Episode Twelve
Don't Fear the Ripper
Early morning Nick called and informed Steph that another prostitute was murdered. Steph headed to the crime scene. While there, she impressed Nick by finding footprints and tracking them quite aways back the main street. Nick and Steph then went to see the autopsy. Again impressing Nick with her knowledge of ritualistic occult studies. Steph suggested the weapon involved is an atheme - a ceremonial dagger. Outside, Nick impresses Steph by having already come to the same conclusion. They decided to split up to search different leads. Steph went to check at a local pawnshop that may have had the dagger. She brought along Leroy, in case of trouble. Sure enough, the owner gave the them a hard time. Eventually the argument became physical. After a broken bat and a dropped storekeeper, the duo got the information. The Pawn Shop owner had sold the knife - which was later identified as having been owned by Jack the Ripper - to a young woman named Dana Green. Her address placed her in the rich side of town.
After meeting up with Astrid and Johnny, Steph headed over to Dana's house and met her and her butler, Jeffrey. Realizing that some of the group was mystically powerful, Dana invited them in to discuss the problem.The police have questioned her and the house is under surveilance. Dana took them into her library - which had been set up as an Occult Museum, and showed them the atheme - sealed in a glass case with sensor alarms in place. Dana told them that she too had had weird dreams involving the knife. She believed it to be cursed or possessed by the entity known as Jack the Ripper. She bought the knife because she was able to feel it's power, but as soon as she realized it to be evil and not knowing a safer place for it, she had the security systems installed.
To prove that she has nothing to do with the murders, Dana invited them to stay with her overnight. It also seemed that she was glad to have their company, not realizing that there were so many powerful peoiple living in Murfreesboro that shared her interests. However, around midnight Dana got out of bed, and in a daze, approached the dagger. Leroy and Johnny had set up guard in the library but before they could do anything a light from the dagger shot toward Dana and stunned both of them. Dana's clothing was transformed into Victorian Gentlemen's clothing and she went out into the night.
Leroy was able to make contact with Saul. Saul arrived and checked out the area, finding the bodies of the murdered police surveilance team.
The next day, Astrid, Steph, Leroy and Johnny realized that they had been under a spell that kept them from acting. Still somewhat confused by the spell and the strange turn of events, the gang could only peace together that the Ripper had been there and as another three murders had happened overnight, Dana and Jeffrey were taken in for questioning and the dagger was placed in the police evidence vault. Although the police had a lot of evidence against either Dana or Jeffrey, some of it was circumstancial and Steph provided a strong alibi, telling Nick that she was at Dana's house all night. The Police Department agreed to let Dana and Jeffrey go, but kept the dagger.
The gang decided to split up to solve the situation. Astrid joined Steph at the police department, saying she might be interested in becoming a cop and got the royal tour - including the evidence vault, where they discovered the atheme was missing..
Saul, Leroy and Johnny went to see Dana, but when the arrived they were attacked by some demons. During the fight Leroy paused long enough to take a phone call from Steph. Informing each other of the situation, Leroy went back to the fight and Steph and Adtrid hurried to the scene. Arriving right after the fight was over, the girls are somewhat annoyed by missing out on the action, but are instrumental in finding Jeffrey - severly injured in his destroyed room. He tells the group that Dana has been possessed by Jack the Ripper and asks them to please help her, before falling unconcious. This went along well with the information the gang had worked out, research had suggested that the dagger housed a demon that was looking for a permanant host body. A permenant host required the ritualistic sacrifice of six women and a final sacrifice of the host itself.
Steph is able to track Dana/Jack to the Old Fort Battleground, and the group fight against more guardian demons while trying to stop the final sacrifice. Inside a protective circle, Jack is splitting himself from Dana with the intention of killing her thus finishing the spell and being free. At the moment of separation, Leroy attacked Jack and was able to wrestle with him long enough for Steph to save Dana by ruining the magic circle with silver bullets from Saul's gun. Johnny rushed the demons and was able to buy time for the group to get the dagger from Jack. With some fancy shooting from Saul, the dagger was able to be kept from Jack long enough for Steph to pick it up and stab him - this being the entity's one weakness.
A bittersweet victory. With the death of Johnny, the group was able to save Dana (and many others) and end the Ripper case for the Murfreesboro Police. A tale of Satanists is filed by Stephanie and accepted by the department, although Nick seemed not entirelly convinced.