Mark Rand

One of my main sources of inspiration for involving the Buffyverse and the olice is the Slayer / CSI series. Please note, there are a few spoilers here. At the end of the third story, Buffy joins CSI as a consultant. They pay her a retainer and, when necessary, a salary and expenses. The fourth story concludes with, as an epilogue, the Sunnydale earthquake. After that, the new Watchers Council is based in Las Vegas in a former Enron compound. Of course, there's a price to pay. The Slayers must help law enforcement and follow due process. In return, they learn state-of-the-art police and forensics techniques. Such things help in cities where they're not working closely with the police. (To me, this sounds like they're a sanctioned superhero team.) A later story gives us some figures. There are in excess of 100 that they've found, the youngest being a nine year old child. (According to a previous story, said nine year old child is still in training and her parents have to give permission before she can start patrolling.)

I just finished the book, The Magician's Nephew, that Lightray suggested. He's right. It's good. For those of you who don't know it, it's the first book of C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia series. I assume the world you're talking about is Charn and the White Witch is Queen Jadis. My dead world is actually a pocket reality created by the Powers That Be to hold buildings and objects from versions of Earth where people died out. Of course, before they let the heroes have access to it, they made sure all harmful agents were destroyed.

As far as the support staff goes, the less people the better. It consists of two women, an engineer and a nurse. DOSPA's is based in the Federal Building and works more with Dr. Arcane and his student, Lady Arcane, than anyone else. PRIMUS's liaison is an intelligence agent and former CIA black-bag job expert. She also helps train the heroes in stealth and other skills she knows. Why is Batgirl putting up with her? Simple. She doesn't have Batman's problem with government officials. Next post, we'll look at Batgirl's cave and go through the portal.

Batman, Robin, and Nightwing have vanished! Alfred and Oracle (Barbara Gordon) have put together a new team to protect Gotham and, hopefully, find Batman, Robin, and Nightwing. One team member is the new Batgirl, a Japanese-American woman, skilled in ninjitsu, that Batbara has been training in detective work and computers and Batman has been training in science. She has her own Batmobile, which looks like a black 2001 Pontiac Ram-Air TransAm, but is armored and has special gear inside, and her own Batcave, whose computers are connected, via dedicated lines to Bruce's and Oracle's systems. Assuming the team's using her cave, how many people would be on the support staff? Would government liaisons be accepted? Would parts of the cave exist in a pocket dimension that's connected to Batgirl's cave? Comment is invited.

Nightfly, thanks for the information on the Slayer history site.

I'm still doing a bit of tweeking on the mansion's ghosts, extra-dimensional rooms, and the world beyond the gate. Since the extra-dimensional rooms are attached to the house, PRIMUS wasn't worried about them. The world beyond the gate, a curtain of blue light, however, was a different story. More to come.

As I reread my last few posts, I noted that I forgot a few things. The team's PRIMUS liaison, Beth James, a PRIMUS intelligence agent and former CIA black-bag expert, would've notified the agency about the extradimentional areas and they would've insisted on an investigation with everything brought back and anyone who went through isolated for testing. Beth and Christine Hunter, the team's tech expert and a ninja, dressed like cat burglars, went through. Once it was found to be safe, they went through again for a more detailed look. The hotel, block one, was from the Chicago area in 1969. They found a group of UAL stewardesses staying there and an Islamic woman's group having a conference. The church and rec center, block two, were from the Detroit area in 1973. A health fair was going on in the basement. Uniformed nurses and student nurses were working there. All were wearing white caps with their uniforms. The bars and restaraunts, block three, were all from the Dallas area in 1978. All the waitress were all in uniform. One bar had a Western theme. It's waitresses, or bar maids, dressed like working cowgirls, somplete with wrist-length, black-leather gloves, toy revolvers and bandanas that they could pull up over their faces. Another bar, a Greek one, had belly dancers there. The fourth block held only a water tower. Donna, the team's housekeeper, wears black uniforms from the hotel. Toni, the team's nurse, after trying a white uniform and cap on and finding that she liked them better than her scrubs, wears either a white uniform or, occasionally, a student nurse's uniform. Either way, she always wears a white cap. Comment is invited.

The C. S. Lewis book mentioned is on order. Thus far, the extradimentional world is a pocket dimension (sp) consisting of a two by two block area. Block one is a hotel that, according to a sign, is hosting a convention of Islamic women. Block two has, from left to right, a funeral home, a church, a receration center and a doctor's office. A sign in the church foyer indicates that a blood drive is taking place in the basement. The third block is a university gymnasium building with five gymnasiums, a pool, a weight room, a mat room and a multi-purpose room. The fourth block consists of bars and restaraunts. Each building is from a different city and, according to newspapers found in various buildings, the incident that killed the people occurred in the late 1960s.

Could they be on retainer to either the DOSPA or various agencies as consultants? This happened in the CU. In the Millennium City sourcebook, on page 68, it states that Witchcraft serves as one of the senior advisors to DOSPA's Mystic Affairs Bureau.

Good points, Nightfly. Thank you.

Oh, I will. Some of the extra-dimentional rooms are haunted, too. Several geisha haunt the Japanese garden that's attached to the library. When the ballroom, that's attached to the living room, isn't in use, an orchestra and waltzing couples haunt it. All the men, including those in the orchestra, are in white ties, tail coats and white gloves while the women are in white evening gowns and opera-length white gloves. If a hero enters while the ghosts are dancing s/he will be met by a partner of the opposite sex and asked to dance. The ghost will feel solid and be a good dancer. All ghosts mentioned are pleasent.

I have five reasons for calling them power-hungry. The first is the Cruciamentum that Buffy had during season three. The second is the fact that they employ hit squads. They sent one after Buffy when her mind was in Faith's body. The third is that they believe that they think that they're the only ones that have the right to try Slayers. They took Faith from police custody to have their own trial. The fourth is the fact that they fired Giles for telling Buffy about the test and replacing him with Wesley, who was no good as a Watcher. The fifth is that they permitted Joyce Summers to be the bait in Buffy's Cruciamentum. Buffy, Giles, Willow and Xander would've told the new Slayers about these events.

If there were dolls in the house, the magic could've animated them. Would they grow to live size and have the skills their real-life counterparts would have or just stay their original size?

The Trismegistus Council is from the CU, not the Buffyverse. I'm sure the Watchers, being the power-hungry group that they are, would try to rebuild their council and take over the Slayers' lives, but the girls probably wouldn't let them.

Since, as I recall, the First destroyed the Watchers Council, the Trismegistus Council has been handling the research chores of the old council, but they're not involved in the training of the Slayers. Other people do that. A typical team consists of a Slayer, her teacher, an associate of the Trismegistus Council that acts as her researcher, a computer expert and a mage. The researcher and computer expert probably don't have much combat experience. The UT spell's purpose is for everyday use only. In fact, I came up with the idea after seeing the problems the Chinese potential had understanding everyone else. Any idea why nobody knew she couldn't drink milk or eat foods made with dairy products or Willow didn't cast a UT spell?

Actually, I printed the whole thread out. The 4,000 worldwide is assuming that, if you possess the potential, you'll become a Slayer no matter what age you are. If you limit to women between 12 and 25, you'll probably end up with less. What do you think of a mage casting a spell on the Slayers that would act as a universal translater?

The mansion had been in the Ward family for generations. When she was 18, Lisa Ward and her best friend, Donna Thomas, the daughter of her family's housekeeper, were doing homework while Donna's mother helped Lisa's get ready for a society party. Suddenly, the door was kicked in and a group of masked thugs entered. They kidnapped Lisa and Donna and murdered their mothers in front of them. The thugs proved to be cultists and they planned to sacrifice the two girls. As all seemed lost, Dr. Arcane arrived as did a spirit that possessed Lisa. Once the cultists were defeated, the spirit left Lisa, explained that she had the potential to become a sorceress. She accepted the challange and, when she was ready, Lisa, known to some as Warder, cast the spells needed to turn her house into a fastness. Now, Donna cares for the house as her mother once did. Lisa's mother, Angela, a beautiful woman, wearing an evening gown and long gloves, and Donna's mother, Sarah, still in her black, white-trimmed uniform and white apron, haunt the mansion. They're pleasant ghosts and easy to talk to. Lightray, I'll look for that C.S. Lewis book you mentioned and my copy of The House that Jack Built is in the next room.

Ah, the Mobius. I know it well, Hermit. I was hoping to use a mansion that started out normal, then became magical instead of one that was magical from the beginning. If all else fails, I'll create my own version of it, with gates, hauntings and other weird stuff.

Nightfly, I have my copy of the Sunnydale 5E thread beside me. On page 11, after I make my proposal, you say, and I quote, "Awesome!! Excellent Integration". Have you changed your mind?

Hi all, One of the characters I'm working on is a lady mage. She wants to convert her family mansion into a fastness and was given the spell to do so by her mentor. What would happen when such a spell was cast? If possible, I'd like there to be non-threatening hauntings and gates to pocket dimensions, most of which would be extra rooms. One, however, would contain buildings and, possibly, people and objects, from an Earth (or more than one Earths) where all life died out but there still is an atmosphere. Is this possible? Any ideas on what buildings to place here? Comments and suggestions are requested. Yours, Mark Rand

Good points, Nightfly. I'm trying to combine Buffy post season seven (where there are many Slayers and no Council of Watchers) with the CU. Since the Initiative, part of the DOD knows about Slayers, vampires, and Hellmouths, it stands to reason that they'd tell other law enforcement and intelligence agencies about them. I think that these agencies would insist on a working relationship with the Slayers. By the way, shouldn't we be discussing this on the Sunnydale thread?

I forgot to mention that the alternate realities are pocket dimensions, some as small as a room.

Schools with animal mascots could try and recrute supers that could shape shift into that animal or, if possible, an animal-human hybred. Being a University of Pittsburgh staff member, I think having a super that could shift into either panther or a panther/human cross would be interesting. For those who aren't familiar with this cat, Pitt's panther is also known as the cougar, puma, mountain lion and more than 30 other names.

How's this? PRIMUS has decided to form superhero teams at some of its bases and Las Vegas is one of them. The heroes are members of that team. Guardian, an armored hero, leads the team. Warder, a female mage, is another member. Warder's accompanied by her familiar, Amber, a Western Screech Owl. The team has two bases, PRIMUS Las Vegas and, with their permission, Warder's mansion. Like all mage's houses, it's bigger on the inside than the outside. It's also haunted and has gates to alternate realities. Aside from their housekeeper, the support staff consists of PRIMUS personal.

I had it, too. Wish I still did.