![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Parts 1 & 2
The three Nephilim companions, acquainted from their common awakening in modern San francisco, sat and talked in the study of their lodge house, it was Friday evening and all save Aranare, who's Simulacrum was lucky enough to be retired, had finished a hard day's work.
As they talked, a you've got mail was heard from the adjoining office where Draco had left his email account logged in on the computer. Upon investigation by a puzzled Draco they learned the the enigmatic Wheel of Fortune Nephilim known only as Mrs Wheel had contacted them and asked them to be present the following evening at the lodge house. The three beings mulled this over for some time before returning to their respective abodes.
The next day after the rising of the sun they all returned at various times and awaited the arrival of Mrs Wheel, a close advisor to the group of Emperor Nephilim that largely governed occult affairs in the city, and after a small number of hours, she arrived. A sharp knocking came from the front door and as it as answered a lady immediately stalked in, paying little heed to greetings or formalities. She was pale of skin, almost white, with jet black hair that reached to just beyond her shoulders, and dressed in a close fitting black business suit with tinted spectacles that concealed her eyes. She would perhaps have been pretty if it were not for the almost indescribably indistinct quality of her features. She stalked past them and took a seat at the table, bidding them do likewise and setting her briefcase upon it and opening it with a snap. She introduced herself stating that was no reason for them to do likewise as she was already fully aware of their names and Arcana. They asked their inevitable questions as she removed her spectacles revealing eyes entirely glowing with an intense pale blue and took a deck of Tarot cards from the case, shuffled, and began to deal...
She told them that a small service had come too her attention that they could perform for the Nephilim of San Francisco, stating that several police reports had come to the attention of the prominent Emperor Arzalandar through operatives under his thrall in the local police that indicated a rogue elemental creature, perhaps more than one, in the Bay Area. She finished placing her cards, partly hidden by her opn briefcase as she finished speaking, and as Aranare saw, they foretold of change, and of awakening from sleep. The three agreed to look into these incidences for the common good of all, and Mrs Wheel produced two police files from her case, and bids them complete the task swiftly and subtly, before contacting her again. The cold Undine then departed, as briskly as she had arrived.
Draco, Heiros Gammos, and Aranare then sat and talked in the study as they looked over the reports, they were as such:
1. A family home in the Bay Area had suffered a break-in late one night, nothing was taken and so the police paid it little heed, but the perpetrator, later apprehended, stated that a ghost appeared before him while he was entering through a broken window, floating in the air, dressed in rags, and screaming silently. He froze in terror before the thing reached out and touched him, after that he remembers nothing but fleeing in blind panic through the night.
2. A teenage girl, walking home one night, was subject to an attempted mugging a few blocks from her house, the incidence was stopped when a seemingly rabid dog leapt from nearby bushes attacking the man and forcing him to flee, screaming of glowing eyes. A series of unlucky coincidences led to the man's death the next day, he missed his usual bus to collect his Social Security and had to walk there, taking a sequence of back-alley short cuts before being mugged himself, stumbling down another alley, and being run over and crushed by a rubbish truck. He was declared dead at the scene. The girl was of the family who's house was broken into in the first report.
Their first reaction was of course to make plans to visit the two scenes and begin to investigate as soon as possible, however, they where still weak from their recent awakening, and their Stases almost empty of precious Ka . They resolved to visit the nearest Plexus straight away
and Heiros Gammos, looking out of the window, mentally performed the actions to enact the casual sorcery of Dowse Air Plexus. First entering Ka Vision and seeing the mesmerising myriad of the flowing energies of the Five Fields, before focusing on the element of Air and watching the nearest Air Plexus light up like a beacon in the foothills above. All three made the difficult hike up there to the airy crag, and setting their respective Stases down, waited for them to fill.
The next day they formulated their initial plan, Draco and Aranare would visit the family posing as reporters from Unexplained Magazine, for Draco at least, not a great stretch given his Simulacrum's line of work. While Heiros would examine the scene of the mugging.
After astrologically determining the best possible time to go down there Draco and Aranare arrived at the family home, it was detached, in a quiet middle-class neighbourhood, and surrounded by a pleasant garden and picket fence. They knocked on the door, and after some initial difficulties gained entry and began to talk to the mother of the house. They explained their presence, or at least their cover story, to the puzzled woman, asking if any other strange occurrences had happened within the house or involving the family. The mother replied that there never had been anything unusual, though seemed unsure of what they were implying, before adding that when her mother died, there in the house, there had been a terrible, almost animal, scream. But it had stopped after a few moments and they never discovered its source, assuming in the end that it must of been some animal outside in the streets. Charmed by the British accent currently sported by Aranare she then went up stairs to fetch her daughter. While she was gone both Nephilim attempted to look into the past of the room using different spells, Aranare failed to interface properly with the Five mystic Fields and disoriented himself, while Draco managed to succeed, seeing a vision of the smashing window and of the thief's attempted entry and subsequent flight before the wraith-like apparition, thinking quickly Draco then used a spell to detect any active magics there, but found nothing save the faded traces of moon-magics now spent...
The daughter then came down and told the story of her attack, though shedding little new light on the situation. The other thing of note that the duo did learn there was that according to the mother some other gentleman had been by recently asking similar questions and claiming to be from a private investigation firm called the Drake Partnership. After leaving their card and finishing their coffee, the duo departed to rendezvous with their third companion.
Heiros pulled his car up to the cross roads right where the police report stated the attack had taken place, and there in his car he opened his eyes to Ka Vision, saw the element of Air and focused upon it, mentally enacting one of the spells he had inscribed upon his very soul, before he also saw the street corner 2 weeks in the past, day became night, street lights flickered overhead, and shadows lengthened. He saw the daughter walking by and saw as the man quickly approached and seized her, before a savage canine leapt from nearby bushes, eyes glowing an eerie white, and sank its teeth into the man, sending him running screaming into the darkened park. The dog watched him run for the briefest of moments before turning and trotting away, almost confusedly, the pale glow fading from its eyes.
The daughter looked around herself in shock before running desperately for home and the brighter lit streets of her neighbourhood.
Later the three Nephilim met back at their lodge house, and discussing what they had gleaned theorized that they might be dealing with a moon creature, and one protective of the family, perhaps a Banshee of some kind. Heiros Gammos, being more knowledgeable in these areas enlightened his fellows as to the peculiar nature of the Banshee, saying that they were perhaps not a true elemental creature at all, both due to their longevity and the manner of their creation.
He relayed to them that it was said that if a Nephilim of the dominant element of Moon became trapped in stasis and then a family cam to live over the spot then after several generations the errant energies of the Moon Nephilim would coalesce to form what was called a Banshee, an ultimately protective, but dangerous spirit. The only ways to be rid of one without harming th sleeping Nephilim were to either move the family from the area, or bring the sleeping Nephilim out of stasis.
Realising now that the Drake Society, proxy agents of the Templars to which the so-called Drake Partnership was obviously tied, must have been tipped off to the location of the sleeping Nephilim much as they themselves had, and that as such they knew they had to move fast, for there were few greater prizes for such groups than to capture a Nephilim, especially if his stasis object came as part of the parcel.
As such they formulated a plan, they would attempt to use a ritual to locate the exact location of the stasis object in the house before going down there, and then use various magical means of mental manipulation to coerce the family to allow them to retrieve it.
To enact the first ritual however they would need an object either of personal value or belonging to the sleeping Nephilim in question.
A tall order considering they had no idea as to the identity or even Arcana of the individual, they did however know that the sleeping Moon Nephilim had developed a subconscious connection to the family, and though convincing one of them to participate in the ritual was out of the question, they did remember that the Banshee had mourned the death of the grandmother, and so Drako quickly searched online and turned up the date of death and burial location of the grandmother, a piece of her remains would do nicely they thought.
Aranare was aware of an Alchemical formula for dissolving earth and seeing this as a useful way to avoid the lengthy process of gravdigging went to his Athanor to attempt to transmute some of the relevant powder, the application however was beyond his ability and after repeated attempts he admitted failure. They returned to the drawing board as getting caught digging up old bones at the local cemetery was not on their itinerary. At length Draco volunteered to perform a minor summoning to conjure forth some useful servitors to aid them in the task, he settled on the minor Earth spirits colloquially known as Those That Creep and Nibble and went down to their basement and ritual space to perform it. Using the appropriate sigils and Enochian invocations he was successful, and before long returned with six small hairless green skinned wide-mouthed creatures, bound to follow his commands but possessed by a ravenous hunger for all matter surrounding them.
While constantly watching and restraining the creatures they took Aranare's Landrover and drove to the expansive Bay Cemetery once Draco had determined a time when their activities would be least likely to be interrupted by watchmen or passers by.
They arrived and began to search through the acres of graves and winding pathways for the correct headstone and at last found their spot, they were about to release Those That Creep and Nibble when Aranare suddenly approached a nearby tree, lowered his trousers squatting down and squeezed out a massive brown log that hit the earth with an audible thud, proclaiming in a strained voice as he did so Here I go, squeezing out another massive brown log! His two companions reacted with disgust, questioning why he had felt the need to do such a foul act in such a place. Aranare replied that he had consulted his star charts and determined that this was both the best possible location and time for releasing such epically massive brown logs into the universe. The others simply shook their heads before they all set about the work at hand and commanded the spirits to devour all the earth down to the coffin, but to leave that untouched and to uncover it for them.
The little creatures leaped into the earth on the grave site with snarling relish and rapidly created a widening crater in the ground before reaching the wooden coffin and being commanded to stop.
Heiros then opened the old coffin revealing the putrid human mess within, and retrieved the skull of the family's grandmother.
The three Nephilim looked around at the small area of devastation they had created in the peaceful cemetery, made a token effort to clean it up, and then departed for the lodge house with all speed.
They decided to spend some time before conducting the ritual replenishing the stocks of Ka contained in their stasis objects, and so sought out with Ka Vision and then visited various local Plexi. Between them they visited Plexi of Fire, Air,and Water, before returning to perform the ritual.
Heiros Gammos led the rite, conducted in the basement's ritual chamber, as they cast the Circle, invoked the Five Elements, and focused their energies through Heiros into the Operation. At the centre of the Circle he stood with the grandmother's skull in one hand and his Dagger of Air poised over the blueprints of the house, opening himself fully to the Fields of Air, and as the energy peaked plunged it down, yes closed, into the plans. They then thanked the Elements for attending, banished the Circle, and grounded the excess energy before examining the results. The dagger had plunged dead-centre into the plan of the house's cellar. The stasis object in which the Moon Nephilim slept was buried beneath the house.
They resolved to give their simulacrums a few hours of sleep before going down there and so all retired, some to the rooms of the lodge house, others to their own homes.
After waking the next day both Heiros Gammos and Draco performed Summoning rites to evoke suits or protective armour from the Subtle Realms. That which was summoned by Draco corresponded to the Element of Fire and appeared as a red semi-organic suit of plate, while Heiros' suit of Air appeared as whisps of vapour and atmosphere around his body. As the other prepared to leave Draco performed some last Astrological calculations to determine the best time to arrive at the house, but the conclusion he reached puzzled him for a moment until he comprehended it, the best time to arrive there was now .
He quickly told the others what he had seen as they gathered their things, but was interrupted by the ringing of the phone. Gammos answered and heard the voice of a woman, obviously distressed, asking for Philip Strause, the name of Draco's Simulacum. It was Rachel, the mother, she continued, There's some men outside, their circling- and she was cut off. They piled into the Landrover with all haste, uncertain as to what they would find when they arrived.
As they arrived, in the mid-afternoon sunshine, they spotted an unmarked white van with tinted windows distinctly out of place in this neighbourhood, parked a few doors down from the house. Before they left the car Heiros quickly enacted and inscribed spell of Air that transformed all within a hundred metre radius around him to glass for his eyes. Though noting was changed he could see directly into both the van and the house, or anything else he chose to look at. The van was empty but in the house he could see four men, and both the mother and the daughter tied up and seemingly unconscious on the kitchen floor. One man stood near the front door, two others in the kitchen by the back door and the family, and one other in the cellar. The three upstairs wore dark clothing and were of stocky build, while the gentlemen bellow appeared older, bald, and wearing a long trenchcoat and spectacles. He told the others what he saw as they channelled some of their Ka energies into their physical bodies to enhance their speed and strength. Draco circled round the back as Heiros approached the front door and Aranare hung back on the garden path to mentally perform one last spell. Heiros knocked on the door, and clearly saw the man on the other side draw his silenced pistol and hold it behind his back as he opened up. Heiros simply asked to see Rachel as the man told him she was busy and to come back later, Heiros hesitated and looked back behind him to see how close Aranare was when the man, sensing something was up, swung out with a left hook that caught Gammos square in the jaw. The man's fist could not penetrate the armour of Air but the force of his blow knocked Heiros backwards, and the man seized him and dragged him through the door.
One of the men in the kitchen started to come and help his companion in dragging Heiros into the house, but Aranare was closer piling in behind his Magician companion. They both drew their daggers and stabbed the man, using him as a shield from the silenced bullets of his comrade as they did so. The first man, now bleeding to death, fell with Heiros to the ground, and the second fired several shots point-blank at Heiros' head. They surely would of ended his Simulacrum were it not for his airy armour, that repelled every shot. Aranare now drew his own gun and returned fire.
Only one of the Drake Society heavies was left in the kitchen with the unconscious family at this stage, and Draco burst through the back door, drawing his rapier from beneath his trenchcoat s he did so. The man left in the kitchen already had his gun out and fired at Draco several times, each shot ricocheting of the otherworldly red armour, before Draco gutted him where he stood and made for the cellar door.
As did so the man that was down there attempting to retrieve the lost stasis burst through, holding a black and deadly Orichalka dagger in his hand. Draco and the man exchanged blows for few seconds, with Draco's armour thankfully protecting him and his Ka from the Orichalka weapon, before a well placed blow to the jaw enhanced by the element of Fire sent the bald man tumbling back down the stairs and leaving him in a broken heap at the bottom.
The three Nephilim re grouped, they now had three dead or dying Drake Society agents and one unconscious prisoner on their hands, and not knowing ho long it would be before the chloroform used on the family would wear off, they moved fast. Aranare mentally performed an inscribed ritual that would significantly lower the probability of the local Police investigating anything that had taken place there, while Draco and Heiros continued the task of the bald man in the cellar, picking up his pick axe and digging down until they found what they were looking for. The stasis object was a disk of bronze, perhaps the size of a small vinyl record, and etched around its circumference with the phases of the lunar cycle.
As Aranare had been able to cast magics making the family well-disposed toward him he stayed with them till they woke up, telling them that he and his friends had found burglars in the house and driven them off, before allowing them to call the local police.
While Draco and Heiros Gammos, after disposing of the bodies and placing the unconscious agent in their trunk, drove up to the Air Plexus near their lodge house, taking the stasis and its resident Nephilim to be reborn. They placed the object there and waited for a time, until a build up of energy was sensed, and through their Ka vision they saw a bright spiritual form emerge from the object and shoot off toward civilisation, the sleeping Nephilim was free. Knowing that he would return for it once he had found a suitable body, they kept the stasis object and made the walk back down to the lodge house and their car.
Much to their surprise however, when they reached them both they found the car boot that had contained the Drake agent wide open, and the man gone, until they noticed him right beside them in plain sight, though subtly changed.
He had developed long silvery hair an an almost translucent quality to his being. The Moon Nephilim had incarnated into the Drake agent.
In a smooth voice he introduced himself as Taranis, and thanked them for bringing him out of stasis, inquiring as to their names and Arcanum. They replied and asked what arcanum he himself might be from, he replied with a smile that he was of the Devil Arcanum, and told them that he was in their debt, a debt they could call upon whenever they had the need, telling them to also relay this to Aranare who was not present. The Devil then reclaimed his stasis from them and walked away, disappearing from sight as he did so.
Later that night Aranare returned, drained from his experience in giving repeated deceitful statements to the police at the house, and after telling him of the awakening, they contacted Mrs Wheel.
She arrived the next day at the precise hour and minute she told them to expect her, and listened to their report of events. She was pleased that they had resolved the matter and dealt successfully with the Drake Society, but was markedly less so with the fact that they had released a trouble-causing Devil Nephilim into their city, and ambiguously, stated that Arzalandr would undoubtedly hear of them and their deeds.
Errata:
In my classic way of forgetting plot-elements unless I constantly look at my notes the Banshee was supposed to intervene during the combat in the house, as you would imagine a protective spirit would. It was mainly going to attack the Drake guys as they were the ones putting the family in danger, but would also have attacked the characters as well due to their presence until the stasis object was found and taken from the vicinity.
However the scenario worked well in the end anyway so no massive loss, that was just what have happened if I'd looked at the notes more toward the end of the second session, another spanner in the works for the characters so to speak so there you go.
I though it was rather great, but shockingly different from the Storyteller System style and so I definitely need more random sessions under my belt before I do a chronicle no matter what happens. I hope we get some classic opportunities to familiarise ourselves more with the archaic and ultra-magical system and setting soon, especially so Mod can join in before the other characters increase to much in Ka and abilities.
I can't however run a one-shot this Saturnday, as I actually start my new job on the Moonday after and so won't have the head-space for story writing. As such my final vote for next Sat goes to either Orpheus, or Chicago.
The three Nephilim companions, acquainted from their common awakening in modern San francisco, sat and talked in the study of their lodge house, it was Friday evening and all save Aranare, who's Simulacrum was lucky enough to be retired, had finished a hard day's work.
As they talked, a you've got mail was heard from the adjoining office where Draco had left his email account logged in on the computer. Upon investigation by a puzzled Draco they learned the the enigmatic Wheel of Fortune Nephilim known only as Mrs Wheel had contacted them and asked them to be present the following evening at the lodge house. The three beings mulled this over for some time before returning to their respective abodes.
The next day after the rising of the sun they all returned at various times and awaited the arrival of Mrs Wheel, a close advisor to the group of Emperor Nephilim that largely governed occult affairs in the city, and after a small number of hours, she arrived. A sharp knocking came from the front door and as it as answered a lady immediately stalked in, paying little heed to greetings or formalities. She was pale of skin, almost white, with jet black hair that reached to just beyond her shoulders, and dressed in a close fitting black business suit with tinted spectacles that concealed her eyes. She would perhaps have been pretty if it were not for the almost indescribably indistinct quality of her features. She stalked past them and took a seat at the table, bidding them do likewise and setting her briefcase upon it and opening it with a snap. She introduced herself stating that was no reason for them to do likewise as she was already fully aware of their names and Arcana. They asked their inevitable questions as she removed her spectacles revealing eyes entirely glowing with an intense pale blue and took a deck of Tarot cards from the case, shuffled, and began to deal...
She told them that a small service had come too her attention that they could perform for the Nephilim of San Francisco, stating that several police reports had come to the attention of the prominent Emperor Arzalandar through operatives under his thrall in the local police that indicated a rogue elemental creature, perhaps more than one, in the Bay Area. She finished placing her cards, partly hidden by her opn briefcase as she finished speaking, and as Aranare saw, they foretold of change, and of awakening from sleep. The three agreed to look into these incidences for the common good of all, and Mrs Wheel produced two police files from her case, and bids them complete the task swiftly and subtly, before contacting her again. The cold Undine then departed, as briskly as she had arrived.
Draco, Heiros Gammos, and Aranare then sat and talked in the study as they looked over the reports, they were as such:
1. A family home in the Bay Area had suffered a break-in late one night, nothing was taken and so the police paid it little heed, but the perpetrator, later apprehended, stated that a ghost appeared before him while he was entering through a broken window, floating in the air, dressed in rags, and screaming silently. He froze in terror before the thing reached out and touched him, after that he remembers nothing but fleeing in blind panic through the night.
2. A teenage girl, walking home one night, was subject to an attempted mugging a few blocks from her house, the incidence was stopped when a seemingly rabid dog leapt from nearby bushes attacking the man and forcing him to flee, screaming of glowing eyes. A series of unlucky coincidences led to the man's death the next day, he missed his usual bus to collect his Social Security and had to walk there, taking a sequence of back-alley short cuts before being mugged himself, stumbling down another alley, and being run over and crushed by a rubbish truck. He was declared dead at the scene. The girl was of the family who's house was broken into in the first report.
Their first reaction was of course to make plans to visit the two scenes and begin to investigate as soon as possible, however, they where still weak from their recent awakening, and their Stases almost empty of precious Ka . They resolved to visit the nearest Plexus straight away
and Heiros Gammos, looking out of the window, mentally performed the actions to enact the casual sorcery of Dowse Air Plexus. First entering Ka Vision and seeing the mesmerising myriad of the flowing energies of the Five Fields, before focusing on the element of Air and watching the nearest Air Plexus light up like a beacon in the foothills above. All three made the difficult hike up there to the airy crag, and setting their respective Stases down, waited for them to fill.
The next day they formulated their initial plan, Draco and Aranare would visit the family posing as reporters from Unexplained Magazine, for Draco at least, not a great stretch given his Simulacrum's line of work. While Heiros would examine the scene of the mugging.
After astrologically determining the best possible time to go down there Draco and Aranare arrived at the family home, it was detached, in a quiet middle-class neighbourhood, and surrounded by a pleasant garden and picket fence. They knocked on the door, and after some initial difficulties gained entry and began to talk to the mother of the house. They explained their presence, or at least their cover story, to the puzzled woman, asking if any other strange occurrences had happened within the house or involving the family. The mother replied that there never had been anything unusual, though seemed unsure of what they were implying, before adding that when her mother died, there in the house, there had been a terrible, almost animal, scream. But it had stopped after a few moments and they never discovered its source, assuming in the end that it must of been some animal outside in the streets. Charmed by the British accent currently sported by Aranare she then went up stairs to fetch her daughter. While she was gone both Nephilim attempted to look into the past of the room using different spells, Aranare failed to interface properly with the Five mystic Fields and disoriented himself, while Draco managed to succeed, seeing a vision of the smashing window and of the thief's attempted entry and subsequent flight before the wraith-like apparition, thinking quickly Draco then used a spell to detect any active magics there, but found nothing save the faded traces of moon-magics now spent...
The daughter then came down and told the story of her attack, though shedding little new light on the situation. The other thing of note that the duo did learn there was that according to the mother some other gentleman had been by recently asking similar questions and claiming to be from a private investigation firm called the Drake Partnership. After leaving their card and finishing their coffee, the duo departed to rendezvous with their third companion.
Heiros pulled his car up to the cross roads right where the police report stated the attack had taken place, and there in his car he opened his eyes to Ka Vision, saw the element of Air and focused upon it, mentally enacting one of the spells he had inscribed upon his very soul, before he also saw the street corner 2 weeks in the past, day became night, street lights flickered overhead, and shadows lengthened. He saw the daughter walking by and saw as the man quickly approached and seized her, before a savage canine leapt from nearby bushes, eyes glowing an eerie white, and sank its teeth into the man, sending him running screaming into the darkened park. The dog watched him run for the briefest of moments before turning and trotting away, almost confusedly, the pale glow fading from its eyes.
The daughter looked around herself in shock before running desperately for home and the brighter lit streets of her neighbourhood.
Later the three Nephilim met back at their lodge house, and discussing what they had gleaned theorized that they might be dealing with a moon creature, and one protective of the family, perhaps a Banshee of some kind. Heiros Gammos, being more knowledgeable in these areas enlightened his fellows as to the peculiar nature of the Banshee, saying that they were perhaps not a true elemental creature at all, both due to their longevity and the manner of their creation.
He relayed to them that it was said that if a Nephilim of the dominant element of Moon became trapped in stasis and then a family cam to live over the spot then after several generations the errant energies of the Moon Nephilim would coalesce to form what was called a Banshee, an ultimately protective, but dangerous spirit. The only ways to be rid of one without harming th sleeping Nephilim were to either move the family from the area, or bring the sleeping Nephilim out of stasis.
Realising now that the Drake Society, proxy agents of the Templars to which the so-called Drake Partnership was obviously tied, must have been tipped off to the location of the sleeping Nephilim much as they themselves had, and that as such they knew they had to move fast, for there were few greater prizes for such groups than to capture a Nephilim, especially if his stasis object came as part of the parcel.
As such they formulated a plan, they would attempt to use a ritual to locate the exact location of the stasis object in the house before going down there, and then use various magical means of mental manipulation to coerce the family to allow them to retrieve it.
To enact the first ritual however they would need an object either of personal value or belonging to the sleeping Nephilim in question.
A tall order considering they had no idea as to the identity or even Arcana of the individual, they did however know that the sleeping Moon Nephilim had developed a subconscious connection to the family, and though convincing one of them to participate in the ritual was out of the question, they did remember that the Banshee had mourned the death of the grandmother, and so Drako quickly searched online and turned up the date of death and burial location of the grandmother, a piece of her remains would do nicely they thought.
Aranare was aware of an Alchemical formula for dissolving earth and seeing this as a useful way to avoid the lengthy process of gravdigging went to his Athanor to attempt to transmute some of the relevant powder, the application however was beyond his ability and after repeated attempts he admitted failure. They returned to the drawing board as getting caught digging up old bones at the local cemetery was not on their itinerary. At length Draco volunteered to perform a minor summoning to conjure forth some useful servitors to aid them in the task, he settled on the minor Earth spirits colloquially known as Those That Creep and Nibble and went down to their basement and ritual space to perform it. Using the appropriate sigils and Enochian invocations he was successful, and before long returned with six small hairless green skinned wide-mouthed creatures, bound to follow his commands but possessed by a ravenous hunger for all matter surrounding them.
While constantly watching and restraining the creatures they took Aranare's Landrover and drove to the expansive Bay Cemetery once Draco had determined a time when their activities would be least likely to be interrupted by watchmen or passers by.
They arrived and began to search through the acres of graves and winding pathways for the correct headstone and at last found their spot, they were about to release Those That Creep and Nibble when Aranare suddenly approached a nearby tree, lowered his trousers squatting down and squeezed out a massive brown log that hit the earth with an audible thud, proclaiming in a strained voice as he did so Here I go, squeezing out another massive brown log! His two companions reacted with disgust, questioning why he had felt the need to do such a foul act in such a place. Aranare replied that he had consulted his star charts and determined that this was both the best possible location and time for releasing such epically massive brown logs into the universe. The others simply shook their heads before they all set about the work at hand and commanded the spirits to devour all the earth down to the coffin, but to leave that untouched and to uncover it for them.
The little creatures leaped into the earth on the grave site with snarling relish and rapidly created a widening crater in the ground before reaching the wooden coffin and being commanded to stop.
Heiros then opened the old coffin revealing the putrid human mess within, and retrieved the skull of the family's grandmother.
The three Nephilim looked around at the small area of devastation they had created in the peaceful cemetery, made a token effort to clean it up, and then departed for the lodge house with all speed.
They decided to spend some time before conducting the ritual replenishing the stocks of Ka contained in their stasis objects, and so sought out with Ka Vision and then visited various local Plexi. Between them they visited Plexi of Fire, Air,and Water, before returning to perform the ritual.
Heiros Gammos led the rite, conducted in the basement's ritual chamber, as they cast the Circle, invoked the Five Elements, and focused their energies through Heiros into the Operation. At the centre of the Circle he stood with the grandmother's skull in one hand and his Dagger of Air poised over the blueprints of the house, opening himself fully to the Fields of Air, and as the energy peaked plunged it down, yes closed, into the plans. They then thanked the Elements for attending, banished the Circle, and grounded the excess energy before examining the results. The dagger had plunged dead-centre into the plan of the house's cellar. The stasis object in which the Moon Nephilim slept was buried beneath the house.
They resolved to give their simulacrums a few hours of sleep before going down there and so all retired, some to the rooms of the lodge house, others to their own homes.
After waking the next day both Heiros Gammos and Draco performed Summoning rites to evoke suits or protective armour from the Subtle Realms. That which was summoned by Draco corresponded to the Element of Fire and appeared as a red semi-organic suit of plate, while Heiros' suit of Air appeared as whisps of vapour and atmosphere around his body. As the other prepared to leave Draco performed some last Astrological calculations to determine the best time to arrive at the house, but the conclusion he reached puzzled him for a moment until he comprehended it, the best time to arrive there was now .
He quickly told the others what he had seen as they gathered their things, but was interrupted by the ringing of the phone. Gammos answered and heard the voice of a woman, obviously distressed, asking for Philip Strause, the name of Draco's Simulacum. It was Rachel, the mother, she continued, There's some men outside, their circling- and she was cut off. They piled into the Landrover with all haste, uncertain as to what they would find when they arrived.
As they arrived, in the mid-afternoon sunshine, they spotted an unmarked white van with tinted windows distinctly out of place in this neighbourhood, parked a few doors down from the house. Before they left the car Heiros quickly enacted and inscribed spell of Air that transformed all within a hundred metre radius around him to glass for his eyes. Though noting was changed he could see directly into both the van and the house, or anything else he chose to look at. The van was empty but in the house he could see four men, and both the mother and the daughter tied up and seemingly unconscious on the kitchen floor. One man stood near the front door, two others in the kitchen by the back door and the family, and one other in the cellar. The three upstairs wore dark clothing and were of stocky build, while the gentlemen bellow appeared older, bald, and wearing a long trenchcoat and spectacles. He told the others what he saw as they channelled some of their Ka energies into their physical bodies to enhance their speed and strength. Draco circled round the back as Heiros approached the front door and Aranare hung back on the garden path to mentally perform one last spell. Heiros knocked on the door, and clearly saw the man on the other side draw his silenced pistol and hold it behind his back as he opened up. Heiros simply asked to see Rachel as the man told him she was busy and to come back later, Heiros hesitated and looked back behind him to see how close Aranare was when the man, sensing something was up, swung out with a left hook that caught Gammos square in the jaw. The man's fist could not penetrate the armour of Air but the force of his blow knocked Heiros backwards, and the man seized him and dragged him through the door.
One of the men in the kitchen started to come and help his companion in dragging Heiros into the house, but Aranare was closer piling in behind his Magician companion. They both drew their daggers and stabbed the man, using him as a shield from the silenced bullets of his comrade as they did so. The first man, now bleeding to death, fell with Heiros to the ground, and the second fired several shots point-blank at Heiros' head. They surely would of ended his Simulacrum were it not for his airy armour, that repelled every shot. Aranare now drew his own gun and returned fire.
Only one of the Drake Society heavies was left in the kitchen with the unconscious family at this stage, and Draco burst through the back door, drawing his rapier from beneath his trenchcoat s he did so. The man left in the kitchen already had his gun out and fired at Draco several times, each shot ricocheting of the otherworldly red armour, before Draco gutted him where he stood and made for the cellar door.
As did so the man that was down there attempting to retrieve the lost stasis burst through, holding a black and deadly Orichalka dagger in his hand. Draco and the man exchanged blows for few seconds, with Draco's armour thankfully protecting him and his Ka from the Orichalka weapon, before a well placed blow to the jaw enhanced by the element of Fire sent the bald man tumbling back down the stairs and leaving him in a broken heap at the bottom.
The three Nephilim re grouped, they now had three dead or dying Drake Society agents and one unconscious prisoner on their hands, and not knowing ho long it would be before the chloroform used on the family would wear off, they moved fast. Aranare mentally performed an inscribed ritual that would significantly lower the probability of the local Police investigating anything that had taken place there, while Draco and Heiros continued the task of the bald man in the cellar, picking up his pick axe and digging down until they found what they were looking for. The stasis object was a disk of bronze, perhaps the size of a small vinyl record, and etched around its circumference with the phases of the lunar cycle.
As Aranare had been able to cast magics making the family well-disposed toward him he stayed with them till they woke up, telling them that he and his friends had found burglars in the house and driven them off, before allowing them to call the local police.
While Draco and Heiros Gammos, after disposing of the bodies and placing the unconscious agent in their trunk, drove up to the Air Plexus near their lodge house, taking the stasis and its resident Nephilim to be reborn. They placed the object there and waited for a time, until a build up of energy was sensed, and through their Ka vision they saw a bright spiritual form emerge from the object and shoot off toward civilisation, the sleeping Nephilim was free. Knowing that he would return for it once he had found a suitable body, they kept the stasis object and made the walk back down to the lodge house and their car.
Much to their surprise however, when they reached them both they found the car boot that had contained the Drake agent wide open, and the man gone, until they noticed him right beside them in plain sight, though subtly changed.
He had developed long silvery hair an an almost translucent quality to his being. The Moon Nephilim had incarnated into the Drake agent.
In a smooth voice he introduced himself as Taranis, and thanked them for bringing him out of stasis, inquiring as to their names and Arcanum. They replied and asked what arcanum he himself might be from, he replied with a smile that he was of the Devil Arcanum, and told them that he was in their debt, a debt they could call upon whenever they had the need, telling them to also relay this to Aranare who was not present. The Devil then reclaimed his stasis from them and walked away, disappearing from sight as he did so.
Later that night Aranare returned, drained from his experience in giving repeated deceitful statements to the police at the house, and after telling him of the awakening, they contacted Mrs Wheel.
She arrived the next day at the precise hour and minute she told them to expect her, and listened to their report of events. She was pleased that they had resolved the matter and dealt successfully with the Drake Society, but was markedly less so with the fact that they had released a trouble-causing Devil Nephilim into their city, and ambiguously, stated that Arzalandr would undoubtedly hear of them and their deeds.
The End
Errata:
In my classic way of forgetting plot-elements unless I constantly look at my notes the Banshee was supposed to intervene during the combat in the house, as you would imagine a protective spirit would. It was mainly going to attack the Drake guys as they were the ones putting the family in danger, but would also have attacked the characters as well due to their presence until the stasis object was found and taken from the vicinity.
However the scenario worked well in the end anyway so no massive loss, that was just what have happened if I'd looked at the notes more toward the end of the second session, another spanner in the works for the characters so to speak so there you go.
I though it was rather great, but shockingly different from the Storyteller System style and so I definitely need more random sessions under my belt before I do a chronicle no matter what happens. I hope we get some classic opportunities to familiarise ourselves more with the archaic and ultra-magical system and setting soon, especially so Mod can join in before the other characters increase to much in Ka and abilities.
I can't however run a one-shot this Saturnday, as I actually start my new job on the Moonday after and so won't have the head-space for story writing. As such my final vote for next Sat goes to either Orpheus, or Chicago.
