Part X - In which we finally solve the cross problem once and for all (no, not by shoving the cross where the sun shines on no faerie).
It's been a while since I've written anything in my journal, but I've been busy, and taken several head wounds. You're going to get the Reader's Digest condensed version of these stories, so sue me.
At the end of my last entry, we were heading to the Carolinas to track down Cuthbert's cross. Brian Young was invisible on Blackbeard's ships, to keep an eye on things and be able to tell us where he ended up. Fabio then zapped us to the Carolinas. We landed in the woods, as per usual. We headed into town, and sought out a doctor, as several of us (especially me) had bullets in them from the last bar fight. Our wounds were tended to, as best they could, considering the time frame, and that the doc wanted to leech me.
We found a place to stay, with our pirate money, and hung around until Brian showed up. He said that the pirates had arrived, and they were off in their secret cove. He also said that something unusual happened, in that after a time, he became visible again, but that nobody really cared. Blackbeard was the only one who really noticed that he was there, and they had dinner together from time to time. (Side note: Brian later pointed out to us that history records that Blackbeard's crew said that Satan was on the ship for one voyage, and that he and the beard talked a lot.)
Anyway, we were all there, and they were there, so we went down to the harbor to find the pirates in town for supplies. We bribed the harbor master for info, and found the guys. Unfortunately, according to the elf, they didn't have the cross. We also "scanned" the pirate ship, and it wasn't there either. At this point, we were getting severely annoyed, as the cross really pulled a vanishing act on us.
The elf said that we might have one more chance, but we would have to check with his "researcher" first. We zapped out, and ended up on the African veldt, where we met another guy, who went by "Tom". He was the elf's agent and researcher, who said that he knew the last known position of the cross, in the Ashmolean museum, at Oxford (England). We were advised to dump the weapons and stranger pieces of equipment, and Jon and Joe were given containers to disguise the spear and torch, respectively.
We then zapped to Oxford, where the date was September 1996. We were still wearing our secret society union suits, so new clothes were the first order or the day. It quickly developed that a lot had happened while we were out, including the collapse of the U.S. economy, so the exchange rate had gone to shit. We didn't care though, since we all had credit cards with big limits, and we felt that this was a perturbation of reality that would get changed back. We felt justified in this, since some of the other things that had happened were Gorbachov's election to president of Russia, and Yugoslavia winning the gold in olympic basketball. Anyway, we got food, clothes, various equipment, and other stuff, then went to the museum.
We found the cross in the museum, and decided on two approaches. Joe, Sakell, and I were planning a smash and grab operation, in which we would set of the fire alarms, bust the security cameras, get the cross, and run like hell. Jay and Jon passed themselves off as representatives of a collector who wished to buy/trade for the cross. Since we knew they'd fuck it up, we were ready with our plan. However, it turned out that the curator recognized the emblem on the robes they offered in trade, (the Jon Kilborn secret society robes) and struck a deal.
Jay and Jon went to Africa with Chappell to get the items agreed upon in trade for the cross. I believe they were going to give the robes, and some weapons and armor. Joe and I went to a corner cafe to hang out and wait.
When we got back to our lodging, it looked like there'd either been a big fight, or a hell of a party (as in a party thrown (through a plate glass window by the looks of it) by the denizens of hell.) Apparently a second party (who didn't like us) locked onto Chappell when he went hopping around and followed them through. He threw some fireballs around the hotel, and a large invisible animal trashed the beds. Our group was completely incompetent fighting them, but Chappell and Tom were able to repel whatever they were. (I should also mention that we met a guy from Duke in the museum, Charlie, who for some reason, was tagging along with us, and was pretty good at hitting invisible animals with lamps and chairs).
We vacated the hotel in a hurry, and went to the museum, where the curator told us that he was a member of the secret society of the Holy Lance, and that he'd give us the cross if we had need of it (naturally we didn't find this out until after we made all our plans, schemes, and bargains to get the cross, prompting great anger against them for being so subtle, and making us wish for an easy way to identify them, like a forehead tattoo). On another note, why can't we ever find good looking WOMEN who are members of the society and willing to help us in any way they can once they recognize us. Anyway, Jon gave him some of the stuff they'd agreed upon, just to be fair, we got the cross, and used his office for privacy so we could vanish.