A small modicum of relief was felt in some quarters when it was revealed that the poor unfortunate young woman was not one of the Steelhead Nuns, but rather an innocent on her way to a fancydress ball. At the insistance of Sister Tanwy Dewi Sant, we left her beside the body, and the rest of those gathered attended a very serious Town Hall Meeting which went on until dawn brushed the skies.
After the meeting, I decided it would be best to stretch my legs and excercise my nose. A random visit to Miss Lumi's shop in Shanghai lead me to the next headless corpse of the evening, just outside her establishment. I called in Sgt Valdyr to stand guard, while I took to the air via rocketboots to see what more could be found. A third example of sad, headless mortal clay rested right on Miss Belle's doorstep, a short distance away.
After flying a careful pattern over most of Steelhead and her suburbs and finding nothing more, it occurred to me to wonder if the infamous and fascinating underworld of the Boomtown Tunnels had yet been inspected for signs of our current danger. I returned to the initial crime scene where Lady Tensai and Mister Eclipse were cordonning off the first corpse of the evening. Wishing them a good day, I entered the Tunnels at that point.
For those unfamiliar with the Tunnels of Boomtown, they meander under most of that portion of Steelhead, eventually circling back to join upon themselves in an Oroboros-like loop. I had not gone far at all when I came upon a singular sight: a fog or mist undulated along the tunnel floor where a waterfall pouring from somewhere above (as it turns out, the Steelhead Gardens) fell into a stone basin, in which reposed, in various states of decay, five disembodied heads. The scene had an oddly ceremonial look to it. Sheriff Ortega answered my call immediately; we were also joined by Miss Narcisa -- as one of the local Children of the Night, I did not worry overmuch that she could keep up with a Jäger and a werewolf on the hunt.
In spite of our party possessing three of the most sensitive noses in Steelhead, further exploration of the Tunnels revealed nothing more. Sheriff Ortega then lead us to another, more obscure set of tunnels (in part running under the Town Hall itself) and still no more was revealed. We parted company to write up our various reports, the Sheriff assuring us that he would have Dr. Beck in the course of his duties retrieve the heads.
I sought my bed with this question rolling around my brain: if we had five corpses, then three, and found five heads, where are the other three heads hidden?
