We were “The Third Eye,” a spooky-stuff investigative group operating out of a bookstore, consisting of Madelyne (Martin), the bookstore owner; Smith (Phil), a PI who “dropped out” of PI school; Alpha (Mackenzie), teenage psychic; and Roy (Cheryl), a washed-up security guard. (and Ben GM’d – thanks for all the cat-herding, Ben!)

The mystery begins to unfold in the city of Easthaven as Councilman Jacobs asks Madelyne and her crew to circumspectly check out the pigeons in General Winston Finnimore Memorial Square. The pigeons have been assembling into patterns – maybe even symbols and letters -- and people have started to notice.

The patterns appear to be emanating from the statue of General Finnimore on his horse, which is installed in the middle of a fountain in the middle of the square. Roy unveils his artistic side and paints the birds and the statue, while Smith poses with a lamppost and then gets a parking ticket on Madelyne’s van. The team is followed home from the park by a sedan driven somebody from the local Native American tribe – are those pigeon feathers hanging from the rear-view mirror?

Roy, climbing on the statue & attempting to prove it moved while he was painting it, gets himself first attacked by pigeons and then thrown in jail, but is eventually bailed out by the rest of the crew. Madelyne and Smith are followed through the park by a not-so-stealthy pigeon. (next time you see Ben, ask him to do his Pigeon Watching impression.) Alpha’s researches finally show that the pigeon is a spirit animal, while Smith schmoozes his way into the good graces of the local Natives to learn that Finnemore, a veteran of the war of 1812, was a friend to the tribes, who donated the statue to the city. Alpha’s ears burn as her coworkers discuss her in the park: “She has the psychic powers of cardboard…” but Roy’s only interested in her “assets.”

Roy throws rocks at the pigeons outside the store while Alpha waltzes out the back to try to make friends with crows. Madelyne and Smith sit at opposite ends of the park, one trying to befriend the pigeons, the other trying to capture one. Both fail.

Smith uses film to capture a stop-motion day full of pigeon symbols, which Madelyne decodes (“violence or death…old man … tomorrow … a scottie dog?) and Alpha determines that there is an actual entity inside the statue, causing the strange pigeon-behavior. Her attempts to communicate with the entity, however, cause an unreasonable number of pigeons to emerge from the trees and attack everyone around – Roy’s too distracted trying to keep the pigeons off boss-lady to panic, but everybody else takes injuries.

Finally, as Alpha picks herself back up out of the fountain, Madelyne breaks down and begs the statue to please help the Psychic Eye team figure out how to help the statue, or the pigeons, or something. Finally the story comes out: the spirit trapped in the statue is the wrong one! Not only is it not General Finnemore, it’s one of his sworn enemies, a French war criminal with a dog-like nickname. Fortunately, a exorcism fueled with red wine is all it takes to expel the ghost and stop the strange pigeon activity.

The team got paid, but once everybody’s medical bills were paid up, there was only a little left – which went to pay that parking ticket Smith never got around to telling Madelyne about.

cause an unreasonable number of pigeons to emerge from the trees and attack everyone around

This is gross understatement. It was thousands of pigeons. A pigeon-pocalypse of Biblical proportions, swarming out of the park and into the city. Pandemonium.

Nice summary Cheryl. I only realized the real irony afterwards, which is that InSpectres was only pitched because Morgan wanted to see how it played, but of course he was in the other game. Doh.