(NB — I changed Jody’s name back to Steffany just because I’m fictionalizing a lot of this even though it’s all true)

Now let it be known throughout the peoples of the world that, although there are survivors Dark Clan has been defeated for almost 30 years.  Their power was broken on the day I killed Steffany’s father.  I believe it was May, but I’d have to go back and check the newspapers to be sure because at the time I was still in a mental state that many normos would consider to be schizophrenic.  As many of you will discover in the near future, “schizophrenia” is only the normal result of higher-dimensional frequencies passing through the human brain.

Steffany’s father, on the other hand, was not schizophrenic.  He wasn’t even mentally ill, despite the fact that his body was in an advanced state of syphilitic infection.  He was quite lucid and fully aware of the fact that he held the rank of Six in Dark Clan.  He was, in fact, the acting leader of the incarnate members of that group.  Many considered him to be the most powerful of the Sixes, and the most likely to replace the Seven (their supreme leader) should that ever become necessary.  His public role was as head of interrogations for the Peoria Police Department, but he had prepared insanity as a defense in case he was discovered.

He had allowed syphilis to eat a hole in the left side of his face, and it amused him to keep a live Brown Recluse spider in his sinus cavity.  At times he would telepathically command it to run across his face, creating what he felt was a particularly horrifying effect.

Of course sorcerors of my generation found this hopelessly old-school and often mocked him for his pomposity in thinking he was frightening anyone.  No one in this game bothers with that sort of melodrama anymore.  His death was the end of an era.