Victoria Craft

Weird Western Tales

Mon, 19 Aug 2013 01:21:15 GMT

1) When a southwestern town vanishes off the map, Victoria gathers the Shadowpact to investigate, sensing mystical involvement.
2) Through the use of Mina's abilities, the team is able to pierce the veil hiding the town and enter.
3) They discover that the town has, for all intents and purposes, been thrown back in time to the wild west, with everyone acting like from the period.
4) The spell being stronger on the inside, they are unable to escape back out or free the town so easily.
5) The Shadowpact are forced to blend in for the time being, while they figure out what needs to be done.
6) A week passes, and eventually, the town comes under attack from sorcerous vampires. They drive off the initial attack, but learn that this has been happening once a month. The vamps take just what they need to live, and leave the rest alone.
7) The Shadowpact pursue the vampires to their lair, where they battle with the vampires and their queen. It is revealed they have used their magic to turn back time to their favorite era, that of the wild west, and the time they had a most beneficial relationship with the town.
8) The team battles with the vampires, but even with their powers, the tide begins to turn against them.
9) Until they are able to combine magics to summon up the souls of the greatest heroes of the old west. Jonah Hex. Bat Lash. Nighthawk and Cinnamon, and others. With the ghost heroes on their side, they are able to kill the vampires and break the spell.

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 01:49:09 GMT

1) Three short scenes

a) Doctor Fate goes berserk and attacks the rest of the JSA.

b) Alina goes crazy and attacks the rest of the League.

c) Ruth and Jay transform and attack the rest of the Titans, but seem even more interested in fighting each other.

--Each, fortunately, are subdued by their respective teammates.

2) Three short scenes

a) The League calls in Zachary Zatara to investigate on Alina.

b) The JSA calls in Mike Blood for their investigations

c) The Titans use Ash for a rudimentary mystic investigation on Ruth and Jay.

These investigations, sadly, do not seem to lead to much of anything, other than each seeming to be infused with an unusually high level of magical energy.

3) In the meantime, Victoria Craft visits Salome and Mina, intent on checking upon various strange undercurrents in the mystical community. Fortunately, she finds both of them unharmed. Unfortunately, when she takes them to visit another local practitioner she knows, a small time fortune teller who dabbles in chaos magic, they find her powers likewise raging out of control. With the help of the girls, Victoria is able to subdue her.

4) When their own findings turn out to be inconclusive, Zach and Mike turn to Victoria for assistance, since she’s well known within the magical community (and to Zach personally). Comparing notes, they quickly realize that everyone who’s gone crazy has powers specifically tied to either Order or Chaos.

5) Victoria, for once, is stymied in her efforts to find the source of the mystical disturbance. Fortunately, by combining their abilities, the other spellcasters in the group are able to locate a… tipping point, of sorts, in the swirl of Order and Chaos. With many of the major powers in the magic game unable to respond, they travel to the center of the disturbance, the little town of Rutland, Vermont, currently playing host to its annual Halloween festival and parade. Unfortunately, many in the town are under some kind of spell, and the group has to stop them without hurting them overmuch. Salome and Mina’s abilities especially prove invaluable here.

6) Making their way through town, the group heads to an abandoned church, where they discover that whatever is disturbing the magical balance is actively being kept out, as though safeguarding something inside. They head inside and discover Kefka.

7) The group battles Kefka and whatever he can summon up, but it is, at best, a losing proposition for them. They can hold their ground, but not much more than that. Fortunately, however, what they can accomplish is breaking the spell he’s put into place.

It doesn’t much matter though, because it’s achieved Kefka’s goals well enough. By stirring up the pot, he’s upset the balance between the forces of Order and Chaos, and potentially stirred Order into greater action.

8) With a potential war between the forces of Order and Chaos coming, the group agrees to band together as the new Shadowpact, in order to protect the world against what magical damage and war they can.

Thank You for Being a Friend (Fluff, 5)

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 03:35:45 GMT

Unbeknownst to Zachary, Victoria was actually in the habit of taking in his show from time to time, when her own rather demanding schedule required it. Of course, being somewhat temporally inconsistent made grading and making lessons much less time consuming than some teachers had it.

And she did have to admit, Zachary was a talented showman. Even if he did use such groan-worthy lines as "How many men in the audience tonight are in love? ... And the women? ... Okay, all the men who were with a woman, and she responded when you didn't? Get ready for the car ride of your life going home, boys."

So she was waiting for him backstage afterwards. She didn't have a backstage pass, of course, nor would any of the security personal be able to say they had seen her get back there. She had simply gone there. And until she was ready to be noticed it was like she was not there. Another useful talent.

On Christmas Eve, 2007

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 07:11:54 GMT

For reasons she could not begin to fathom, the Phantom Stranger was filling in for Santa Clause.

Which meant Victoria Craft had a mystery to solve. She just knew this one was going to be aggravating.

Halloween

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 01:17:34 GMT

On Friday, Victoria blocked off the last two hours of the day for the children's Halloween party. She was appropriately terrified of their costumes, supplied them with nutritious snacks, and showed a G-rated Halloween movie.

She also made certain to caution her children as to what to do with should the encounter a monster. It might result in a few trick-or-treating black eyes or bruises, but they would be prepared for the real creatures that prowled this night.

She herself would be busy enough dealing with those on the next three nights.

As it was, she was out until two a.m on Friday., having stopped a werewolf, two vampires, banished three ghosts, exorcised two cases of demonic position, and was forced to hit a closet monster with a very heavy stick while telling the child who had witnessed it to go back to bed.

On Saturday night, she broke up an argument between Terrance Thirteen and a very angry spider-demon, rounded up a colony of pixies, assisted Boston Brand in de-haunting a house, and had to help Stanley Dover, Jr, get his Monster out of the city pound.

On Sunday night, she spent virtually the entire evening dealing with an immortal witch trying to harvest the souls of children, and later politely, but firmly, directed Solomon Grundy back to his swamp.

When she returned home, there was a message on the phone from her mother, wishing her a happy birthday. And also a box of chocolates, that had not been there before, from her father.

Supernatural or not, Victoria would need what few hours of sleep she could get tonight. For tomorrow... was a school day.