, and then apologized to Grant that things had "gone this way".  With the mysterious statement that she had done what she had to do, she vanished into a gaseous form.  The team reconvened and Tia explained that the hostage situation had been a mere distraction, to allow Audrey to steal some of the artifacts that her husband collected.  Grant insisted that was ridiculous - she was his research assistant and had access to his artifacts at all hours.  He said they could catalog what was missing and he came up with a list of what was missing - either destroyed or stolen.  Helen and Val'drin put together that two of the items were from the same century and location - Barrik the glutton's fetish and an idol of Ventyr, the emaciated.  Helen noted that both objects also had to do with food.  They were left with more questions than answers.

Part Two: Blood Sugar (recorded on Skype)
Carol, Archer, Lydia, Cora, Sydney B., Helen | Oct 2014

The Knights were invited to the downtown London office on Halloween by Wynn and police captain Jared O'Keefe to respond to a situation at a local candy factory, which had been padlocked shut, the employees missing, and the scene of a police officer's death.  There was a recording played from another officer who had been on the scene, talking about some kind of zombie like monster.  They headed to the factory, and checked out the area, finding a mix of white powder and blood outside the main loading doors.  Carol broke them through the padlock into the loading bay, and they noticed tire tracks of a vehicle that had left the area in the last few hours, as well as a missing semi truck.  

Seeing movement between some crates, Cora led them into a storage area, where they found a dead body of a local worker, their face smeared with the same mix of blood and white powder.  Cora was then attacked by a zombie worker, who was leaking the subject out of his orifices.  Lydia hopped on a fork lift as Archer shot it, causing it to leak more of the blood sugar mix as Carol shocked him by flying around to fight the thing.  Lydia moved the forklift to trap the zombie where it was and they defeated it. 

Checking out the manufacturing area, they found a small wooden idol on the floor, of a naked obese man and a mask or disfigured face.  There were words carved on his stomach in a bastardized version of Sanskrit.  Lydia sent pictures to Helen and Sydney noticed that if the machinery wasn't turned off soon, the factory might explode.  There was a trail of blood sugar leading from the westernmost machine into the men's locker room, and Archer saw camera wires heading into the manager's office.  Lydia and Cora headed there, while the others headed into the locker room.

In the manager's office, there were 15 people bound and gagged.  Lydia and Cora freed them and they tried to all run away.  Lydia managed to calm them down and they asked if the 'men in robes' were still out there.  Lydia received a text from Helen that said that she could decipher the writing on the picture.  It read: "Sugar and the blood of Vengeance/ Feeds the Spirit/ So that He may return/ to do his chores/ Unholy".

Meanwhile, in the locker room, Sydney, Archer, and Carol they followed the trail out into the time clock area.  Just inside the door was the body of the police officer also covered in blood and sugar.

Lydia took Cora out of the office to tell her what she had learned from Helen: that she had recognized the idol from the Peterson Counterstrike mission.  One of the idols they found on that mission was stolen - Barrik the Glutton, a diablerist and murderer who used some kind of item to kill people in the 4th century.

Archer insisted they check the women's locker room as well, but there was nothing wrong in there, so they headed back to meet up with others.  Lydia told them what they had learned and Sydney pulled out the supervisor to question.  Helen texted Val'drin to answer their question about whether the idol could be destroyed.  The supervisor told them about how weirdos in yellow robes showed up, armed, gathered up the employees except for the security guard and tied them up with duct tape, closing the blinds, and then doing some kind of ritual on the plant floor.  They heard the candy machine start running for about an hour, and then the mechanic heard one of the company trucks start up, idle in the loading bay for half an hour, and then it pulled out.  After half an hour, there was screaming and shouting and they became terrified, but no one showed up.

In the reception area, the phone was ringing, and it turned out to be the local paper trying to figure out what was happening inside. They checked out the security tapes and watched the cultists entering.  They saw another robed figure enter from the loading dock and padlock the doors.  Later, the policeman entered and then ran out in fear, followed by the security guard zombie and broke his neck.  Another tape, from the factory floor, showed the cultists herd the workers into the office, and then carry the security guard inside, pour sugar over him and half-bury him as he twitched, and then they prayed around him, scooped the powder off his body and into the machine, and began making candy.  They loaded the candy up into boxes, and then the guard was raised as a zombie.  Hours later, the policemen appeared and confronted him.  Archer recognized them as members of the Children of Chaos cult. 

They sent info about the truck to the police and the Knights to try to track the truck, while Lydia tried to research Barrik and came up empty.  Nor could she find a way to reverse the ritual.  They did more research on the cult, which worshiped the Roman god Janus, and the idea of chaos.  They offered sacrifices in the form of destructive violence in public.  They were gathered in a loose coalition and had been held for a lot of charges, especially last year, when they had taken the Peterson penthouse hostage and demanded a ransom.  Helen told them about what had happened, and how it had been some kind of a ruse involving Grant's wife, Audrey.  She gave them a list of all the items that had been stolen from the penthouse.

Lydia learned that there was a big Halloween festival going on downtown, so they decided to check it out just in case.  Some of them got into Halloween costumes (Sydney was Alice, Lydia was Raggedy Ann, Carol was in superhero costume, and Archer dressed up... as a member of the Children of Chaos cult) and headed in in pairs - Lydia and Cora, Archer and Sydney, and then Carol up in the air.  Running through the crowd were tiny candy golems creating chaos and chasing children but not actually hurting anyone seriously.  The cultists were holed up in the Sweet Tooth factory truck, so Archer shot out a tire while Carol and Sydney fought the candy golems.  Lydia ran for the truck and got shot, prompting her to back off.  Sydney got swarmed by five golems, while Cora turned into a werewolf (which Archer thought was just a fantastic costume) and shielded Lydia, who used a candle from a jack-o-lantern and a can of hairspray to set cultists on fire.  Carol tried to lift Sydney free but she was held down tightly by the golems and they continued smashing them up.  After Lydia was shot a few more times, she played dead while Cora and Archer continued to fight cultists.  One of them tried to run away and Carol caught him.  Then a fifteen foot tall giant candy golem broke out of the truck and they forced to fight that too and it landed on Sydney.  

After taking everything down, they asked the cultists where they got the idol from and they explained that it had been given to them by the High Priest of Disorder, their leader.  They didn't seem to know his name or where to find him.  They had been sent messages anonymously and secretly, but didn't know how to return contact, and given instructions of how to proceed.  They had no idea what would be coming next, because their entire order was about chaos.  They were simply set to activate the idol and use the cursed sugar to create panic somewhere.  The activation required a blood sacrifice. Interviewing them proved to be a rather pointless exercise but they learned that some in the cult believed the High Priest to be Janus himself.  They turned the cultists over to the police, and they put together that it was possible that the other idols or artifacts could be used, so they would be policing the holidays closely...They also learned about the High Priest Nicholas St. Andrew, the con artist involved in the Peterson Counterstrike.  

Part Three: The Final Feast (recorded on 8tracks)
Sam, Rose, Faith O'Keefe, Fiona (mission leader), Will | November 2014 

The team was invited to NYC, to keep an eye on any Thanksgiving festivities, after what had happened with the Children of Chaos on Halloween.  At their briefing, Wynn asked what they knew about the cult, filling them in on what they didn't and about the missing artifacts from the Peterson apartment.  There was another idol like the one that had been used on Halloween, one called Ventyr the Emaciated.  It had been presented at a feast to a sultan in the distant past, and by the end of the meal, everyone had either wasted away to nothing, or eaten themselves to death.  

They flew to America, and Faith and Fiona made everyone make paper turkeys on the way to "broaden their cultural horizons"  (Sam's was the best).  Fiona sat on Sam's lap while he helped her make hers, because she had no idea how to do it.  Fiona prepared her spells, and Faith started planning Thanksgiving dinner for them.  

They arrived in New York City, and went to their hotel which was near to the police station.  They were provided with a police radio as well.  They ordered Chinese food for their own Thanksgiving dinner, after Sam made salad of all things, disappointing everyone. They unboxed the food and decorating the table with their hand turkeys.  Rose got a burger and sent a picture to Dean.   While they were eating, Faith and Fiona totally forgot that they were supposed to be listening to the radio at all, and kept a TV on.  While there were a lot of events happening in town, nothing weird seemed to be happening.  Just as they were preparing to sit down to feast, a dispatcher came over the radio, asking for assistance.  For a moment, they all just sat there, but finally Sam picked it up and responded.  They explained that there had been a reported riot and they'd dispatched cruisers who said that it was actually "zombies looting the bodega".   Fiona started eating everyone else's food, while they asked clarifying questions.  There were at least twenty different reports of zombies, but some of them were breaking into homes, and others were stealing food and eating it.  There were no casualties - at the moment.  The zombies were in a place called "Crow Row" which Rose knew used to be a nice neighborhood, but had gone downhill.  Everyone except for Rose realized that the "zombies" weren't eating people, and weren't fast enough to "riot". Sam suggested they didn't jump to killing them.

With that, they headed down there, led by Faith, who knew the area.  The situation had calmed down by the time they got to Crow Row, which the police had cordoned off.  They scoped out the area, which was centered around the Food for Life pantry.  The block was quiet, and there was no movement as they headed up the street, but it was littered with food wrappers from the bodega, which was stripped clean.  Occasionally, they noticed bursts of activity above the storefronts in some apartments, but they couldn't tell what.  The ranking officer told them that had been going on for fifteen minutes and that the zombies had gone into the buildings or gone into the parking garage, and potentially through to the park.  He also explained that the zombies had looked to be "homeless individuals".  They realized that the Food for Life pantry had been serving food to the needy at about the time that the riot broke out, so they decided to check that out first.

As they headed towards it, a parking garage door opened and a homeless "zombie" staggered out, moaning "Food... so ... so hungry.." and then collapsed in a heap.   Sam went to check him out and found that he was dead.  Fiona leaned down to check his pulse, and then his body started twitching.  She lifted his arm and his eyes snapped open, suddenly colorless, and he tried to bite her but she pulled away.  Sam blew most of its face away with two shots and Fiona kept her cool, and punched it in the face while Rose came up and kicked it back.  It lunged at her and Faith accidentally shot Fiona.  Will got another shot that slowed the thing down, and Sam finally took it down.

Will asked them to step aside, so that he could investigate.  He figured out that the man had been sick but alive when he came out, and that perhaps there was some kind of horrible malady going around.  The man died, and then transformed into some kind of monster.  This meant that it was a bad idea to use deadly force against anyone who was infected, because if they died, they might come back as zombies.  Faith used her psionics to get the bullet out of Fiona.

They cut down the alleyway and found the creepy building in the courtyard.  It had been clearly broken into and was labeled "Food for Life".  Inside was a large open dining hall with rows of tables and chairs set out.  All the windows had been painted black (freshly, noticed Will) and it was decorated for Thanksgiving.  There were still people under the tables, mostly catatonic or rasping for food. Fiona punched out a window to test how they'd respond to light but another person died and turned into a zombie.  Sam shot it in the head before it began spasming and Rose destroyed it.

On a basic level, a magical weapon is a regular weapon that has been enchanted by a magic user to strike more truly and deliver more damage.

Enhancement Bonus:

Magic weapons have enhancement bonuses ranging from +1 to +5. They apply these bonuses to both attack and damage rolls when used in combat.

Example:

Knights receive an Excalibur pistol standard-issue during their equipment training. All of these weapons are enchanted by the Dragon's Fire to be +1 weapons, meaning that in combat, someone who normally has a +4 to their ranged attacks has a +5, and the weapon deals 2d6+1 dmg instead of the standard 2d6.

Special Abilities:

Some magic weapons have special abilities. In order to buy a special ability for a weapon, it must also already have at least a +1 enhancement bonus. Special abilities each have a 'cost' that rates their power. A weapon's enhancement bonus plus its total 'cost' of special abilities may not exceed 10.

Example:

Damon has a +4 longsword, which he adds the dancing special ability to. Dancing has a cost of 4. The weapon's total bonus is now considered to be 8. This does not mean you get a +8 to attacks and damage - only the +4, and then the benefits of the dancing ability. If Damon wanted to further upgrade his sword, he only has a cost of 2 left to play with - he could not, for example, add vorpal to the sword as well, as it has a cost of 5. He could make it holy, however, as the cost is merely 2.

Some magic weapons deal additional dice of damage. Unlike other modifiers to damage, additional dice of damage are not multiplied when the attacker scores a critical hit.

Usually a character benefits from a magic weapon in the same way a character benefits from a mundane weapon—by wielding (attacking with) it. If a weapon has a special ability that the user needs to activate, then the user usually needs to utter a command word (a standard action).

Enhancement Bonuses

+1	2,000 XP
+2	8,000 XP
+3	18,000 XP
+4	32,000 XP
+5	50,000 XP

 

Once you have at least a +1 on a weapon, you may purchase a special ability for it. Each special ability has a cost. In order to determine the XP price of adding an ability, determine what the weapon's total bonus will be with the new ability:

any enhancement bonus it has + the listed cost of the special ability being added + the cost of any special abilities it may already have = total weapon bonus

Consult the chart below to see what the XP cost would be for the weapon and then subtract the cost of wherever the weapon sat on the chart before adding this new ability.

Special Ability Pricing

+1	2,000 XP
+2	8,000 XP
+3	18,000 XP
+4	32,000 XP
+5	50,000 XP
+6	72,000 XP
+7	98,000 XP
+8	128,000 XP
+9	162,000 XP
+10	200,000 XP

Example:

Revisiting Damon's longsword - his weapon is a +4 to begin with. He would like to purchase the dancing special ability for it. Dancing has a cost of 4, which will bring his weapon's total cost to 8. A +8 weapon costs 128,000 XP according to the cart... but he subtracts 32,000 XP from that, because it was already a +4 weapon to begin with. His final price is 96,000 XP to make his weapon dancing.

A scant few special abilities have a fixed XP cost, meaning you can bypass all that complicated math stuff and pay a flat XP price to add them to your weapon, no matter what the bonus on it already is. The granted weapon cost bonus is included in a separate column only because it still must abide by the 'no more than a total weapon bonus of 10' rule.

Special Abilities with a Fixed XP Cost

Special Ability	Description	XP Cost	Weapon Bonus
Impervious	Warded from damage and decay	3,000 XP	+1
Glamered	Can change appearance	4,000 XP	+1
Transformative	Become another similar melee weapon	10,000 XP	+5
Dueling	Improve Init, disarm, and feint with dueling type weapon	14,000 XP	+5
Adaptive (Ranged)	Bow that responds to the Strength of its wielder	1,000 XP	+1

All other special abilities have their XP cost determined as above, by subtracting the new total enhancement bonus' XP cost from the XP cost of however many enhancement bonuses it started with.

+1 Weapon Special Abilities

Special Ability	Description	Enhancement Bonus
Allying	Transfer enhancement bonus to an ally	+1
Bane	Excels against certain foes	+1
Benevolent	Increases aid another checks	+1
Called	Can be teleported to the wielder's hand	+1
Conductive	Channels touch spells	+1
Corrosive	Attacks add acid damage	+1
Countering	Improves disarm and sunder attempts	+1
Courageous	Fortifies wielder's courage & morale	+1
Cruel	Sickens fearful creatures	+1
Crazed	Puts wielder in a rage	+1
Deadly	Makes a nonlethal weapon lethal	+1
Defending	Increases wielder's defense	+1
Dispelling	Can cast dispel magic	+1
Flaming	Becomes sheathed in fire	+1
Frost	Becomes sheathed in ice	+1
Furious	Becomes more effective when raging	+1
Ghost Touch	Deals normal dmg vs incorporeal creatures	+1
Grounding	Effective against air & electricity	+1
Guardian	Provides bonus to saving throws	+1
Harmonizing	Improves Perform checks	+1
Heartseeker	Ignores miss chance	+1
Hunstman	Helps locate and capture quarry	+1
Impact	Doubles threat range on a bludgeoning weapon	+1
Keen	Doubles threat range on piercing or slashing weapon	+1
Ki Focus	Use ki attacks through weapon	+1
Limning	Outlines creature in faerie fire	+1
Menacing	Increases flanking bonus	+1
Merciful	Deals extra nonlethal damage	+1
Mighty Cleaving	Make one additional cleave attempt	+1
Mimetic	Grants energy resistance	+1
Neutralizing	Effective against acid and earth	+1
Ominous	Weapons has intimidating effects	+1
Planar	Effective against extraplanar creatures	+1
Quenching	Extinguishes fire	+1
Seaborne	Functions easily in water	+1
Shock	Deals electricity damage	+1
Spell Storing	Stores spells...	+1
Thawing	Effective against cold	+1
Throwing	Gains range increment	+1
Thundering	Thunders and deals sonic damage	+1
Viper	Transforms into a viper	+1
Vicious	Does extra damage to foe and wielder	+1

+2 Weapon Special Abilities

Special Ability	Description	Enhancement Bonus
Advancing	Take extra 5 foot step after attack	+2
Anarchic	Infused with the power of chaos	+2
Anchoring	Pins a target in place	+2
Axiomatic	Infused with the power of law	+2
Corrosive Burst	Explodes with searing acid	+2
Defiant	Helps wielder stay alive	+2
Dispelling Burst	Can cast greater dispel magic	+2
Disruption	Destroys undead creatures	+2
Flaming Burst	Explodes with flame	+2
Furyborn	Channels anger at foes	+2
Glorious	Glows with dazzling light	+2
Holy	Imbued with holy power	+2
Icy Burst	Explodes with frost	+2
Igniting	Causes foes to catch fire	+2
Invigorating	Invigorates wielder after killing foes	+2
Lifesurge	Boosts and sustains life energy	+2
Negating	Nullifies some damage reduction	+2
Shocking Burst	Explodes with electricity	+2
Unholy	Imbued with unholy power	+2
Wounding	Causes foes to bleed	+2

+3 Weapon Special Abilities

Special Ability	Description	Enhancement bonus
Nullifying	Suppresses a creature's Spell Resistance	+3
Spell Stealing	Siphon protective magic from a foe	+3
Speed	Grants an extra attack	+3
Clouting	Drive targets back	+3
Elemental Aura	Deal extra elemental damage	+3
Force	Emits a magical beam of force	+3
Prismatic Burst	Casts prismatic spray on foes	+3
Splitting	Ranged attacks split into two bullets/arrows	+3
Stalactite	Can turn target into stone	+3
Weakening	Deals strength damage to foes	+3

+4 or +5 Weapon Special Abilities

Special Ability	Description	Enhancement Bonus
Brilliant Energy	Partly light; attacks against touch AC	+4
Dancing	Can be loosed to attack on its own	+4
Suppressing	Completely suppress Spell Resistance	+5

David, Charming, Emma, Gold, Hook, Francesca, Risa, Zatanna

The team was introduced to a part time member of the Knighthood, Zatanna Zatara, who had asked Wynn for assistance in finding the mother she had thought dead since childhood, but who had been contacting her urgently through magical means.  The Knights traveled with her to Italy to speak to her father, the magician Giovanni Zatara.  With their help, she learned that her parents had lied to her to protect her from the real reason her mother had left: that she was being hunted by her people.  Zatara wished to undertake finding her alone, but the Knights talked him into traveling with them and Zatanna, and even offered them the use of a magical compass that could point out the way to the thing a person desired the most.

They set sail across the sea following the compass, with Hook captaining, and found themselves led towards the Bermuda Triangle, where they discovered powerful magical wards that it took their combined might to peel back.  They landed on the shores of what Zatara revealed to be the Hidden City of the Magi, home of the Homo Magi, the first race of sorcerers who once ruled over Atlantis - one of whom had been Zatanna's mother, Sindella.  Opening the gates required blood magic, but an eager Zatanna willingly undertook the ritual.  They found themselves in a strange seemingly empty city, where David got the distinct impression they were being watched...  

Upon arriving at a raised dais in the center of town, a trap was sprung and iron walls trapped them within the square.  A sorcerer appeared with Zatanna's mother, Sindella, in chains.  He explained that Sindella had been born with a medulla jewel in her brain that allowed her to sustain the powerful magic to keep the City of the Magi cloaked from the outside world.  Sindella had willingly agreed to accept this burden, but it had drained her life force, and was about to be drained entirely, meaning they required a new host - one who also possessed the medulla jewel.  Zatanna had been born with this same genetic anomaly - and in order to save her mother's life, she must agree to take her place.   When the party protested this, the magi put several of them under his thrall and forced them (Hook, David L,  and Emma)  to attack their friends.  Francesca managed to kill the sorcerer, but it didn't break the enchantment, and neither did smashing his staff.

Risa managed to shatter the spell enthralling the others, just as Zatara put together the truth: that the man could not have been a real homo magi, because they were under a curse that caused them to fall in love with the first human they set eyes on.  This was how Sindella had come to fall in love with him, and why Zatanna had been born, and it was also why the homo magi had isolated themselves there on the remote island.   A crowd of brainwashed shipwrecked 'guards' surrounded them as a beautiful woman appeared - Amara, a true homo magi - who they attempted to reason with.  Francesca and Gold tried to convince her that the Knights could help break the curse, but she insisted that if they were to make the alliance, Zatanna must stay behind.  Zatanna refused, unwilling to compromise with those who would enslave so many and force them to kill others.

As they distracted Amara, however, Sindella said a tearful goodbye to her loved ones and Amara realized what she intended to do.  Her staff knocked from her hands, Amara was forced to look for it and made eye contact with Charming, just as her army was about to kill them all.  The curse fell into effect as she fell completely 'in love' with him and she ordered the army to cease.  It was, however, too late for Sindella, who used her magic to destroy her own medulla jewel, killing herself in the process, but also breaking the spell on the enthralled army and freeing them.  The Wards on the City began collapsing and an angry voice yelled Amara's name - another Homo Magi, clearly furious at the turn of events.  Convincing her to go with them for her own safety, Amara teleported them all to a far-off beach in South America, along with the confused masses.  Realizing what had happened to Amara, they decided it was best to bring her back to the castle until they could find a way to help her.

In the meantime, it would take them months to help return the shipwrecked survivors to their homes and families.  And of course, now the City of the Magi stands without protection... 

Rose, Dimitri, Amrita, Lila, Aurelius, Tia, Eric, Adrian

The team was briefed on a series of deaths in Chicago, where the bodies had been drained of blood, occasionally missing organs, and sporting a laceration to the forehead.  Wynn suspected a possible link to to the yuan-ti black market in Japan, which is why he was sending Eric, who had been involved in that investigation.

Arriving in Chicago, the team split into three to investigate crime scenes.  Amrita & Tia discovered something amiss in a building near one of the scenes of attack.  Eric, Aurelius, and Lila discovered a strange symbol which Aurelius identified as an occult marker of those who worshiped the patron God of Mind Flayers, Illsensine, meaning this was something different than what had happened in Japan.  They reconvened with the others, who had run into Adrian Ivashkov, a Moroi vampire that Rose had crossed paths with in Chicago before.  He let them know that many of the victims seemed to be Hunters and took them into a Hunter's bar, run by Robin Wood.  Eric, Aurelius, and Lila caught up with them there as they discussed Hunter gossip about the "Monster" and what they'd discovered.  Someone else was listening and piped up with his own interest - unknown to them this was Sylar, the very person they were hunting.  Robin brought up that the creature was drawing an influx of hunters, and someone was bumping them off - mostly likely the Corsone Syndicate, who used the symbol they'd discovered.  Lila brought her extensive familiarity with crime family politics into play, attracting Sylar's attention  

Robin also directed them to another Hunter who was on the case, who didn't 'play well with others'.  This was a certain surly Dean Winchester and some of them went to speak with him as Lila & Sylar spoke alone outside.  Dean explained to them that an oracle had had a prophecy about an 'ultimate monster' coming to Chicago, and hunters had been flocking here to destroy it.  Most of the monsters they were taking out, however, were employees of the Corsone Syndicate, and they were striking back by killing as many hunters as they could, under guise of the "Monster".  Dean suspected that Corsone would try to recruit the actual monster, and Dean suspected whatever it was, it could pass as human.   He figured Corsone was using hunters' deaths to try to draw the creature out so he could attempt to seduce it into working for him, and claimed that they'd been following him specifically.  Lila was unhappy with this plan and suspected moving to speak to Corsone directly, and Sylar butted into the conversation under the guise of being Jack, a crime scene investigator.  He got Dean to admit that like most of the victims of the "monster" he had a special ability as well - he could see invisible horrors that most people didn't even know existed.

Realizing Tia and Amrita hadn't checked in, they called and found out they were in trouble next door.  They'd found a young woman's body drained of blood, and realized someone was still there.  Tia had stayed behind to stave the thing off, and ordered Amrita to run for it.   With Dean along, the others caught up to the warehouse and found Amrita.  They helped Tia take down her attacker, a vampire sporting a Corsone tattoo that marked him as in the syndicate's employ.  Rose, however, recognized the vampire as Davin, who had once hunted vamps with her when she lived in Chicago, and who she had assumed was dead.  He claimed that Corsone was the only one who would take vampires in to give them legitimate 'work', and that he was having them clean up after the Monster, scavenging the corpses it left behind.  They convinced him to take them to Corsone, but warned them that he had a prophet on his staff, that was how he knew where the Monster would leave its corpses before the police could find them.  

Tia mind linked both those who would be going in and those staying on the outside, and Davin led Dean, Lila, Rose, and Dimitri to the Diner where Corsone housed his operations.  Lila managed to talk them past Tony the Choker and they were taken into the creepy back warehouse, tailed by one of Corsone's minotaur bodyguards.  They were taken back to meet Louis Corsone himself - who was actually a mind flayer in a pin stripe suit, enjoying a brain for dinner.

Tracking post.

America (Talisman Mission)
 
Hoard | Jeanne Gar, Leader
Hide | Mark Sandazhard
Hide | Spike 
Hide| Buffy Summers
Light | Myrilandel de Tanos
Fire | Kat Samcelot
Tongue | Dumage Moulet
Tongue| Finnick Odair
Freelancer | Francesca
Squire | Dawn Summers
Squire | Violet Fiore
Squire | Sterling Archer
Squire |  Elena Gilbert

Andres (Talisman Mission)

Claw | Thomas Bancroft, Leader
Claw | Jack Chessing
Tongue | Andrea Dodge
Freelancer | Thoster Chatwyn
Squire | Brantley River
Squire | David Levin

Germany (Born to Die)

Hoard | Andrew Gatewood, Leader
Freelancer | Sydney Bristow
Squire | Diana Meade
Squire | Felicity Braddock
Squire |  Sebastian Trevethor

Italy (Flames of Wrath)

Freelancer |  Bo Dennis, Leader
Light |  Alanna 
Squire | Rose Hathaway
Squire | Kate Beckett

London 

Hide | Fred Jr., Leader
Fire | Faye Chamberlain
Squire | Miles Cuivre
Squire | Taradiddle Gesundheit
Squire |  Astrid Madchen

Scotland (Sunless Citadel)

Fire | Gold
Squire | Emma Swan
Squire | Killian Jones
Squire | Lila Zacharov
Hoard | Belle Desrosiers

Available

Light | Anastacia O'Keefe
Light | Solace
Light | Risa Vergara
Fire | Hasmed
Fire | Gregor Hughes
Fire | Zatanna
Fire |  Alainn O'Rourke
Mind | Nessa Harvey
Mind | Tia Ellison
Hide | Lanston Wellington
Hide | Luthir Reedhym
Hide |  Jaime Lannister
Hide | Edain
Hide | Eric Carpenter
Hide | Dovan Ironsides
Hide |  Richard Riddick
Hoard | Lis'sa Trinall
Hoard | Kadir Yassin
Tongue | Koraith
Tongue | Colin Banks
Freelancer | Val'drin Cabot
Freelancer | Max Rast
Freelancer | Faith O'Keefe
Freelancer | Christos La Krail
Squire | Jaina Solo
Squire | Lissa Dragomir
Squire | Phineas  Dantalion
Squire | Aurelius Greyfire
Squire | Dimitri Belikov
Squire |  Annabeth Chase
Squire | Soo-Jin Song
Squire |  Attica Arakhan
Squire | Bambi Dalton

CHAPTER ONE: THE CELESTIAL SONG

Chicago
Buffy, Des, Dumage, Gar, Kat, Mark, Martha, Myri, Spike, Sven

The Knights were briefed on the existence of a fabled Lazarus Talisman, linked to the existence of a mysterious artifact called the Eternal Jade.  The Talisman was reported to be able to grant superhuman powers, perhaps even immortality, to its wielder.  Wynn was eager to potentially keep it out of the hands of the Hoffman Organization, an alternative energy think tank of questionable morality, who had recently uncovered the possible location of the Jade.   The Knights arranged to have Gar hired in as a secretary at the Institute.   The Knights staked out and researched the Institute for awhile until Gar intercepted a communication about a possible exchange for the Jade, happening at a club called Nightscape.

Several of the Knights discovered the magically shrouded location of the Club, an underground invite-only deal that played with the memories of those who attended it.  The Knights derailed a van full of the Club's security detail, and stole their uniforms.  Spike, Kat, Gar, and Spike headed inside disguised as guards, and split up inside to search the impossibly large club.  After reuniting with his coat, Spike and Buffy encountered some sort of creepy fetishized vampire room, and Buffy had strange visions of a primitive nightmare figure, who caused her to attack Spike.  They worked their way back through the crowd, searching for the others, and witnessed the performance of a singer who seemed to leave the entire crowd in some kind of frenzy.

Meanwhile, outside, Mark was driving the van full of captured guards, when Myri noticed he was awfully distracted by something.  She attempted to question him about it, but he ended up driving into the path of an oncoming car and causing an accident.  The guards tried to run off but Myri used magic to help Mark recapture them.

Dumage and Martha stayed with the getaway car, although they sent Sven in to talk his way through the front.  

Unbeknowst to the Knights, the Hoffman Institute's Liam Chambers was working with PI Desmond Descant to also try and get the Jade.  They arrived on the scene at the same time and Des ended up following the same white suited man he'd overheard discussing the Jade in his trip to the club before.  After ruining a poor elevator worker's life, Des ran afoul of Kat and Gar.  Gar managed to talk Kat out of shooting him, just as Spike and Buffy arrived.  They went towards where the meeting was taken place, and overheard a woman being threatened, so Spike burst in to save her.  However, the woman -- the singer from upstairs -- claimed to not need saving, ordering the white suited man and his associates out.   It turned out that the woman was named Eterna Jade, and it wasn't an object after all.  Jade said it wasn't the first time she'd dealt with 'the Brotherhood' but they didn't have long to discuss it before guards swamped the room, and some of the white suited man's toughs returned to attack.   A large firefight broke out, and the Knights grabbed Jade and made a break for it, merrily shooting people and getting shot along the way.  And also Ricky Martin was there.

Outside, the Knights revealed who they were to Jade, and Des was shocked to find out they were with Wynn, while the Knights were shocked to learn Des knew Wynn.  Buffy got shot at very close range, so Des offered to take the girl to safety so they could tend to her.  Jade agreed to go with Des, and Gar reluctantly agreed, as she'd given her word to him earlier.  Kat offered some colorful threats to Des' nuts if he disappeared on them.  The Knights made their getaway and got healed up.

Meanwhile, Des and Liam took Jade to the Hoffman Institute and on the way, Jade said that she'd never even heard of the Lazarus Talisman.  She explained that the white suited man was Raoul Jacobson, a member of the Brotherhood of Enlightenment -- an anti-Shadow church in Chicago.  She said he had presented himself as a talent scout for a record company looking to sign her but she hadn't fallen for it.  Des met Dr. Hoffman, who was surprised to learn Jade was a person, and both Des and Jade tried to talk him into abandoning his quest for the Talisman.  She agreed to stay and answer his questions, but Des threatened to break her out if Hoffman abused her trust.

Gar was more than unhappy to learn Des had placed Jade in the Institute's hands, but used her position to spy on the proceedings.  It turned out to be mostly a bust anyways:  Jade had no memories of anything but the Club, claiming to have come from the Shadow World only recently.  She claimed to own the club, but to have left all management of it to a group of men called the Dreammakers, about whom she knew remarkably little.  Kat and Myri researched the Brotherhood and discovered they were proponents of Shadowkind slavery.  Kat broke into the organization's bank records and discovered that they were receiving large donations from the prestigious NOVA Records, particularly from Chad Becksworth, co-owner of the company.  Myri suggested speaking with the other owner, Chad's brother Burt.

Gar also snatched an artifact from the Institute's vaults, some sort of communication device that bore the markings of the Talisman.   Figuring that Jade might be able to activate it, Gar convinced her to talk Hoffman into sending her home.  The Doctor called Des, asking him to interrogate Jade further while taking her back to the club, since she seemed to like him.  When Des called the Institute back, however, he recognized Gar's voice on the line, learning of the Knights' placement there.  Jade spoke to Des about the Club in more detail and they bonded (enough for Jade to even invite him up, which he politely refused).  Either way, the moment was ruined by the Knights popping in and talking her into trying to the artifact.  It activated, displaying images of various buildings and locations, which Gar concluded was a map.  Des agreed to go with the Knights to New Orleans, despite being more or less banned from the city.  Buffy spoke with Des some more on their awkward car ride, regarding his history with investigating the Talisman in New Orleans.

New Orleans
Arthur, Buffy, Des, Dumage, Finnick, Gar, Kat, Mark, Martha, Myri, Spike

Kat's investigation of the images of the map led to the discovery of two locations:   NOVA Records headquarters, and the Louisiana State Museum.  Sven was swapped out for Finnick and Arthur and they divvied up who was going where.

Des, Finnick, Kat, Martha, and Dumage headed to NOVA Records to attempt to question Burt Becksworth about his brother's activities.  They got a meeting by setting Finnick up as a convincing fake aspiring pop star.  Finnick made the secretary's panties drop to get them in, much to Burt's annoyance.  He called security, but then found himself really impressed by Finnick's gorgeousness.  Burt gave them an extremely amoral monologue about his business philosophy, which was all disturbingly familiar to Finnick's hard reality TV life.  The Knights got Burt talking about his anger towards Chad, and the changes in his brother's personality recently, including changes in his wardrobe and hiring 'freaks' for bodyguards.  Martha suggested he might be possessed, and they remarked on how unusual it seemed for someone who was supporting an anti-Shadow church to be hiring Shadowkind muscle.  

Meanwhile, Des made a deal with Burt:  Becksworth could sign Finnick, and in return, Des would investigate Chad and figure out what he was up to.  Burt happily agreed, afraid Chad was planning some kind of takeover of the company, and effectively granted free reign of the building to Des and co.  Finnick signed his agreement and they took off, Kat, Des, and Martha branching off to take a stopover in Chad's office.  They discovered evidence that Chad had abruptly stopped taking on new talent since January, and that Chad had been buying DNA samples from Shadowkind.

At the same time, Gar, Arthur, Spike, Mark and Buffy broke into the museum - at the same time that some Shadowkind toughs unleashed a displacer beast or two inside.  Weird...  It seemed the beasts were after another a second artifact, like the map that Jade had activated.  One of the beasts managed to snap the stone in half, potentially destroying its function.  The Knights uncovered a strange microchip implanted in its neck.

It seemed that Des' arrival hadn't gone unnoticed and he received a death threat from some goon in an alleyway, warning him to leave New Orleans.   Buffy also had an alleyway confrontation with a mysterious figure who seemed to know who she was, and broke the news that she was a demon slayer, and could see things others couldn't.

Kat discovered the name and location of one of the Shadowkind who had sold their DNA to Chad: a gnoll named Angelo Nassi.  She headed out with Gar, Buffy, and Myri to highly prejudiced Italy to confront him.

The others stayed in New Orleans, where Burt started his makeover of Finnick's life, while Spike snooped around the building with Mark.  He ended up following a mysterious woman named Asha, who sported a mean set of extreme claws, but when he was caught by her and the tattooed man who'd been with Jacobson at the club, all he learned was that they seemed to be keeping some tabs on the Knights who had been at the club that day, and that they claimed to work for Chad Becksworth.  Meanwhile, Finnick got Burt drunk and got him to spill information on how he & Chad had gotten into business together, and the factors that had divided them.  Burt was especially suspicious of some new woman in Chad's life, claiming most of Chad's behavioral changes had begun when she showed up.

Venice
Buffy, Dumage, Gar, Kat, Myri

The girls snuck into a concert at Angelo's club, where they ended up being pulled on stage by charismatic singer Rafael Giovanni.  When they pretended to be fans, he agreed to let them backstage, but sent a message that he could not join them there, inviting them to instead join him at his home for dinner.  They found and confronted Angelo, who reacted violently to interrogation, though he finally revealed that all he knew about the DNA he stole was that it was being used for 'medical experiments' of some kind.

Kat, Gar, Myri, and Buffy attended dinner at Rafael's, which was an uncomfortable affair, thanks to the presence of his controlling manager, Isabella Alessandro, who shut down any inquiries they tried to make into why Rafael had not signed with NOVA Records.  They did learn that Rafael had met with an agent of NOVA's in Chicago named Dirk Smitland, but that they had held differences of opinion that led Rafael to say no.  Dirk Smitland apparently went missing.   Rafael showed off his horses and his precious Corvette -- and asked Buffy to go for a ride with him.  

The two ended up driving back to the city, where they went on a romantic gondola ride.  Buffy surmised from his reactions to the subject that Rafael was probably Shadowkind, and that he didn't like them speaking to Angelo about the subject, and she also learned that Isabella was his manager, not his possessive girlfriend.  She also spied on Dumage when she spotted her at a cafe, and learned that she had a sister, that Dumage might not be her real name, and that she had some kind of past love life drama with a married man or priest or something. 

Back at Rafael's, Buffy revealed what she'd learned, and Kat confirmed her suspicions about Rafael probably being Shadowkind through her net research.   They decided to confront him about the subject, and Gar also revealed that Wynn had recalled their team back to the castle, possibly to replace them all.  Gar & Buffy found him playing a heartbreaking song to a portrait of... Eterna Jade (gasp!), but before they could ask too many questions, Isabella interrupted.  Her suspicion and anger only increased upon learning that the girls were not who they seemed, and that they knew Jade, proclaiming that she was dead.  They did not have long to argue the point however, before the house was attacked and they were forced to fight for their lives.   Rafael surprised all of them by revealing himself to be a consummate gunslinger and not batting an eyelash about killing the men busting in on them.  In fact, everyone in his house seemed equally deadly, urging the girls to get to the cellar.  Buffy, however, ran back to try to save Rafael and was injured, prompting Myri, who could feel her pain, to go back for her as well.  They managed to subdue, kill, or drive off most of them, and while Isabella blamed the girls for the attack, Rafael interrogated one of the captives, who revealed that someone had 'sold them out', prompting Rafael to coldly shoot the man in anger.

Inside, Rafael revealed that he, Isabella, and Hiro were members of the Shadowkind Resistance Movement, and Buffy explained to him that they were members of the Knights.  Rafael was surprised to learn Jade was alive and wanted to see her immediately, which fell into conflict with Gar's orders to return to HQ.  Myri made a stirring argument as to why they needed to help him, prompting Kat to promote her, and Gar to agree to let Buffy & Myri take Rafael to Chicago.

Gar called the rest of the team to break the bad news, and they were all very indignant about being recalled but grudgingly went.  

Chicago
Buffy,  Des, Myri, Rafael

On the plane ride to Chicago, Rafael spoke briefly about how Jade had somehow gone 'out of this world', although he insisted that did not mean she had returned to the Shadow World.  He also revealed that Burt had been in on the meeting where Nova had attempted to sign him - and that Jade had been there as well.  Recognizing that Jade sounded like she was in danger, Rafael vowed to help the Knights in any way he could, after he and his allies had dealt with the mess caused by Paolo - their former contact for the Resistance.   Rafael also spoke to Myri about his father, a proud elf who had come from the Shadow World to America shortly before the Great Depression.  He explained how he had moved to Italy, where an influx of Shadowkind had caused a steep incline of prejudice to form.  He also revealed how his father had been killed and the effect it had had on him as a 'teenager' of sorts, driving him to join the Resistance.

In Chicago, the Knights met up with Des, who was able to easily get them up to see Jade, as she had left his name with the doormen.  The encounter went rather tragically, however, as Jade did not remember Rafael at all.  The Knights theorized that if she had somehow left this world, the Veil might have taken her memories upon her return, and Jade considered the possibility that maybe she had allowed that to happen on purpose, to bury information about the Talisman - and maybe it was for the best.  Dejected, Rafael returned to Italy, the Knights to England, and Des to New Orleans to continue investigating.

London
Dumage, Finnick, Gar, Kat, Mark, Spike

The Knights who returned to the castle were called to a secret meeting with Wynn, who filled them in on the fact that certain intelligence about their mission had been leaked off from Drakenet, but the leak had been repaired by Zero.  He also revealed that investigation of the chip, discovered in the neck of the displacer beast from the museum, had shown it to be a form of basic mind control -- and Wynn cautioned the Shadowkind involved that the technology might be extended beyond the limited intelligence of beasts, and used against them.  The Knights all expressed their desire to remain on the case (and many made stirring arguments towards their inclusion when they were still afraid of being pulled from the mission).

New Orleans
Buffy, Des, Dumage, Elena, Finnick, Gar, Kat, Mark, Myri, Rafael, Spike, Thomas

In order to expedite the course of the investigation, the Dragon's Claw, Sir Thomas Bancroft was sent along to take charge of things.  They once more made a plan to get more info from NOVA, splitting into three groups.   Finnick, Myri, and Dumage happened to enter the lobby just as Elena Gilbert was dropped unceremoniously through the Veil into the lobby pool.  Myri befriended the girl, who realized they were pretending to be something they weren't, and arranged to meet her later.  Then, the 3 went up to the rooftop where Burt had Finnick working on a music video, and Dumage ripped Myri's top off to create a distraction to allow Mark, Thomas, and Spike to sneak in off the roof.   The three men sneaked into the duct system, and overheard a conversation between a Prime Minister and Olean Gilbert, Chad's personal assistant, about some meeting that had been delayed, much to the politician's annoyance.  Thomas discovered evidence that someone else had been inside and pursued the tracks while Spike & Mark chased a demon that only Spike could see.  Meanwhile, the others ran into Burt Becksworth in an elevator, who remembered Rafael from almost signing with him years before, and demanded Raf sign with him, rather than Chad, who he said wasn't signing new artists.  Gar & Raf went with Burt, as Buffy, Des, and Kat trailed a demon that only Buffy could see ...

The two groups collided in the auditorium, where they discovered a hidden bedroom and a strange occult room where they were attacked by faceless guardians.  After fighting them, they discovered clear proof of the Talisman's link to the cult.  However, they were interrupted by Olean, who Kat immediately recognized and shot in the kneecap.  As they took him hostage, Kat reluctantly explained her history with him.  Thomas rejoined them to interrogate Olean, who insisted Chad was simply looking for Shadowkind talent for a new line of singers.  He also explained that the bedroom was for Chad's business adviser, a woman with the strange nickname of the Mind Master.  He seemed terrified when they insisted he take them to her, and offered to show them the way but expressed he'd rather die than be caught helping them by her.  Thomas, Spike, and Buffy doubled back to discover who else had been tracking through the ducts: and were surprised to encounter Sir Jack Chessing, the other Dragon's Claw, whose investigation of Dimitris Sarandis had led him to cross paths with their mission.

Des continued investigating the Eternal Serpents on his own, and went as far as to eat human flesh to be allowed into the lower echelon of their ranks.  Buffy got Olean to admit a little about the Church behind Chad's actions and vague information about their goals.

Olean led them to the swamp where the Mind Master lived, where they hired a strange tour guide to lead them, however, she seemed to be messing with them, leading them in circles and then lured them into a crocodile infested moat and retracted the bridge out from under them.  Oh, and the moat was full of demons.  Beyond the moat lay a creepy looking cabin with bloodstains, also crawling with demons.  Through the cellar doors, they discovered a stairwell leading to an underground extravagant golden lair where the Mind Master awaited them - the tour guide who had brought them there.  As she toyed with them, a mysterious man entered, talking about preparations for moving forward before realizing they weren't alone.  Ordered to 'handle them', the Mind Master attacked Spike with some kind of mental blast and unleashed a hideous monstrosity: a woman's torso sewn to a snake's bottom half.  Upon defeating it, they made for the helicopter pad outside, where the man and the Mind Master were making their escape.  Barely able to pilot a chopper, they couldn't pursue the others, and Rafael flew them home.

Back at NOVA, Kat worked at hacking into the servers while Myri, Elena, and Finnick caused a distraction in the lobby via catfight.  As Kat uncovered the names of the other artists Chad had signed, they actually walked into the building:  Keijen Blade of the band Heatless Passion, Rynn (the tiefling Myri had met briefly), and Devereaux, as well as their managers: Raoul, Kitty Bonquas, and Decker Greenwall.  Jack confirmed that Dimitris Sarandis was there as well, and they opted to spy on the meeting via the ducts.

The Dragon's Claws broadcasted video of the meeting to the others:  they discuss the status of their plans, expressing annoyance with Raoul for his inability to recruit Jade and setting the date for the tour to begin.  Chad mentioned Blade had identified Jade as the most powerful of 'her kind' but they also spoke of recruiting and locating others, such as a girl in Romania.  Buffy confronted Rafael about what information he was hiding, and he admitted he knew that Jade was the daughter of the elven goddess Sehanine Moonbow and that he had told her to go, and her mother had offered her haven.  He expressed deep regret at having told her to go and defended his decision to keep her secret from them

Meanwhile, the 'talent scouts' moved to the occult room for a sinister 'religious service' under Chad, extoling pro-slavery views.  Dimitris expressed concern over security leaks, and he claimed to know precisely who was responsible.  Chad suggested their operations and relics be relocated, although the 'experiments' couldn't be moved for a month because of their delicate condition.  They also discussed Rafael as a liability and alluded to a plan to deal with him.  As the meeting was dismissed, Thomas headed to the top of the elevator shaft and proceeded to cut the cable when the cult members entered it, despite Jack and some of the Knights' protests.  His actions resulted in the death of Raoul Jacobson, and prompted quite an argument between the Knights who agreed with his methods and those who were horrified by them.

Kat, Gar, Dumage, and Myri looked into the new NOVA artists and discovered a likely candidate for the Romanian girl Decker mentioned:  Nadia Reichenov.  Meanwhile, Dumage managed to secure a date with Keijen Blade.  Watching the news to discover the results of the elevator crash, Rafael was surprised to hear an announcement that he'd signed with Burt for a CD and tour: something he hadn't actually done and just another one of Burt's underhanded tactics to bully Rafael into doing it.

The Knights split up to search the building for the mentioned experiments and relics.  However, as Jack, Buffy, Elena and Rafael attempted to go back to the occult room to search, they ran afoul of Paladin Alexander Anderson, a member of the Catholic secret organization, Iscariot, who was there hunting Rafael for the murder of a priest.  Buffy attempted to fight him and found herself faced with an opponent she couldn't easily overcome for once, getting brutally stabbed and finally taking off with Rafael and Elena as Jack stayed back to slow Anderson down.

Thomas, Gar, Kat, Spike, and Des broke into the underground lab via a service tunnel, where they discovered hideous mutated bodies being experimented on.  Kat discovered and downloaded data about how this related to studies on a brainwashing chip that they were trying to create to control Shadowkind, but could only use on humans: which had led them to attempt to reanimate human flesh to graft inside Shadow to try to make the chip successful.   As she worked on getting all the intel and uploading a virus, the cases split open, and they were forced to fight the reanimated liquefied zombies.  Buffy called and Kat told them the situation, so the climbed down a service elevator shaft to join them in the lab.  The malfunctioning tanks caused a lockdown on the lab and Thomas headed out to go open it from the outside - when all the zombie parts on the floor morphed into a giant gelatinous blob which they had to defeat.   Thomas opened the doors and reported Jack had made it out alright - but Chad's people had cleared out all the relics.  Meanwhile, Finnick & Myri overheard a heated argument between Chad & Burt about the future of the company: apparently, Burt was on the edge of losing control over the company to his brother, and needed two platinum artists to secure it.  Burt pitched his tour idea to Finnick and explained that he wanted Jade to join them for the concert.

Back at the hotel, Jack explained the threat posed by Dimitris Sarandis, leader of the experiments and long time enemy of the Knights.  Dumage and Mark announced that they'd overheard the Talisman was being relocated to Andres.  Jack explained that he and Thomas would be taking over recovery of the Talisman, and the others would return to England and concentrate on taking out the lab cells and investigating Chad's plans further.  Rafael was displeased by the plan to try to recruit Jade but reluctantly agreed.  Late that night, Buffy slept with Spike for all the wrong reasons... and woke up with what she assumed was a vampire STD but was actually necrotizing fasciitis from contact with the liquid zombies.  Drama ensued.

Chicago
Buffy, Spike, Rafael

Buffy, Spike, and Rafael returned to Chicago to try to talk Jade into joining them for the concert, when Nightscape was attacked and destroyed, presumably by Chad's men.  The heroes managed to help Jade escape, although there were injuries in the process.  Jade & Spike led the getaway on hotwired motorcycles, and Jade agreed to go with them, under the condition that she stay with Des in the meantime.

New Orleans
Des, Jade

Jade moved in with Des, and opened up to him about who her mother was and what she appreciated about the way he treated her.  They shared one kiss, and he dismissed himself to run a delivery for the Eternal Serpents that took him to some kind of Headquarters.
CHAPTER TWO: THE DREAM WITHIN


Chicago
Buffy, Rafael, Isabella, Finnick, Myri, Spike, Elena, Dawn, Des, Gar, Kat, Mark, Vi, Archer, Francesca, Luthir, Jaka, Val'drin

Archer tried to help Rafael escape from the police, to no avail.  Elena spotted Alexander Anderson creeping around, while Spike & Buffy discussed the suited figure from the concert.  Myri socked Burt in the jaw for being concerned about if they caught everything on tape and intimidated him into helping them out.  Gar and Kat discovered that the backstage guards were chipped, evidence of Chad Becksworth's experiments reaching a new level.  The Knights were taken to the police station and interrogated.  Finnick revealed his Hunger Games past to Myri.  Vi experienced a strange dream with Keijen in it, offering her the power to save her friends, and she disclosed this to Myri.  Buffy & Des talked about what had happened, and she expressed guilt over feeling glad when Archer killed Roger James.  Des admitted how much it hurt to see Jade & Raf together, and Buffy commiserated.  They gathered the next day to discuss their situation and decided to work to clear Rafael of any charges.  When Kat suggested that should be easy, Isabella hinted that it might be more difficult than they expected, and Gar demanded to know everything.  Buffy revealed what Rafael had told her - that he was an assassin for the Shadow Resistance, that he had killed a member of Iscariot prompting their interest in him, and that he was on their side despite all this.  Isabella went on to explain how she had met Rafael, how he had fallen into that life, and what happened with him and Jade, including how she had vanished from their lives after being framed for Rafael's crimes by his 'friends', going to stay with her mother Sehanine.  She described his descent into the "Black Scourge" that followed, and then Burt called to say he had posted bail for Raf.  Vi announced that she needed to see Keijen to get her memories, but the others talked her into waiting.  She explained to them how she was half divine and how she believed that Keijen had a connection to a god who had gotten a read on her when she put on Jade's necklace.  They made plans (that did NOT involve blowing up the police station) and split up.
 
Des went to pick up Rafael from jail, when Alexander Anderson showed up.  Des made a wager with him on the results of the trial - if Rafael was found innocent, Iscariot would leave him alone.  If he was found guilty, Des would give himself over to Iscariot as an agent.  He agreed, and on the way back, Des admitted to Rafael that he and Jade had been in love.  He tried to get Raf to promise not to break Buffy's heart, but the Italian was oblivious to his meaning.  They told the others what had happened, and then Burt called to let them know Jade was awake and asking for Rafael, Des, and Vi.  They arrived at the hospital, and Jade made Vi promise to bury her necklace with her.  Des & Rafael went to see her together, and it became clear that she now remembered both of them.  Rafael swore to her that he would never kill again for money, and then asked for a moment alone with Des, where she told him that she loved him.  She explained how Sehanine had created the club for her, tethering her to it so that she couldn't leave without dying eventually, and locking away her memories of Rafael.  Feeling like she was missing something, Jade made a deal for power and attention that twisted the club and was tied to her necklace.  She made Des promise to see this quest through to the end, and not make Rafael do it alone.  Outside, Rafael spoke to Vi about his guilt, and the others arrived at the hospital just as Jade began to slip away.  It was at her bedside that the suited figure from the concert re-appeared and Buffy & Spike pleaded for him not to take her.  With her dying breaths, Jade told them to protect Lazarus, the heartless one, and tried to say something about her father. Burt swung by and agreed to pay for the funeral while Des tried to eat his feelings, and told Myri & Finnick about being immortal.  Myri told them about Vi being haunted by bad dreams.  They discussed whether or not to let Vi go to Keijen like she wanted.  Back at the hotel, Isabella and Des talked about Iscariot and agreed that it might be necessary to implicate Jade for Rafael's crimes to keep him out of jail.  And Archer and Elena built an epic fireworks bomb.  Buffy spoke to Myri about feeling passed over and betrayed by Rafael and then Kat, Myri, and Buffy interrupted Archer & Elena when they began to fear they were going to hook up.

Des told Buffy about Rafael's friendship blinders, and then they went to pick up Rafael.  Finnick told them that he'd gone to the park and had been acting weird, telling him they wouldn't need to look for him.  They found him high up on a bridge, ready to jump.  As Buffy convinced Rafael not to kill himself, Des found himself confronted with the goddess who had cursed him with immortality thousands of years before, who told him that she wanted him to realize they wanted the same things.  She vanished, however, just as two of those mysterious suited men appeared, including the one from the concert/hospital, except that Rafael could see them. They introduced themselves both as Mr. Gray and they offered to help Rafael win his court case in exchange for a to-be-named favor down the line.  A third Gray appeared - the same one who had explained to Buffy that she was a demon slayer - and granted Des the Sight, so that he too could see supernatural beings.  They explained that Des' 'goddess' was actually something older and more powerful than that.  After they left, the three friends swore to try to figure out who those men were, and also to avoid taking their deal and figure out a way to get Rafael found innocent without their help. 

Isabella and Vi went to make funeral arrangements with Burt (and met his Baby Mama) while Spike confronted Mark about his strange family emergency troubles.   Buffy explained to the team about the Gray's deal, including what they'd said about Azrael, and they decided to try to research and figure out what they were.  Luthir & Francesca departed to go help Vi and assist with the trial.  Des called out Spike about sleeping with Buffy and told him to get over her, and then got another visit from the 'goddess' who told him she was Azrael, former Angel of Death.  He rejected her offer to help him learn to control the Sight that the Grays had bestowed on him.  Luthir & Francesca arrived and she explained more to them about the Church of the Lord's Humanity and its leader, Draken Crombe and began piecing together the involvement of a cannibalistic snakeblood cult led by the Mind Master.  Vi asked Des, Burt, Rafael, and Isabella to speak at Jade's funeral and Isa was the only one to refuse.  Des theorized to Gar that Jade had made her deal with Blade.  Vi told Luthir she was in love with him and the two of them slept together (after Myri & Finnick burst in, worried Vi had run off to Blade).  The funeral was an emotional and moving affair, but at the burial, Blade showed up, with Dumage and Nadia, and made a scene, claiming Nadia was Jade's sister and had a right to be there.  Vi placed Jade's necklace in the casket as ordered, but noticed that Blade was paying particular attention to that.  They planted a tree on her grave per elven ritual and Vi made it blossom, the roots acting as a protection against potential grave-robbing.  They discussed what to do next, accidentally in front of Burt, and Finnick took him aside and made him agree to a 'confidentiality agreement', informing him they were looking into his brother's potential connection to a cult.  Des asked Liam to help in burying evidence on Rafael.

Mark and Dawn stayed to guard the grave, and that night, Chad's goons showed up.  The Knights barely managed to escape with their lives despite back-up, because of a giant dune-winder worm and necromancer, and Kat crashed Des' car.  The rest of the team went to Blade's hotel, tipped off to where they were by Dumage, and tried to convince Nadia to leave with them.  While she wouldn't, they made contact, and stole Decker Greenwall's mysterious hourglass artifact at Dumage's prompting.  They also ran afoul of a doppelganger in the employ of the other side, who prompted Elena to begin questioning who and what she really was.  They finally met with Rafael's drow lawyer, Jaka Teken'Duis, a last minute replacement for his original lawyer who had an accident.  Jaka and his brother were pretty shady and spoke about trying to get Rafael off with a temporary insanity plea. Des convinced Vi not to take any deals from Blade, while Archer bought him matching El Caminos to replace his car.  Gar researched doppelgangers for Elena.  Finnick and Francesca drew up a deal with Burt for his help, in exchange for helping Finnick fade out of stardom.  

Jaka agreed to help the Knights break into Chad's office, where they split up.  Des, Spike, and Finnick searched the actual office, finding a strongbox full of information about Chad's life, as well as adoption records for he and Burt.  They predicted that something might have befallen the real Chad, while the doppelganger may be posing as him.  The lookout team ran afoul of a soul spider that nearly killed Buffy and Myri, that was branded with the symbol of drow house Baenre.  Jaka reported the creature to the police after they killed it.  Back at the hotel, Francesca informed the team that Decker's hourglass was a way to commune with the evil drow god Malaak'a, Lord of Nightmares.  She also gave them some intel on the Teken'Duis clan. 

Elena, Archer, Mark, Dawn, and Gar broke into the morgue, where a skin feaster was eating a corpse.  They saved Penny the intern and she let them look around, where they found a bunch of microchips removed from the guards at the concert.

The team returned from the police station, where they confronted Mark about footage they'd found that showed him letting Roger James into the concert.  He nervously explained that the bad guys were holding something over his head regarding his family, something Wynn knew about.  Buffy told him he had to leave, prompting a lot of disagreement on the team.  Gar overrode the order and Myri revealed that she had heard the Dragon's Claws discussing some prophecy about the Knights fighting an army of spiders. Myri, Finnick, and Elena offered Mark some support privately, while Spike incited Mark to punch him.

Myri, Finnick, and Des headed to the Becksworth's home town of Marengo, IL where they talked to Burt's first wife, Laura, who explained how the rift between the brothers began when their sister Celia died, although the rift was originally manufactured for ratings.  Burt blamed Chad for his second wife's death, and Chad's wife Karen left him after Burt slept with her daughter.  She gave Des the demo CD Jade had made, which Burt had sent to her.  They went to talk to Karen, who begrudgingly spoke with them, saying that Chad had been a staunch atheist, who never evinced any real hatred towards Shadowkind.

Elena snuck out to meet up with the doppelganger and learned that she was a changeling.  She explained this to the team, and let them know she would be training with him.  Val'drin arrived to take the hourglass.

Myri confided in Vi about her concerns over Finnick.  Buffy & Rafael continued to glow closer, while Des learned about Raf's nickname "The Black Scourge" from Liam, and about the way he would flay his victims.  Luthir got Vi to promise to let Faith dream-walk inside her head to try to protect her from Malaak'a if they couldn't find another way.  Myri's familiar, Amaranth, entreated Finnick to stop hurting her.  Isabella and Hiro worked to bury Rafael's assassin past, while Isa and Des conspired to blame Jade for Rafael's crimes.  Des went to Jaka to cement the plan.

Val'drin returned with the hourglass, having learned how to destroy it.  He also gifted Francesca with a diamond that would leave her impossible to kill. Myri began to question her place on the mission.   Jack arrived, and forgave Myri for telling the others about the Prophecy.  Archer, thinking it was an egg timer, flipped the hourglass, and was taken to Malaak'a's plane, where he easily dismissed the offer given and then informed the team.  Des listened to the CD of Jade that Laura had given him and got more insights into Jade.

At the trial, one of the Grays showed up to try and convince Buffy, Spike, and Des to use their offered aid.  The trial began, and Mark lied about letting Roger James in, while Des insisted he and Jade weren't involved romantically.  He then proclaimed that she'd told him she was the Black Scourge.  Azrael appeared in the courtroom, watching the proceedings, as a police detective from Italy expounded on the nature of the Black Scourge's crimes, confirming that they had evidence that Jade was indeed responsible.  Rafael took the stand and refuted this, admitting that he was the Black Scourge, prompting Buffy to proclaim it as well.   Jaka revealed that Rafael was Shadowkind in front of the court and argued that Jade had committed those crimes to protect him, causing Rafael to snap and hurl a gavel at his head.  Jaka magically compelled the Judge to overrule the prosecution's request for a recess so they could cross-examine and called Rafael's psychiatrist to the stand, who confirmed that Rafael had convinced himself he had committed those crimes to protect his image of the woman he loved.  In the hall, on recess, Buffy & Vi ran into Jaka's brother and sister, Nym and Viconia, and learned they were using a magical crystal to control what the psychiatrist said.  Privately, in desperation, Rafael and Buffy decided to break the Gray's seal and accept their deal.  Meanwhile, Azrael came to Des and hinted that the Grays were responsible for Jade's death, and that she could make him understand how if he went with her.  He agreed.  Back at the hotel, Buffy, Isabella, and Rafael attacked Des for his actions, quite literally, causing a dramatic rift in the team when they seemed willing to kill him for his actions, given he'd just come back to life.   Buffy & Rafael revealed that they'd taken the Grays' help after Des told him that a friend had let him know that the Grays weren't to be trusted.  Rafael told Buffy privately about a strange conversation Des has had with him, concerned about the state of his immortal soul, as each time Des died, apparently he went to Hell during that time and suffered before he returned to life.  Buffy went to talk to Des but found he was mysteriously gone from his room.  They found him outside, where he claimed he had been visited by the Grays, who had lectured him about what had happened at the trial.

Andres
Thomas, Thoster, Brantley, David L, Andie

Several Knights were tasked to intercept a shipment headed to Andres Isle that were believed to be connected to Prime Minister Dimitris' Sarandis' ties to the Church of the Lord's Humanity.  On a particularly stormy day, they boarded the ship in the guise of pirates, and discovered they were transporting slaves to the island from Slovechnia, likely to be used as experimental subjects by Sarandis to improve those behavioral chips.

Chicago
Buffy, Rafael, Isabella, Finnick, Myri, Spike, Elena, Des, Gar, Kat, Mark, Vi, Archer, Francesca, Jaka

Kat revealed to Myri that she was unsure if anything had happened between her and Fred Jr. while they got drunk, and it was part of her discomfort around him.  Myri finally confronted Finnick about his alcoholism, leading him to push her away.  Buffy & Spike tried to comfort Myri, but she told them that she felt she needed to leave the mission.  Francesca comforted Finnick and gifted him with a trident, after which Jaka pumped him for information on the Knights' role in all this. House Baenre was slaughtered down to the last after a police raid triggered by the discovery of the soul spider Jaka had reported months past had cut down their numbers.  Myri asked Des about the nightmares that had been plaguing him, and he wound up telling her that she should go home.  Myri asked Gar for a leave from the mission.  She left with a note.

The Grays came through, and Rafael was found not guilty on all counts.  Burt proposed to his baby mama on the steps of the courthouse, and invited everyone to a celebration at his new club in NYC.  Buffy was visibly upset as she realized that the deal Finnick and Francesca had negotiated meant leaving Rafael in Chicago when they went home.  Des promised her that he'd try to change Burt's mind.

New York City
Buffy, Rafael, Isabella, Finnick, Spike, Elena, Des, Gar, Kat, Mark, Vi, Archer, Luthir, Burt

Before the club, Burt took everyone shopping, where they convinced Gar to come along to the club.  They got their weapons back, including Rafael's guns and decided to bring them along.  

They arrived at the club, tackily named the Eternal Jade, and gave Burt and the hookers he'd hired the slip to go party.  Down at the bar, an old friend of Des', charismatic "professional gambler" Zarad Lorel, crashed the party, and Buffy and Elena noticed that he was wearing Des' necklace.  He went dancing with Elena, prompting Archer to get incredibly jealous and bump into them with one of Burt's hookers.  After having a heart-to-heart with Rafael about moving forward and taking chances, a very drunk Des cut in and stole Zarad away.  Elena confronted Archer about whether she was just 'bangable' to him or if he was really interested, and then Finnick burst in to try to diffuse the situation.  And caught sight of Des making out with Zarad across the room.  Meanwhile, the Mr. Gray from the concert/Jade's death appeared to Buffy and Spike, to warn them of dangers 'right under their noses', which Buffy took to potentially mean Zarad.  Rafael asked to speak to her alone

Jade's 'sister' Nadia arrived, with a message from Blade, who wanted to talk to them all at his own club in New York.  Vi went to round up the others, and Des talked to Burt, but didn't make a ton of progress beyond getting Rafael some vacation rights.  Rafael brought Buffy to the roof, where he asked her to stay with him in Chicago, but she couldn't forsake the mission. He took her out to dance, but Isabella cut in, roping him into a passionate dance where she kissed him.  They broke into an argument and she ran off.  The team debated whether to take up Keijen on his offer or not, when suddenly a song of Jade's began playing - one she never recorded.  Private scenes of Jade and the team began appearing on monitors as the team continued to argue.  Suddenly moonlight spilled out of the private room above, and Rafael insisted that it must be Jade and convinced Des to go with him.  Buffy and Spike followed, and inside they found themselves face to face with the goddess Sehanine herself.  She identified herself as the Keeper of all places In Between, including between life and death, hinting to Spike at the existence of his soul.  She named Buffy a Slayer of Monsters in those in between spaces, and told her her duty was to "drive darkness from those spaces", implying that Buffy had not been brought to this world by accident.  Jade herself appeared and Rafael was offered a choice to cross over into death and be with her, but never return.  Rafael refused the offer, choosing to live instead and keep fighting.  Sehanine left them with Jade, who spoke to Des and made him promise to help Vi, and to introduce Nick to the O'Keefe's.  Jade gave Rafael a parting gift of song.   
Vi and Finnick decided to stay back as the others headed after Keijen, and they learned that Isabella had gone after Keijen alone.  Vi, Finnick, and Luthir went to stay at Des' apartment and wait as Raf, Buffy, Spike, Des, and Archer headed into the underground club Dominion.  From a balcony, with Nadia and Dumage, Keijen taunted them about Isabella being held below.  Buffy, Des, and Rafael headed down as Spike tried to scale the balcony.  Keijen took control of Archer's mind and made him try to kill Spike, while Nadia telekinetically blasted Spike off the balcony.  Outside, the rest of the team located a back door and some stairs, as Elena got a text from Vi that Nadia was at Des' apartment.

Downstairs at Dominion, Buffy, Des, and Rafael found themselves in a mirror maze, where they had to fight a dominated Isabella.  Rafael managed to break through to her, and Des shot Blade, prompting him to try to disintegrate him, but accidentally strike Raf instead, nearly killing him.  Keijen escaped via dimension door, and Spike punched Archer free of the domination.  They went and rescued Dumage, and some  escaped out the back door.  The rest took the injured Rafael out front and ran afoul of some minotaurs.   They rushed back to Des' apartment only to find out the Nadia text was a late received text from Burt's club.  They patched up their wounds (Des even gave Spike some of his own blood).

It came time to say goodbyes, and Rafael thanked Des for getting him visiting rights.  Raf and Buffy said a tender goodbye, and Vi invited him to her wedding. Spike scornfully confronted Isabella about her feelings for Rafael and she threw his feelings for Buffy back in his face.  Des advised Isabella to move on.  On the plane back to London, Dumage spoke about her time with Blade and how she'd learned that the Church of the Lord's Humanity was trying to round up tieflings who possessed power like Blade & Jade to enact mass mind control.  Blade's power was so extreme because he was descended directly from the drow god Malaak'a.  She explained how they communicated with the god via the hourglass, and used it to cut deals with him to increase their natural power.  The Mind Master kept Chad's thoughts safe from the tieflings, but everyone on that side seemed to think they had the others outsmarted.  Des talked to Vi about Jade's advice for her nightmares but she couldn't gather up any enthusiasm for it.  Kat talked to Des about Zarad and also about Elena's love life.  Des told Buffy that he talked Burt into vacation time for Raf and they segued into more serious matters.

London
Buffy, Finnick, Spike, Elena, Des, Gar, Kat, Mark, Vi, Archer, Luthir, Fred Jr.

Back in London, the Knights stopped at the downtown London HQ and split into three cars.  Unfortunately, none of the brakes worked in any of them.   The car Vi was driving flipped straight into the Thames and they had to rescue their teammates from drowning (Archer rescuing Elena, Finnick rescuing Vi, and Des and Buffy rescuing Kat).  Archer and Elena made out (and Kat was disgusted).  A back-up vehicle arrived, driven by Sir Fredrick Jr., who Kat seemed incredibly unhappy to see.

Back at the castle, Elena was inducted as a new Knight, and Buffy and Kat noticed Spike was missing from the crowd.  At the afterparty, Finnick and Myri reunited and decided to get back together.