Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

[DragonParadox]

Nightmares Churning ​

7th of January 2007 A.D.

Time seems to slow, the colors fracturing on one side light to bright it pains the eye and on the other putrid darkness that make the edges of things rot. As you had done countless times before you are tempted to question the power of your crown. Why? The simplest answer is that the thing behind the hollowed masks wants a good look at you, a sense of how you fight for a battle not so doomed, but is the simplest answer good enough when facing He Who Walks Beside and his puppets? Yet the Archive's cautioning words also ring in your mind, sometimes it is best that even your allies do not know just how sharp your senses are.

Eyes of flesh narrow, sharpen emerald-bright to peer into the mass of ichthyic nightmare-flesh, yet you sense nothing that you had not seem before, only more of it, malformed and hateful. Thus you nod to Titania. "By your leave, Majesty."

There is no hint of surprise upon her stern luminous features. Why would there be after all, had the beast not insulted your honor?

"Pray see to your defenses. Thieves are wont to sneak into the pantry when the mistress of the house is distracted," you add then, not waiting for a reply, you step out onto the surface of the lake. Power unfurls around you and flattens the water agitated by the intruder, even as you grow in stature and in power. The temperature around you plunges precipitously, the summer warmth of Avalon replaced by freezing rain and biting winds as your brass-shod feet leave not even a ripple on the surface of the water."You seem to have found newer associates to lead you around by the nose, thousand-horned. And fouler ones at...."

Spoiler: Charms and Mechanics

Lost 3 Essence and 3 Willpower -> Now at 12/15 Essence and 6/9 Willpower
Charms triggered: Imperial Primacy Mantle; All Things Betray
Shintai Triggered
Steel Skin Triggered

Alas you never get the last word out as you realize the black 'water' beneath you is not merely under the shadow of the monster, it is Iku Turso, god of war and you had fallen into his trap as his inky blackness— some unhelpful part of your mind recalls that your foe's name could also mean 'octopus' — rises to envelop you. But swift as the jaws of the trap might close you are faster still, between one moment and the next you are away, carried upon a balefire wind, a thousand eyes like embers upon it.

The sound of brass on brass rings out, as your sword, your companion and your guide is once more freed to do battle upon the foe of you both, puppet to the foe of all. "I thought I taught you this lesson before, Old One."

Spoiler: Charms and Mechanics

Lost 2 Essence -> Now at 10/15
Charms Triggered: Viridian Legend Exoskeleton; Melee Excelency

The once-god's shudders as if in some grotesque earthquake and it take you a moment to realize that it is with laughter that he is quaking as upon that face things are crawling. Once perhaps they had been men, for they retained the vague shape under aeons of stoney growtha and seaweed red and blood, now they are like ants to a broken anthill.

"See... the face of... those who have defied... me of old and know your... fate that is to come!"

These are the ones who had not been as skilled or as fortunate as Väinämöinen, you realize with mounting concern as the bone-thralls draw forth from their own substance, splintering and breaking javelins to cast high, spears to impale you with should you come close.

How do you fight the god-monster of old?

[] Kill the 'garison' first, they do not look very sturdy even though there are a lot of them
Risk of being attacked by tentancles while distracted

[] Cut off the head and the body will wither to fall upon and carve into the central mass
Will have to endure being peppered with javelins and prodded with spears

[] As with an iceberg the true heart of Iku Turso is beneath the water he has invaded
Dive under the lake, risk of being swallowed whole by his black waters

[] Write in

OOC: You guys are so lucky you have that surprise negator or this fight would have started with 'you have been swallwed hole'

 

[DragonParadox]

Against the Great Beast ​

7th of January 2007 A.D.

Letting loose a peal of laughter that rang like thunder though the chill air, your Dark Sun snaps at your side, a fan of steel. "Oh honey, let me show you yours"

In something less like change and more like suddenly noticing what was already there the sky directly above turned the grasping black of the deep wastes, dark like nothing on earth could be. Below, where once there was a lake rested a mighty river. In its depths streams of glowing dust spread, like ink spilled into a full glass.

Somewhere behind you, far, far behind you there are screams, of pain, maybe of horror from the luminous host sheltering in the presence of their queen, but you know it not as you race towards the foe, sword extended. Often it feels like the Sword that is Usum is an extension of your body, but in this place and in this hour you feel like an extension of him, a single weapon hurled into the gathering murk.

Mist belches out from the depths of many mouths, fetid, foul, but warm, enough that the old bones do not shatter, enough to contest your order if not unto to. Yet where your will meets his and the fabric of the spirit world roils the dark god does not recoil, but rides the madness into being, turning mischance in his favor, a curse to war-blessing spun.

You strike the the unnatural mass with a screech of tearing bone and ripping muscle, blood brine spraying all over you as dozens upon dozens upon dozens of bronze and bone javelins are hurled your way, the shadow that had blighted a battlefields uncounted. Ducking and weaving, slashing and parrying you ensure that none of them find their mark, though three of them do get lodged the stone of your armor like grim trophies.

I'm not really hurting him, you realize as your newest blow cracks open what looks like a nest of spitting octopuses the size of your head that spit poison in your face. Neither of you had managed to do more than scratch the other in the first exchange.

"Why do you fight, why do you bleed for this?" his voice is a dread exhalation, sapping will and killing dreams. Does it come from mouths, does it come from his breath? Does it matter?

In a snap you turn it back on your shield. but the warriors till had not fallen to the unearthly cold of the Wastes, wreathed in the presence of their master. As you fly around his many heads they ready their weapons and yet they find no purchase as you continue your bloody delving into the flesh of their maker and this time you strike true... just as the whispers in your ears, the voice of your armor stills. The armor of Lanka crumbles from your body, dead stone.

Iku-Turso takes 6 Wounds -> Now at 18/24 (No penalties)
Viridian Legend Exoskeleton Dispelled

What do you do?

[] Keep at it, armor or no you know you can hurt him now, the more you can carve into him the better

[] Summon your armor back, no sense risking death by a thousand cuts

OOC: Welp you guys are in a tank fight right now, though keep in mind he has not used his primary attacks, which are his tentacles yet sice he had to use his main action on the first turn to contest you freezing his dead puppets solid. The question now is do you think you can tank that enough to finish him off. No rolls for this one since there are just way too many.

 

[DragonParadox]

Of Treachery Undone ​

7th of January 2007 A.D.

At the sound of crumbling armor splashing into the dark waters dread lies heavy in your stomach, suddenly exposed to the monster, but you do not falter, calling back what was lost, rebuilding what had been sundered. The City Still Stands, words spoken not in any mortal tongue, but in the black cant of demons come to mind, a prayer of the Asura who despise divinity. Again the chants rise all around Tuonen härkä, the ox of Tuoni rises and rises, like a tidal wave against the shore and crashes down with a roar that fills the world.

Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 9/15

There is no past and no future in what follows, is no memory of greater purpose, no plan beyond the next parry as you cast all about a ring of steel and fire, hissing through the churning 'waters' red and black, there is no sky above, no late below, there is only the next cut and the one after it and the one after that, six you count in the span of a single long breath, each adorned with twisting horns like a charging bull fit to break the spine of great warriors and drag them under, each met and repulsed. Not a single mark mars your new-made armor.

"Maybe you should have stayed sleeping on your bed of silt Old One?" you say, breathing a little heavily from the exertion admittedly.

Even as you speak the words a flash on the bank draws your eye, a cage of light disrupted, as Titania's eye if upon he battle. In an instant the previously quiescent Sathar expands into a fiery visage half-avian half-leonine, a nightmare of wrath driven by whips of madness. He won't get far, not in the midst of the host, but he does not have to, it's only ten steps to Lilly, crossed in an instant on wings of flame.

Why doesn't Titania just freeze him? For a moment you wonder if she doesn't want to, if after the defiance you had abetted the Queen of Summer is willing to let the Lady die, but no you realize, she can't keep time still anymore, not with the duel wrenching the land this way and that.

"Watch out!" you shout a warning knowing that it's too late... and watch as the burning talong slice into nothing but light and air as Lilly reveals herself to be standing some five feet away not oblivious at all, but spear raised high then lashing out into one of the flaming wings, pinning it to the ground.

Though you can't hear her over the chaos of the battle, the sound of the fey host rallying you swear that her lips form the words: 'I'm sorry.'

Jesus Christ Lilly save that for later, you think too flabbergasted to even feel guilty for taking the Lord's name in vain.

It is only then as Titania traps the errant lord again that you notice your own foe had stopped to watch. It is no easy feat reading a face that was not and had never been mortal, but the way he froze, the sudden creak of dead limbs as the defeated warriors suddenly seek new targets looks to you as one betrayed. He had expected the escape of the tainted master of the stables, but not that he would attempt to attack the Lady instead of aiding him.

"He who makes a pact with stone has only themselves to blame when in crumbles underfoot," you say sword already moving to ruthlessly exploit the moment, no thought of future parrying, trusting your armor to hold.

Iku-Turso takes 7 Wounds -> Now at 11/24 (Mauled -2 Dice penalty)

You cut and cut and cut, but there is always more squirming flesh and briny blood, it feels more like exccavating stabbing something and then the tentacles reach in after animated by rage, by spite and by a will to survive that had carried the hundred headed one though the long ages. Even the stones of Lanka cannot take such a battering forever. Stone craks again, this time from brute force and blood seeps though plates of brass.

You take 2 Damage -> Now at 25/27

I'm killing it faster than it's killing me, the thought is more a sense of grim satisfaction, there is no time for words as at the last you break through a spiraling white shell and strike at the pulsing indigo heart of Iku Turso.

Iku-Turso takes 12 Wounds -> Dead
Essence shivers in the rapidly cooling air as your will becomes the only one pulling at the substance of Avalon. A feast is laid before you. Do you partake?

[] Yes, consume the spirit of Iku-Turso so that he may trouble you no more

[] No, that is one power you do not want to reveal in full sight of the Summer Court

OOC: Welp, all's well that ends well. I got to show off some Summer Powers, Lilly did not get killed in Nemesis' Indy Gambit (it was improvising hard, but it came close to eking out a win anyway) and you guys get to decide if you want to eat a ancient god-monster.

 

[DragonParadox]

Growing Pains ​

7th of January 2007 A.D.

Surely the soul of a god of war that dwells in the depths of the sea should taste of brine or of blood, but in truth it tastes of sugar and brandy of flames swallowed whole. Like the fabled mead of poetry it seems to you that though the haze of and twisting flames upon your tongue a verse in seven parts emerges.:

Once there were maidens three of their kind, mourning three sisters lost,
One without name forgotten, two paying war's bitter cost.
The first set to spin destiny's thread, the second to measure,
The last to cut, ending lives with neither sorrow nor pleasure.
But whence came the thread, the world's secret treasure?
Once there were giants of earth and sea, or fire and frost
A bargain now forgotten, a bargain now broken. Lo, they are lost ​

Regained 2 Essence -> Now at 11/15

As reality reasserts itself, as much as the usual state of affairs in Avalon can be called that you assess the damage... and you do not mean the pieces gouged out of the lake shore. Fear shines bright and frantic in the eyes of the Summer fey, not the wariness you had seen among the White Court, Maeve's entourage or even Adam's gang of ghouls before they joined you. There is a shadow, uncomprehending blindness that does not wish to see. Some of them are looking at you less as a guest, a person and more as one might observe a slide of smallpox, a hateful thing out of a far darker past.

Then Lilly drops her spear into the waiting hands of one of one of her guards and slowly, she starts to clap, sweeping her gaze over centaur and satyr, nymph and dryad with hair in bloom, daring them not follow along. The Court of Summer is many things, but a democracy is not one of them. Reluctant as they might be they pick up what she is putting down, a rumble growing through the crowd as the Queen looks on, her face a regal mask to all save you perhaps. It is there in the tilt of her chin, in the way her eyes are pinned to the movement of Lilly's hands more than her face. There is pride yes, but more than that there is sorrow, the more Lily asserts herself the more the shadow of Aurora fades, like morning mist before the noonday sun.

Quickly turning your head from what suddenly seems like very personal sorrow you land next to the Archive and Kincaid. She seems serene, he like he's upgrading the caliber of bullet to use on you if comes to that. "Good show." He means that in both senses.

***​

8th of January 2007 A.D.

It takes you another hour, midnight come to recover the essence you had spent, not respiring the heady perfume of the Avalon's gardens as had been proposed, but rather dwelling in a humble bottle of bleach. Kincaid finds it funny, you can see it in his eyes. Still the time comes to exorcise the poison of Nemesis from the Lords and Ladies of Summer, such as have been found at least. The thought niggles at the back of your mind. Is Dad OK? Is Lydia, Harry?

Recovered 4 Essence -> Now at 15/15

Each one shall be brought before you, bodies bound in chains of light, expressions empty and vapid as their minds had been set wandering. Titania isn't taking any more chances. Alas asking for more time between exorcisms to recover your essence so if you are going to... consume the Knight's shards you are going to have to do it without undue use of Essence.

"Is that safe for you?" She sounds only a little dubious after what she had seen.

"I don't suppose you'd be willing to hold the thing down?" you ask the nine year old girl walking at your side back towards the lake-shore.

"Yeah, from what I understand there's no space on the inside for anything to mess with me."

"I... I can't do this for free, it involves considerable use of magic in a potentially dangerous environs. I'd say you could ask Titania to hold those things down but she is not Mab, the most she can do in her own remit is immolate them. By contrast predation is opposed to her nature. The Lady might be able to do it given that Nemesis targeted her in particular, but it will make her few friends."

"Especially after she made them clap for me you mean?" You ask ruefully.

"That was common courtesy." The answer isn't a 'no' you note.

How do you deal with the Nemesis shards?

[] Have the Archive bind them for you to consume (Costs 1 additional Splendor owed to the Ventori bringing the total up to four)

[] Ask Lily to hold the things down (Will harm her reputation among the Summer Court)

[] You are fast enough to do it without a binding (To defeat and be eligible to consume each shard Molly must deliver 7 Wounds to a spirit-form with a Dodge 6 Soak 3 in a single round without Excellencies or other charms)

OOC: I was going to roll through this, but then I realized how tight your Essence budget is for this and the fact that you cannot stop to take a breather after each one

 

[DragonParadox]

Untwisting Truths​

7th of January 2007 A.D.

While you certainly do not object to making a fourth talisman for the Ventori or the archive herself, there is no escaping the fact that the most readily available reagents for your work are bodies. "Or souls," a reminder you could have done without comes from the depths of your mind wrapped in a mussing about breaking the Archive's restrictions, giving her present host dominion over magic and lore of old. "If any of the Seers could it would be the one who has known no other life, who understands the intricacies of its power as one might know the back of her own hand, or the beat of her heart."

Shaking off the thought you raise three fingers. "An exorcism for every shard bound, not to speculate about other circumstances under which I might do it of course." Translation: I'd do it for free, but I am playing along.

The girl nods, a sparkle of understanding in her eyes. Part of you wants to ask if it's always like this, as though you are a politician or a lawyer hunting for probable deniability, but really you know it is. Power is power.

As the two of you step onto the shore of the lake she approaches Titania to whisper something in her ear, briefly looking like a kid asking her very well dressed aunt for a treat. Add that one to the bin of thoughts that are not for sharing.

Then the Archive pulls tightly wrapped pieces of colored ribbon out of her sleeve, the first time you had seen her use any props for her magic. Blue, white, red, black and green... the colors of the elements five each one covered in symbols stitched in the other four colors: Script flowing from logogram to syllabic script and even some bits that looks like they are binary.

Not that you have a lot of time to read it since she tosses all five of them in the air and, frowning in concentration weaves them together as they flash in the light of eternal Summer They dance in twos and threes, four together then all five. Space itself seems to bend and bloom in a way that makes you feel a little giddy. A dodecahedral complex, the thought does not come in English, but in that other language that is to English what English is to birdcalls.

"That'll hold 'em," the Archive proclaims testing one of the floating ribbons the way a violinist might caress bow to string.

"That would be even stronger if you did it in five dimensions," you muse aloud.

"And a castle is sturdier than a tent, but it's impolite to build a castle on someone else's land," she snorts, looking a little giddy herself.

"If you are entirely prepared..." Titania is too polite to sigh, but you can feel she'd like to which... Hey, progress, she doesn't think I'm about to do soul surgery with a chainsaw if she's relaxed enough to feel impatient.

So one by one they are brought before you, those damned by the touch of the Enemy. Here in the heart of the faerie realm to which they had been sworn, by arcane art bounded. To the elements you call to witness, to hold fast that which is of them and cast out that which is not, to the moon most bright to give shape to shapeless shadow that the eye of the sun might fall upon it, that the stars might chart its fate.

Unlike with Maeve the murk takes no many legged shape, to scuttle or to strike, held fast by the precise coordinates of the Archive's working, not even able to speak to spill their bile on their killers. The three aspects seem like nothing so much as uneven shards of black glass tearing themselves out of flesh and spirit, shattering against the brass of your blade with great din. Essence flows through you as it had never done before, like a waterfall hurtling from on high. At first you see only disjointed images, a splattering of hate. Then a little more...

It had not wanted to attack after the ritual began because It knew you could devour its shards and thereby potentially learning hastily made plans, making it all for naught. Oh how it hates you, kind of flattering in a sick sort of way. Diversify, disperse, There is cold resolve, wrapped in the self-loathing that defines He Who Walks Beside. Sloppy, comfortable, took the easy path to power, predictable, open to counter. "Mortals, mortals were mightier than the Betrayers and the Fools knew, move not with two hands, but two thousand, two million, two billion..."

There at the end you see flames set to wood that is not dry but green, stacked around a stake and you know at once the thought that it had attempted to keep from those pieces which you would consume. Persecution, its thoughts had turned to tearing aside the veil and letting fear of magic and those who practice it.

Lost 9 Essence (-15 Exorcisms; +6 MiM; -2 Excellencies +2 Secret Found) -> Now at 6/15

Before you can settle there's a splash, the great narwhal sinks under the surface of the water, its perlescent horn dim then Titania speaks: "You have done a great service to this me and to all who stand under the light of summer. Three who had been stolen from our company by stealth and spite have been restored and so three favors I grant you to name as you will so long as it does not harm to the Court or its great work."

Gained 3 Favors with the Summer Court

What do you reply?

[] Graciously thank Titania

[] Ask that for one of her favors she forgive Harry for his his part in Aurora's death

[] Write in

OOC: Molly did not use an excellency on her first insight roll since she did not know if she would succeed on Murder is Meat as the actions were simultaneous, not sequential so she did not know if she would have essence to spare.

 

[DragonParadox]

Poisoned Roots ​

7th of January 2007 A.D.

"We have a problem," Lash's voice was uncharacteristically serious as she walked into the hotel room, a stack of papers in one hand a whole thermos of coffee in the other. Somehow even though she had gone out last night after midnight and not slept a wink she still exuded lazy grace like something out of Caravaggio. Stop right there Harry, I told myself, I did not need to think of her in terms of painters who imagined gods, it's enough that she'd made some kind of demon pact with a sixteen year old girl, even if she was apparently satisfied with the deal.

If she could read my expression, and to be honest she probably could, she did not comment on it, instead taking out the foremost page in her stack of papers and smoothing it out, a cartoon on sky-blue containing a smiling dinosaur, dodo and between them the outline of a human. The caption over the top in bold lettering read: Visualize Voluntary Human Extinction.

Spoiler: Cartoon

"This is literature for the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, a brand of particularly idealistic environmentalism that argues that humans should allow themselves to die off so as not to damage the planet anymore than they have. On their own they are harmless enough, quixotic of course, but the most you could accuse them of is being a easy target for those who wish to disparage the wider movements a whole. But the fact that Green Tomorrows has so much of their literature made me suspicious. That is how I found out they are printing more of their own, literature which they are not sharing with outsiders..."

"Then how did you get it?" Michael asks, looking over the papers.

"Please," Lash snorts. "Whatever else they might be these are college students. I can hardly claim to have seduced them out of Albert 'Call me All' Jensen back there. All I did was make vague approving sounds at him for most of the evening. In any case the in-house literature gets worrying fast, esotericism with a Dionysian bent of course I expected that, but there is other stuff that is hard to pick out, the notion that some people are 'karmically superior' which is what makes them capable of miracles and at the same time obliges them to climb a narrowing stair, a great deal of talk about sacrifice and the need to use their gifts for the good of the planet."

"Shit, it's planning to do a Jamestown on these kids." The prospect makes me sick enough to be glad I haven't had breakfast yet.

Lash's lips thin into a line of anger or maybe disgust, it is hard to read her sometime, other than 'that's a no'. "It's not burning anywhere near fast enough for that. If you want people to kill themselves you have to get them to a fever pitch, not this kind of low simmer. I think what we are looking at is prep, training agitators, missionaries, they are about the same thing." She's obviously expecting some kind of reaction from Michael, but when he does not answer she continues. "Moreover I think there are more cells like this across the country, maybe even across the world, we only caught this one since the Trespasser Knight's attempting to make it pull double duty as experimental faith magic laboratory."

"What makes you say that?" Lydia asks, worriedly.

"Because you do not compose the Book of Cthulhu the Tree Hugger for a cult of sixteen people tops. Someone or something put serious effort and time into this tainted literature and that is a resource everyone values."

"Why hasn't the Archive caught it then?" I prompt, starting to leaf through the papers.

"My guess, because there aren't any red flags in here, many, many yellow ones, enough that if you are looking for it you can spot it, but picking it out of a blind search..."

"Too many false positives," Lydia offers from the corner. "How does the rabbit hide from the hawk that sees all? In a field of other rabbits."

"Rather less fluffy, but yes," the former, hopefully-former, Fallen says. "The problem is I have no idea what the second string is."

"Second string?" Michael looks perturbed, though whether at the matter of fact way she's talking about this or at the subject itself I can't say.

"Once you have a strong base you need something else to help them up the pyramid or down the pit, but that's mixing metaphors. The answer can't always be 'tainted changeling who has faith in Things she has no business knowing about'. Those do not grow on trees even in faerie so who normally enlightens, endarkens... no, that is still doesn't work in this language does it? Anyway who tells the little lambs things that can't be written down?"

"A ghost could do it, make it one of them, make it sincere. Kind of like Jacob Marley fighting for a darker power," Lydia offers, but I'm already shaking my head.

"Some confused kid a few years in his grave? Barely knows how to haunt and swoop around? Nah I don't think the black hats would count on that if they can help it, a nightmare demon, something stealthy, something proven and old or new and made to purpose."

"Regardless we are dealing with an entirely new kind of cult attempting to root itself into groups that have little to no protection," Michael concludes. There is sandness in his eyes yes, but butressed by unhsakable resolve. "We need to deal with Green Tomorrows, destroy the writings while at the same time alerting the relevant authorities."

The Archive is alerted automatically when you link up again. Who else do you alert of the danger of Old One cults among environmental activists?

[] The Holy Order of the Inquisition

[] The White Council

[] The Summer Court

[] The Winter Court

[] The White Court

[] No one else, let the Archive decide if she wants to bring others in

[] Write in

OOC: Remember some of these people may not have the lightest touch when it comes with dealing with potential Outsider Cults and others may be vulnerable themselves if you put them in contact with one of Nemesis' plots.

 

[DragonParadox]

Improbable Alignment​

7th of January 2007 A.D.

The briefcase landed on the narrow hotel desk with muffled thump, like glass in bubble-wrap. A moment later you punch in the code and open it up blue-green light welling up to fill the room until it eclipses the sun in the window. At first sight the contents seems like a pile of gemstones fit for a pirate's treasure, but when Tiffany tries to pick one of them up the rest rise with it like bubbles in the ocean deep, for what are mere Newtonian physics to the blood of Iku Turso thousand-headed, thousand horned? She drops it in mid-air and as it hangs there turns her head this way and that, contemplating the mingling of light celestial and chthonian. "Interesting leaver you have there..."

Gained Heart's Blood of Iku Turso (Tier 4 Splendor Reagent)

Spoiler: Heart's Blood of Iku Turso

"This is where I'm supposed to ask what you mean right?" Harry asks, trying and failing to sound annoyed.

"If you want," she counters, one perfect eyebrow arched.

"I guess she means it in the Aristotelian sense, you know give me but a leaver and a fulcrum and I can move the universe," you hasted to cut the tension whose precise nature you do not want to think about too long. "Now I just have to look for the fulcrum."

Former Fallen and present Archive give you precisely the same long look.

"Point," you allow ruefully.

"That'll be one hundred and sixty seven dollars," Kincaid interjects absently. "For the briefcase." He does not seem to notice when his charge employs a tactical elbow to the ribs.

"This is such a mess, I should have noticed, I should have noticed," the words are barely a whisper, more read on her lips than spoken. Louder she adds: "If this is a faitn than it's a whale of a one. Maybe it started as one and now it's getting repurposed. Warden Dr..." she cuts herself off. "Harry, I'm going to need you to carry a note to the Gatekeeper. We haven't had a potential breach this bad since 1611."

"What happened in 1611?" you ask without thinking about it.

"The King James Bible entered print," Lash answers after a moment's thought. "I'm assuming something untowanted almost slipped in. People are always looking for codes and hidden meanings, if one could actually insert one it would be a masterstroke "

The Archive just shakes her head in what you recognize as the 'I can't talk about it' expression as Harry mutters 'stars and stones,' under his breath.

"Well," Lydia claps, a touch awkwardly, maybe not wanting to draw attention what with the whole 'made a deal with the devil' thing you still don't know how to feel about in contrast to Dad who are both obviously worried. "What matters now is what we do about Katherine, she's more in the know than the others. We have to deal with her."

"Under the Laws of Magic a Changeling who has not made the choice is a mortal practitioner so she'd be a warlock strictly speaking," Harry puts in, making no attempt to hide how reluctant he is to ennact the Law in this case.

"She didn't open the Outer Gates, nothing came through," you speak up, remembering how guilty your dad had been about handing the girl off to the very fey who would brainwash her.

"The Laws of Magic are not within my remit, only the security of Creation. So long as she can me made safe in that regard I have no quarel with Katherine Campbell," the Archive proclaims, very deliberately.

"So to summarize, we have a Warden who doesn't want to do his job, an overworked Seer, a rogue psychopomp, the Hellhound on the prowl for his next paycheck and me all in service of a mission of mercy. Did I get all that?" Lash asks, counting each off on her fingers.

"You seem to have forgotten me," Dad points out softly, maybe a little warily at what she's about to say.

"That's because you break the flow, you actually fit," she offers what might be the most backhanded compliment you've ever heard.

Dad does not seem to mind.

How do you attempt to deprogram Katherine Campbell?

[] Reveal the plot, the way Nemesis killed her parents to make her a pawn in its plots

[] Forge a Splendor to make her forget the dark insights she has been given
-[] Write in

[] Write in

OOC: A bit short, but I needed a bridge update.

 

[DragonParadox]

Breaking Point ​

7th of January 2007 A.D.

Having stepped from the ether into New York City by paths known only to those familiar with the particular spiritual environs of Manhattan, a place not unlike the Labyrinth of Knossos had it been erected from mist shrouded steel girders suddenly solidifying into concrete walls, you are startled to step outside into the mild winter afternoon painted gold and by the rays of the descending sun. Colorful scarves flutter as equally fashionable beanies lie on doubtless bohemian brows. This is the West Village, metaphorically and literally off the grid, having been built along the banks of the Hudson river long before any staid commission bound streets into a grid. As Lash whispers sardonically, just don't let anyone ask how much that individuality costs. This is the kind of place where Harry's slightly battered trench coat or your father's heavy duty work boots draw more attention than Tiffany's movie star good looks. In other words not the kind of place one would expect to find an orphan, even in a tiny studio apartment.

"Midnight says she's out for a smoke," Lydia nods at the raven, fluttering down the busy street, glancing this way and that at yellow cabs and bicycles and especially at the pizza delivery place trundling along. You make a note to buy him a slice. Can ravens even eat pizza?

They can eat salt pork, of which Lydia has some on her to hand to her friend as the two of you retrace his steps to an apartment building a little out of the way where streets grow narrower and the already sparse foot-traffic almost non-existent. Someone had whitewashed the trees recently and trimmed their rustling crowns, the triumph of conservation over living history, for a time at least.

"Feel how muffled that is?" Tiffany taps Lydia on the shoulder. "Like someone put your head under water?"

Your friend makes a face. "Feels more like getting a q-tip stuck in my ear."

"That's something that happens to you often?" the erstwhile demon asks, then shakes her head. "Doesn't matter. That muffling, you're feeling... The flow of magic's stagnant here, long term that'll create a shallowing of the veil which can be good or bad depending on what moves in, but what's important here is the reason why someone would want to do this. Can to guess?"

"So nothing noticeable gets carried downstream," your friend offers instantly. "Holding a perfect circle is exhausting and costly, so whatever magic she is doing at home is going to leak and if its the truly loathsome kind everyone down to the rats in the sewer would be able to sense something is wrong."

"Whereas now?" Tiffany prompts, managing that perfect teacher's tone, proud without seeming surprised.

"The residue will collect at the bottom, that being the most magically active place, her workshop so it's not going to alert anyone.And if you didn't know this place had a magician in situ you would just pass it by as an incipient natural shallowing..."

The lesson has to stop then as Harry points up at the fire escape at woman perched atop the fire escape, her white blouse and bright red pants contrasting strongly with the dark wavy cascade of her hair... as well as with the weather. She seems wholly unconcerned with the fact that it is still January as she blows lazy streamers of blue smoke over the city.

Spoiler: Katherine Campbell

Then you look into her eyes, you look into her soul and she is anything but unconcerned...

Lost 2 Essence -> Now at 4/15 (NWS and Excellency)

***​

An iron hammer rests in her hands, the head stained red, though not with rust. Of iron is the plate beneath it upon it crushed almost-human diminutive limbs, Little Folk. From the cold blue glare in the eye of her latest victim it's easy to guess these are Winter's subjects.

"I'll ask you one more time, where is he?" Katherine does not shout, she does not even raise her voice. She speaks and moves as someone who had removed herself entirely from the horror she is perpetrating. "Where is Josh? Where did you freaks take my brother."

"I don't... know... thine.. brother..."

Crunch.

The sound of a small skull shattering, cuts off the words, then a single word from the woman with the hammer. "Liar!"

Her face swims away and is replaces by that of a boy perhaps five years younger, similar enough that you know you're looking at the presumably vanished Josh. He's alone in bed, the covers had been thrown in a rush, but he is frozen in place, an expression of terror on his face as something red drips from the ceiling slowly, ever so slowly.

"Shh... poppet, let it happen, it's the only way for you now," a voice, thin and oily whispers out of the dark.

So you watch in horror mirroring the child's own as the tainted blood scores him like acid even as the spell keeps him silent. Seconds pass like years then... a release, a Change, his features warp like clay under the sculpor's hand becoming more delicate, refined and then he starts to shrink little by little he becomes what he had Chosen, if choice that can be named, one of the little folk.

The door rattles once twice, then in the door stands Katherine, her face twisted in a rictus of anger and fear, a waking nightmare. She does not see the scene before her as it truly is.

Her brother calls her name as he takes flight.

An iron hammer swings against the wall.

Crunch.

The vision fractures, it goes black, but you can still hear her speak: "W...what killed him?"

"The wee folk took your brother away," the voice is the same that had spoken to Josh at the end. "But you can bring him back, only you can bring him back. He can bring Salvation to you and to the world. In the unclean blood of those who keep the world chained to the Wheel all can be restored."

***​

You come back to yourself shivering, though certainly not from cold as the others look at you with worry in their eyes. What can I do? What can I even say?

Regained 2 Essence -> Now at 6/15 Essence (Revealed a Secret)

[] Explain to Katherine that she had been manipulated to kill her only remaining family

[] No, that is too much, just tell her about her parents

[] Write in

OOC: I know you guys said 'use what's in NWS', but given the contents I feel this is appropriate.

 

[DragonParadox]

Questions Hanging Heavy ​

7th of January 2007 A.D.

"Dad..." the word does not sound like it was choked out of you somehow. "You guys can be my backup, Harry can you raise a veil around me that makes it so other people can't see me, but she can," you tip your head towards the girl atop the fire escape.

"On it," Lydia says even as Tiffany corrects "Around us.If you are planning to do what I think you're going to..."

"Don't want to walk into her sanctum if I can help it," you say, true as far as it goes, but you also don't want your father in this conversation. He's seen worse, he'd dealt with worse, intellectually you know that, but you don't want to drop this on him and if this goes bad... well then Katherine will be dead and the horror that lead her here will be buried with her.

"Just what are you planning?" Harry asks.

The two of you share a look. "Well, we are kind of in a hurry right..."

***​

Visitations are an excellent way to get someone to doubt their faith, so said the Archive who had borne witness to all the history of mankind and so as Harry utters 'Obscurata' the two of you take flight, on chill winds and stone wings, light silver and green dancing in tandem as even the city that never sleeps had not seen.

Lost 1 Essence (BRR: Flight) -> Now at 5/15

The dark haired woman's eyes snap to the ground the moment the magic starts and you can feel her will gathering. True the Archive is prepared to shut her down with extreme prejudice, but all of you know that if it comes to that if she throws a deadly spell she's not coming out of this alive. Harry can only turn a blind eye so far.

"Katherine Campbell know that you have been lied to!"
"A lie unspeakable, but the heart's truth will have its due!"
"That which left you sick to your bones, your new path doubting..."
"Was not the weakness she claimed, t'was his blood from the earth calling!"​

As the echoes of your twined voices fade she stands unmoving, as though they had the power to turn her to stone. Then the cigarette drops from her hand, still burning, it falls against her hand singing her skin. As though the pain had awoken her, awoken something in her she screams "Leave me alone! You took him! You monsters and goblins and faeries! Leave me alone!"

"A fairy I am not, though wings I have," Tiffany speaks first, her voice serene, no sign of her usual sheen of light sarcasm

"A monster I am not, though some have called me such," you pick up the proclamation. At another time saying that might have sent your mind spinning, wondering at the meanings of words, but not here and now, you have to keep the cadence, to strike just hard enough to keep her feeling and not acting, but not so hard as to break her with a single strike.

"Your brother we did not take from you," a sigh like wind chines passes Lasciel's... Lash's lips, though so you imagine that angel she once was might have appeared on the even of the Fall.

"From you we wish nothing," you say with utmost sincerity.

"Save that you know in your head the truth that your heart had guessed at," she finishes. "We wish that Josh be at peace and you likewise."

"It's the things at the cabin, it was always them, they don't always look like monsters at first, but monsters make more monsters, like sculptures out of finely marbled meat." The words, the images they conjure should repel them, but in this place and in this hour you know they are the right ones so on you plow upon a field of tears.

"God.... Why? Why God!" As she screams the last word she collapses onto the railing. For that you do not have an answer.

Tiffany's answer is to fly over and grab her wrist. At first you think it's to knock her out, but instead of fainting Katherine's muscles relax her posture shifts, her pupils narrow up again, every single stress reaction expunged in an instant.

"You still get a choice," she whispers. "Do you want to forget?"

"I... I want to die, I think... But then I'll be with Him! He's already won hasn't He? No God but Leviathan, playing with his food?"

"That's just another lie, to get you to walk into his mouth," you say, stepping onto the bare steel platform.

"Maybe that's where I deserve to be."

Before you can tackle that Tiffany speaks. "You are going to have to forget some things, the keys, the paths through the dark. If you want we can make it more."

"Everything." Despair is all the more dreadful for how still she is, how calm her breathing. "Let me have death of the mind if not the body."

"Then you won't know what's out there, what might be coming for you still," Tiffany points out, one wing starting to curl around the girl's back before she stops herself. "But you can still forget how and when and where, those things you do not need to know to stay safe."

"Why should I be safe?" That question you had been expecting.

"Because that is one more person safe from the monsters." Even you do not know where sympathy for Katherine ends and spite for Nemesis begins. In the end it doesn't matter, she agrees to come down.

As the veil drops both you and Tiffany are back in ordinary guise. "Thanks for the help back there," you whisper as the Archive leads Katherine towards the playground across the way to perform the memory alteration.

"Least I could do," she shrugs. "If that girl didn't deserve a chance to live her life what hope is there for me? Her faith's gone you know, all the way..." she sighs and looks across the skyline to the east.

Circle Member Gained: Tiffany 'Lash' MacNeil

"Molly, what happened to Katherine?" Dad's question distracts you before you can come up with an answer for Tiffany.

In as few words as you can manage you explain what had happened to Josh, what He Who Walks Beside tried to make of his sister. There is no need to look deep or wonder at his reaction. It hits him hard, but guilt does not drown out the relief in the knowledge that Katherine at least might be able to find her way out of this nightmare. The Ventori would be keeping an eye on Katherine, to make sure she is safe, in both senses of the word and you had left her with links by which to find members of the Order of the Cauldron online. Harry would stick around town for at least a week to help purge tainted paraphernalia and offer what basic lessons in magic he can across the gulf between mortal magic and a changeling's talents.

What do you do next?

[] Go to Vegas, you feel like kicking the shit out of Nemesis' friends to make yourself feel better

[] The Bridges of the Spirit, continue your training with Brother Divsimar not in the ways of the spirit but the mind, the Bridge of Dreams

[] Higher Education: According to Od... that is Donar Vadderung Cambridge Massachusetts is in in a power void at the moment, one that given the power and influence certain factions of the unseen world could acquire by getting their hooks into the students early could be a lot of trouble down the road. On the other hand that very fact could be of great use to you. Check it out, see if you can establish a presence there. After all it is quite close by water.

[] Write in

OOC: I thought about doing another update but that would not have been that interesting so here we are again.

 

[DragonParadox]

Learning to Let Go ​

9th of January 2007 A.D.

Essence Restored to 15/15
Willpower at 8/9

In the stillness of the dojo something shifts, the cadence of breath you had been emulating from slow to quick, the faintest rustle of cloth. Another man might have cleared his throat, but Brother Divsimar had taken his own lessons from these meetings. He knows what you can and cannot hear if not why or how exactly.

"Yes?" the word is a light mist upon your breath in the ice cold room as you blink quickly against the light. The Bridge of Dreams is traditionally taught in a chamber filled with the light of many candles that are slowly snuffed out by some source of wind, a strategically open window is common though a fan will do in a pinch. In deference to his host and the city's fire code Brother Divsimar had instead just rigged the lights to dim, or had someone else do it... though truth be told you would not be that surprised if he had some henceforth unacknowledged electrician's skill. The man is full of surprises.

"You are still, admirably so, you are not calm," he says, rising from his own lotus position with a faint creak of aged knees. "Ice is not calm, ice is frozen, the cold wind upon the mountain compels. So it is with—" he motions at you. "Posture perfect, breathing precise chi aligned, all in tension."

"I'm not... my mind is empty," you defend yourself reflexively. Darn I thought I was close.

"Ah," he sighs and goes for the tea kettle again, sweet smells of holy basil, sweet flag and wild honey growing stronger as you allow yourself to smell them. "Unusual problem for an unusual student. Tell me do you stalk a good night's rest as the tiger does the sambar?"

"I don't want a good night's rest, I want something more efficient. That is the whole point of this isn't it?" You have to throttle the part of yourself that is pointing out that is a silly thing to say. You are not trying to read the old monk and give the responses he thinks are clever, the point is to learn and sometimes the path to wisdom is marked with foolish questions.

He offers a small nod. "True, but when walking up a steep slope in the snow one must look at one's feet least you slip and not always upwards towards the ridge. To walk upon the Bridge of Dreams one must well, at the risk of sounding reductive, allow one's self to dream. It is the art of willfully letting go. All the rest of it, the breathing exercises, the positioning, the herbs are merely nudges to bring one to the precipice of controlled release."

"And if you do it right you take flight?" you prompt, trying to wrap your mind around what feels like a contradiction, even as you can grasp it intellectually.

A smile, surprised as it is rueful marks his aged face. "Perhaps that would be your experience. I have never taught a student with the natural capacity for flight. Those upon the Qaio of Zhu Mao might quibble at the definition, but such are cats no?"

You smile too, thinking of Mister probably having his afternoon nap by the window at this hour. "The cat I know best doesn't really argue with anyone, he just does his thing and dares you to get in his way."

"Does he dare or does this princely cat of your acquiescence not even care? Does he perhaps not even consider that another would be so brazen as to step in his way before the moment?"

"Oh..." The proverbial penny drops. "It's not about trusting the universe or whatever, but being confident enough to let go. That sounds... easier than what I was going for, though..." you hesitate. "That makes me uncomfortable."

The old monk takes a sip of his tea and asks simply. "Why?"

"Because it's prideful, obliviously so. That feels like a bad combination, considering..."

"Yes?" he prompts.

Focus the Mind Progress: 8/15

What do you say?

[] I've been fighting something that's very good at hiding recently (Talk about Nemesis; explain how it had been pulling the strings of the Summer Court and your fears that is yet lurks in other high places as well)

[] Diplomacy is supposed to be about opening up and finding common ground, but of late I have found that it is also about finding the places where interests to not align, figuring out the secrets of those who should be allies (Talk about the opening up of the Fivefold Courts; Offer to take Brother Divsimar there if he wants to visit)

[] Write in

OOC: Hopefully it comes across here that he rolled a lot better at teaching than Molly did at learning this time around. Only reason she did not fail it again key ability in occult.