"The arrival of a Ghostbreaker was unexpected." Monzel said as she thumbed through the section of her handbook that covered mortal defenses. "According to this there are three members of the Ghostbreakers currently in Gravenville but the Department of Clairvoyance hasn't been able to pinpoint their location yet."
"And now that they know you're in Gravenville they'll be trying to track you down. Fortunately there are a number of old buildings that they have to check so the odds of being discovered are slim." Rakarth said as he moved towards the map table.
Monzel glided over as a large structure rose near the center of the map. Touching it she heard the voice of Drycha in her head.
"It is time to erode another bastion of mortal security Ghost Master! Turn your attention to the already overtaxed Gravenville General Hospital, where souls are stitched back into impermanent bodies without thought being given to the value of such a gesture. You need only remove the senior practitioners of the healing arts to be successful here, though additional mayhem is always appreciated."
Monzel was already moving among her team as they gathered. "Weatherwitch, Moonscream. Boo, Buck and Clatterclaws of course. Firetail, Electrospasm…and Banzai." She decided as she summoned up the portal…
Appearing beside a fountain outside the Hospital, Monzel marveled at the size of the place. It had to be at least 5 stories, far larger then anything else she had haunted aside from the yacht.
Her team settled in to wait for her as the Ghost Master moved off to scout the place. Gliding up the outside of the building she passed through a wall into what appeared to be a ward room filled with beds. Several people roamed in and out the doors or gathered around a small TV set on a table against one wall.
Monzel glanced quickly around the room then did a double take as she focused on what appeared to be a giant rabbit standing beside a crying boy. The ghostly chains connecting the pair proved to Monzel that she hadn't lost her mind as she approached.
The rabbit turned her attention away from the mortal boy and faced Monzel, revealing the ghost to be quite human looking, hands resting lightly on her hips as she looked Monzel over.
"Are you a Ghost Master?" She asked curiously, continuing when Monzel nodded in reply. "I'm a bit tied up looking after the kid right now. His stuffed rabbit got stole and now the little tyke just won't stop crying. If you could help us, maybe I could come work for you. Bet you haven't seen many Tricksters, Hm?"
Despite realizing that locating a single stuffed toy in this place would be nearly impossible Monzel agreed to help because what the ghost said was true, she had never met a Trickster before. She knew there were several serving other Masters but had never seen them around the Spirit World.
Gliding along a corridor she turned down a short hallway and passed through a set of closed doors into an empty exam room. Snoring from the corner drew her attention as she spotted a ghost floating a few inches above a gurney, snoring loudly.
"Hey, wake up!" Monzel said as she shook the ghost who mumbled something and turned over. Annoyed she continued on, passing an office where a nurse and one of the doctors were talking, glancing around once in a while as if they feared being seen.
Not bothering with the stairs the young Ghost Master dropped through several floors, passing more exam rooms and the floor where storage and the kitchens and staff offices were located.
As she landed in the basement she could feel the presence of a ghost nearby. Taking the only doors she almost walked right into a mortal woman who was dressed as a doctor. The spirit trapped here was hard to miss; the burned edges of what had once been a beautiful dress waving in an unfelt breeze and the heartbroken crying emanating from the center of the room being clear signs.
The ghost glimpsed her out of the corner of her eye and rose with a sniffle. Dabbing her eyes with an unburnt piece of her sleeve she spoke. "My wedding should have been the happiest day of my life. Perhaps it would have been if he'd turned up!" Monzel unknowingly backed away a step as the spirit's voice hardened. "Wasn't I enough for him? Why did he need all those others? The voices led me from the white room to the roof, to embrace the lightning! Now they say that philandering men must be punished! That I can't stop, till in death do they part!"
Monzel started to speak but was cut off. "I will be vengeance, the voices said. When a man strays from fidelity Brigit will make them pay!"
Monzel remained quiet for a few minutes only speaking up once she was sure to be uninterrupted. "I'll free you if I can. But no haunter can be part of the Committee and kill mortals." She cautioned when Brigit looked at her hopefully. "I have a much better fate in store for them." Brigit said sweetly. "Bring my almost husband here and find out what it is."
Knowing a slightly mad ghost when she met one Monzel agreed and hastily withdrew back to her team to arrange the haunting…
Monzel closed her handbook and summoned Boo to her side. "Boo, you've got an important mission. Seth Greenwood is the doctor we want but according to the Department of Clairvoyance's files he is a compulsive womanizer who has been having affairs with at least half the nurses here."
"I'm going to have the others focus on scaring the nurses off; your job is to keep Greenwood out of the way. Stick with him and keep hitting him with Fool's Errand. With any luck he'll walk right into Brigit's grasp."
With the usual grin on his face the Spook zipped off down the hall in search of his target. Monzel watched him go before turning to the others. The team nodded as she explained the plan to them…
The grumbling and complaints of the patients brought Nurse Bry storming out of the office. "What?" She demanded, her tone stopping them all mid-complaint. "The TV's messed up again…" Ferro said at last. "What are we supposed to do now?"
"You could recover and get out." Bry snapped as she shut the office door in the Corporal's face.
As the patients wandered back toward the TV area they noticed the sparks that had begun flying from the set. They were too slow to back away however and were caught in the surge that erupted from Electrospasm's chair.
Annoyed by the screams of fear Nurse Bry reappeared and was confused by the sight of patients running for the doors. She soon joined them as a cloud of fleas leapt from one of the beds and landed on her…
"We've got them on the run now." Monzel said to herself as she watched Moonscream unleash a Cacophony of terrible sounds that drove one of the patients away from the stairs.
She came to a halt when a familiar mortal appeared on the stairs leading up. It was the woman who busted Dr. Krauss out of the Police Station. Leaving the woman standing on the landing, talking into a cell phone Monzel floated up to the ceiling to check out where she had come from but found her progress impeded by a glowing ward.
After several minutes of flying along the ceiling Monzel was satisfied that the entire upper level of the hospital was covered by the ward. As she floated back down toward the floor more mortals came down from the upper levels.
As her gaze traveled over the uniforms and equipment the trio carried, she realized things had just gotten a lot tougher for her. Knowing there was no time to spare Monzel killed the flow of plasm to her team and freed them from their fetters.
As the members of her team appeared Monzel noticed the worried looks on several faces. "The Ghostbreakers just decided to drop in for a visit. There are 3 of them and they've split up to cover the building."
"I have a plan though." She continued after a short pause. "It's risky but if we pull it off we can send all 3 of them running in terror. I want you all to roam. Follow the Ghostbreakers and when you get the chance, strike. Then get out before they can recover. Keep them running if you can, the more they run the less chance they have to banish us."
As the haunters started to spread out across the building Monzel unleashed the plasm once more, hopefully enough to give the mortals a good scare…
As he moved along the corridor outside the hospital kitchen Raymond glanced nervously at his scanner. The terrified people running around proved that the place was indeed under attack by ghosts.
The beeping that erupted from the scanner sent the Ghostbreaker's eyes glancing in all directions. He was momentarily confused as the only thing he could see was a dog, a very scruffy dog at that. As the beeping continued he realized that he could see the floor through the dog's body and without thinking fired on the ghostly dog.
Buck yelped as tendrils of light surrounded him. Finding herself unable to free the dog from his fetter Monzel called the nearest ghost to her. Clatterclaws came skittering across the ceiling toward her as the Ghostbreaker flicked a switch on his weapon. The spider's many eyes took in the details as the cage began to glow brighter…
In the blink of an eye the Horde was positioned directly over Raymond's head as a swirl of green rose from the spider's body. As the power activated Clatterclaws ghostly form became corporeal as the spider released its hold on the ceiling and fell toward the enemy.
The weight of the spider as it smacked into the Ghostbreaker's head dazed him for a moment but that was all the time it took for the Horde to unleash her Legion. Hundreds of smaller spiders fell from the ghost's body to crawl over Raymond and the floor.
The fear in that moment finally overwhelmed Raymond and he let go of the trigger to swipe at the creepy-crawlies moving along his arms. Buck collapsed to the floor as the glowing cage finally shivered and vanished. He only rested a moment before he rose to his paws.
The spiders had vanished along with Clatterclaws and as Raymond returned his gaze to the hallway he saw that his target was free. Raising his snout Buck scented the air and not smelling anyone else nearby he turned on Raymond, a menacing growl rising from his throat as his form solidified like Clatterclaws had.
Raymond was far too slow and before he could ready his weapon for another shot a mass of green vines rose from the floor and wrapped around his ankles as a dark mass fell from the matted fur and raced across the floor toward him.
Buck's fleas were as angry as their master was and fell on the mortal with a ferocity they had never shown before…
The strain of running two powers at once was draining though and before long the vines fell away and Raymond seized the chance to run. With a terrifying howl Buck summoned his horde back to his fur and charged off after the scared Ghostbreaker, leaving Monzel floating against the wall, in awe of her teams scaring abilities…
Terrified screams coming from the direction of the operating rooms drew Monzel's attention as she floated upstairs to check on the ghosts that were busy with the nurses.
Passing a fleeing patient the Ghost Master caught sight of Moonscream, tattered dress waving as she revealed her pale form to the trio of mortals gathered in the room. The mortals were rooted in place by fear which was only broken when the Banshee summoned up a Cacophony of annoying sounds.
The mortals running was expected, what was not was the sound of snoring suddenly ceasing. Curious Monzel poked her head into the room where she had found the napping Sandman and was surprised to see him sitting up and yawning. As he caught sight of her he gave a clumsy salute. "Hmm, Must have dozed off for a…Century or so. Well, I guess its time for work."
The newly woken Daydreamer yawned and stretched as Monzel told him how he could help the mission. The Sandman's head turned sharply toward the ceiling as thunder crashed and raindrops began to pelt the ground. A distant look came over his eyes as he spoke.
"Oh my, I've not heard a storm like that since…ooh…Since I last worked with Weatherwitch."
Some hurried questioning revealed that the Sandman and Banshee had been with the Committee a few centuries back, until their Ghost Master was captured and lost during a mission. A number of his haunters had decided to go rogue rather then wait for the Committee to find them a new Master.
Fleeing the strange happenings in the hospital Kevin found himself back in the ward where surprisingly Jimmy was still hanging out by his bed, oblivious to the things happening around him.
Kevin was nearly yanked off his feet as the stuffed animal clutched in his hand pulled away from him. Dropping the toy to the floor he watched as it moved across the floor to bump against Jimmy's foot.
As Jimmy stooped to retrieve his rabbit Kevin was overwhelmed by the desire to run away as a man-sized rabbit materialized from thin air.
"Nothing chokes me up more like seeing a boy and his bunny reunited. Thanks boss!" Harriet said as the chains holding her to Jimmy broke and faded.
Monzel noted that the addition of the Sandman and Trickster to the team was greatly improving the speed of the haunting. Mortals were fleeing left and right as the ghosts roamed the building. She hadn't even noticed when the Ghostbreakers fled.
With the only threat to her team removed Monzel concentrated her attention on setting up the haunters for the final phase of the mission: Freeing Brigit.
After repositioning her team around the basement Monzel gave Boo the order to send Greenwood on another Fool's Errand.
With all the nurses gone Dr. Greenwood had little choice but to head for the basement to see Dr. Whinnery. As soon as he reached the bottom of the basement stairs Greenwood slowed, seemingly rethinking his visit.
Weatherwitch didn't give him a chance to leave though. Her Siren Song caught the mortal and lured him closer to the trapped Banshee.
Dr. Whinnery was standing to greet Dr. Greenwood when a terrifying figure appeared from thin air, dress flapping in the nonexistent breeze. Greenwood's eyes widened in horror as Brigit turned her attention to her former fiancée.
"Faithless bespoiler of the purity of love! Brigit curses you with the undying stench of infidelity! Never again will you find solace in a woman's arms!"
Brigit's laughter echoed in Greenwood's ears as he fled with Dr. Whinnery hot on his heels.
As they crossed the boundary of the haunting the familiar cloud of gold plasm appeared before Monzel and as it was absorbed into her book the portal appeared before her…
