Session 7 + 8 Recap

The Recap of Session 7 and 8 of the chronicle Detroit by Night.

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Recap
Saira and Caleb have decided to look into the death of Makayla Khan from Hamtramck and are planning to go to her last seen location in Huron Forest National Park.

They research the area and find the Alcona Park Camping, which was mentioned in the news article they read. They get some general information about the area and the nearest community Glennie. They call the Camping and book a cabin with 2 rooms for a couple of days.

Hearing about the existance of Werewolves from Kristoff, they fear heading out into the wilds unprepared. With a little research, and some help from a friend of Caleb's sister Samantha who's an amateur smith, they manage to get a hold of some home-made silver-coated bullets for Caleb's handgun.

They consider bringing a mortal who can watch over them during the day. First Saira talks to Emily, but she is reluctant to head off on a whim on such a short notice, especially since she's trying to catch up with school. Saira knows she can probably push Emily into coming by making her feel unsafe, but decides not to. Instead they contact Shaun, who's excited to come along.

They pack-up Shaun's car with hiking stuff and drive off right after sunset. During the ride there, they make some small conversation and Shaun asks Caleb how often Vampires feed. He says he's curious, since sometimes Saira doesn't call him up for blood for longer periods of time.

It takes roughly 3 hours for them to drive upstate and arrive at Alcona Park Camping. Since the reception is closed, Saira heads over to the residence while Shaun and Caleb unpacks the car. As she steps up on the porch she can hear music and song from inside, followed by the wind chime suddenly sounding despite there being no wind. As she knocks, a native american man in his early 50s exits and introduces himself as Chaska Norwood, the owner of the camping. As they head over to the reception to do some paperwork, Shaun and Caleb spot a figure in the window watching them.

As they make themselves comfortable at the cabin, they notice that two of the other cabins are rented as well by a white elderly pair and three guys in their late teens drinking beer and listening to music at their porch. Once in their room, Shaun confronts Saira about her and Darsh getting back together. Saira explains that it's more that they're dating, and that it doesn't mean she isen't available. Shaun makes a push for that they are supposed to be magically bonded, but that she barely involves him in what she's doing. He just wants to be there for her and useful. In the end Saira agrees to involve him more and he seems content.

During some joyous nude-swimming, the squad notices someone watching them from under a tree further down the waterline. Shaun manages to spot it being a young girl, but as Saira make her way over she disappears into the thicket. They split up and try to intercept her, but just barely misses her slipping back inside through a backwindow at the Norwood household.

Gathering up their hiking equipment, the team sets out on a random forest trail hoping to find the place where Makayla Khan's blood and tattered clothing was found. However, they don't go for longer than 30 minutes on the winding trail before they hear the howling of a wolf. They decide to head back, while Caleb keeps watch at their rear. Finally, he spots a red-brown coated wolf stalking among the thicket just past the path. The group stops just as the wolf leaps out infront of them, showing it has only one front-leg. They try to talk to it and offer it food, but it simply growls at them. They decide to slowly keep going, and once they loose line-of-sight they don't see the wolf for the remainder of the track back to the cabin.

Once safely back at the cabin Caleb and Shaun start to get ready for bed. Saira makes a short trip down to the dock before going to sleep, where she notices an old native-american man watching her from afar, missing his left arm.

The next evening Caleb and Saira heads to the souvenir shop immedietly as it closes just an hour or so after sunset. Just as they head there they encounter the three guys they saw the night before, carrying some four-packs of beer. Just as they get into their car, one of them winks at Saira. Inside they meet a woman in her mid 30s, who introduces herself as Chilali Norwood. Caleb ask her some general questions about their tribe and Nation. She's a bit resigned at first, but once Calebs shows he really care about subjegated groups she happily talks to him. She mentions that the nation's land used to stretch like a lunar-crescent from Huron Forest down to Detroit and over to Grand Rapids, but now the only land the tribe owns is the Pine Creek Indian Reservation outside of a town called Athens. Caleb tries to talk to Chilali about legal help, but she doesn't seem to know much about that subject and only gives him the name of the tribe's lawyer. Saira asks her about the things they sell in the souvenir shop, and she explains that she herself makes the clothes and that her father-in-law carves the wooden items. He even made the wind chime they have on their porch.

During the conversation, the teenage girl they spotted the night before enters she shop and whispers something to Chilali. Chilali excuses herself and the girl takes a seat behind the desk with a book. With some effort, Saira and Caleb manages to engage the girl in conversation who introduces herself as Raven. Raven starts to show a mutual interest in them once they say they are from Detroit, and can talk about clubs, university, and other cool things. From context it seems Raven is homeschooled and doesn't get out of Huron very much. She even mentions that her grandfather says that they can't go to Detroit, and he's in charge around here. Just before Chilali returns, the squad invites Raven over to hang with them later and she agrees. Chilali apologizes and says that they need to close the shop, and then rather briskly evicts them.

A few hours later Raven meets up with the crew at the firepit outside their cabin. Raven says she snuck out because her grandfather said that none in the family are allowed to speak with them. They talk abit more and she is star-struck when Saira mentions that she is a full-time dancer. Saira even shows Raven a couple of videos on her phone, which embarasses her greatly. Raven seems interested but says that she can't dance, only sing a bit and play the flute. They ask her to play some for them and she pulls out a wooden flute. The song she plays is mesmerizing to the party, the tunes dancing with the wind rustling the leaves and the crackling of the fire.

After Raven leaves for home, the party packs up with hiking gear and once again heads out in a random direction. Walking around the edge of the lake and climbing up the increasingly jagged terrain, Caleb notices that several of the rocks jutting out are singed and sooty on their undersides. As they reach what seems like the peak of the path circling the lake, much of the forest and undergrove seems young as if it only grew within the last year or two. As they stop to ponder where to go next, the three-legged wolf from the night before stalks up at them from the path they just arrived on. Caleb again tries to offer it food, only for it to horrifically morph, stand up on it's hind-legs, and turn into a horrific one-armed beastman.

The beast uses guttural speech and says that as evil beings they do not belong here, and should leave or die. Shaun freaks out and crouches down on the ground in fetal position shaking. Saira tries to counter that they are not evil, but the Beastman says that they serve The Enemy even if they realize it or not. In the conversation, they accidently namedrop that the Detroit Vampire society is in chaos with infighting. This promps the Beastman to offer them a deal: Tell him if Edward Augustus still rules and be spared, or die. They tell him they've never heard of that name, and that there is another prince in Detroit now. The conversation continues with them explaining that they are seeking information about what happend to Makayla Khan. The Beastman says that she came, she purposefully left her blood and tattered clothes, and left. And offers to track her down for them if they bring him something from Detroit. He wants the deed to Belle Isle, which once belonged to their tribe, so that they can regain their honor that was lost when it was taken from them. Caleb and Saira agrees to the deal, and the Beastman leaves. It takes them a while to calm Shaun down enough for him to be able to walk by himself, and once he's able to speak again he doesn't seem to remember what actually happend after the wolf showed up.

The next night the team packs up and heads back home. On the way, Caleb recieves a text from Shanice about Fergus Grayson wanting to meet him. They decide a time when she'll be picking him up. While he wants, Caleb does some research on legal actions which have involved the Nottawaseppi-Huron, as well as anything regarding the Deed to Belle Isle. He finds out that the tribe has in history fought several attempts at setting up mining or lumber activities in Michigan, as well as trying to reclaim old ancestral land. However, they have never filed any kind of legal action within the City of Detroit. Caleb also finds out that the Belle Isle which today is an urban park, was sold by the natives to the first mayor of Detroit George McDougall, and then bought by the 3 consequtive mayors (Francis Palms, General John R. Williams, Joseph Campau) for a token sum. The deed's location was then lost for a long period until it was donated by a private collector to Detroit Public Library as part of the Burton Collection of Detroit Historical Items.

Lastly, Saira spends some time investigating the Library's security. She finds the deed in a display case on the top floor, with a lock and attatched pressure sensor. There are no cameras in the building that she can see, but there seems to be security guards.