"Uh, what's up? You guys need help with anything?"
Remain hovering in the air. Survey the area that those guys appear to have been guarding.
Your allies stand on a walkway between the canal and a fence overgrown with brambles. The canal leads to a bridge which passes overhead and then into a park. Beyond the fence is a wide expanse of dirt, with a few massive piles of earth and a couple of cranes, digging equipment, etc. From where you are over the canal, the left side of the dirt is a park of some kind bounded by a raised walkway which slopes gently down on both sides. On the right you see a railway and a mass of piping, industrial devices, pylons, concrete blocks, all that kinda stuff. You think you catch a few figures in the industrial bit moving around.
The strangest thing is the sizeable crater in the dirt, and the meteorite mostly buried in the centre. The size of an SUV, it glimmers faintly from certain points. You percieve that it is some form of sentient magical entity, and that while it poses no threat in terms of the scale of its weapons, it has certain powerful magical tools that could be used indirectly. You can't work out much more than that.
Purge the nest with (un?)holy fire worms.
Then head over to OceanSoul and help him out with the string stuff.
You bathe the nest in acid, and then follow the string. Oceansoul hasn't posted for a bit, but I'll give him until next turn. After that, you'll walk in on him, the security guard, and the guy with the katana.
"Just a Question, not for the machine, but do you have any other jobs for questions?"
if they DO, then take the tool and a new job, if they don't, Ask the following question: "If I asked where the most powerful, and least accessible magical powersource which th' coven I am in could acquire, what would the false answers most likely answer?"
The abbot smiles at you and says that he does indeed have other jobs you could do. So you take up their offer of the unwanted tool, and they rummage around in the basement for a bit before giving it to you.
The Omni-tool is an odd thing. It starts in a black handle, just long enough to grip comfortably in one hand, and culminates in a metal cuboid about a foot long, a few inches across. The Abbot explains that you must simply apply it to a problem, and, depending on the skill of the user, it will give them the tools to combat the problem. He stresses that while it will generally produce some kind of fix, the user must be technically skilled and ready to improvise. Some saint or scholar of theirs produced it, but they eventually decided using it was more trouble than it was worth.
The monk takes you into his office to explain the next favour they need. A strange creature has been occupying a certain minor dimension known as the Black Lake nearby. A small, self-contained separate world that can only be accessed from a particular pond, at night. This would normally be endurable, but the creature has taken to luring clients and even monks into the dimension, and they are generally never heard from again. It operates in the daytime, using various constructs and illusions as bait. You are required to go there and somehow intimidate the creature into leaving. Killing it is allowed but not required; the monks' device has determined that the thing is tough but cowardly and may be driven off more easily than it may be killed. Essentially, you must scare the thing away, intimidate it.
The monks would do this themselves, but embarassingly, the Abbot and his archivists have lost any knowledge of how to access the dimension, and don't want anyone to know. Monasteries can be very...
political places, he tells you, and if anyone found out, unscrupulous individuals in search of power might be tempted to challenge his position.
He has some evidence that you must access the Black Lake or "Lacusa Atremento" by making your reality resemble it in some way, always at night, always by the pond. Also, it used to be very easily entered, and difficulties only emerged in the past fifty years. Apart from that, he doesn't know how to enter it, except for being captured by the creature.
"This is probably it" Steve thinks...
Wait for a clearence to get down there
You wait a few hours but the two golems at the door don't move. Looks like you'd have to either run past them, which would be risky, take them out (dangerous/difficult) or create a distraction somehow.
"Do I look like an idiot?"
Like hell. He gets his throat slashed too.
Then Ben will loot their corpses.
"We already know everything. Surrender properly, all of you, and you get to live."
Bluff. Also, shoot five shots of crystal at that guy after saying that.
Put an illusion on the newcomer, making her and her broom look like a big armoured birdman, and wrap a glowy silver light around her sword.
"Deal accepted. Have the warrior climb the fence and talk to me."
You pepper the man's head and body with shards of crystal from nearly point-blank range, before Ben cuts his throat.
Ben collects £20 and a nondescript pistol from the bodies, as well as a set of keys and a passcard. One of the keys is for a vehicle of some sort.
Prac: 1+2
Nanami manages to sketch a vague and abstract illusion, with a suggestion of monstrousness and feathers about Bella, and a glow suffusing her machete and sword hand. It's hard to get anything done as the witch constantly changes position, and the illusion will constantly take one puissance, as it requires a continuous line of energy to maintain while Bella shifts and moves.
The illusion will fool someone for a moment into thinking Bella is more arcane than she actually is, but won't trick powerful or perceptive magical beings for very long. Mortals will be completely terrified.
Name: Nanami Adachi. (Nanami)
Unnatural beauty granted by demonic contract and the adoration of mortals. Slight charisma/popularity boost.
Power from mortal media.
Conscripted into twenty-nineth legion of Amdukias.
Puissance: 2
Ritual: 0
Runic Sight: 0
Banal Combat: 0
Aim: 1
Melee: 0
Agility: 1
Praticality: 2
Inventory: £315
Backpack, expensive camera + memory cards
Quality sketching paper, art pens+pencils, charcoal, etc.
Sketches of self as main character, Amdukias, the non-mortal world, etc.
[Glass Rod Crystal Wand] - Enhanced slightly through media
Puissance: 8/9-1
Puissant Clots: 1
Bob Howard
Puissant fettle - 1
Ritual potency - 1
Runic sight - 1
Banal combat - 0
Practicality - 3
Inventory: £50, 1d20
{Certificate from Belial; Valid for one Potent Medium}
Puissance: 5/5
Puissant Clots: 2
Goethe T. Helle
Puissant fettle - 1
Ritual potency - 2
Runic sight - 1
Banal combat - 0
Aim - 1
Melee - 0
Agility - 2
Practicality - 1
Inventory: £20, clockface minus one hand, highlighter pens, two kitchen knives, half-empty cologne bottle
From the beast: one bone,
Italian Dinner suit, stored at Vince's place.
[Dog Collar Pendant][Molasses Clockhand Wand]
[Icecream Beast Blood Fur Chalice][Beast Remains Wand]
Runes:
Isolation: you never had many friends or allies, so are used to poor odds. +1 to rolls when outnumbered and alone.
Stoicism: a rune that calms those dealing with shock, tragedy or injury.
Perseverance: despite all the odds, you managed to kill a huge beast using nothing but hot syrup. Bonus to attack and extra damage to powerful or resistant enemies after several turns of combat or aggression.
Dwarven Weapon Storage: learned from a dwarf carrying a small armoury on his back. Increases load of weapons and tools that can be borne without being hampered or slowed down, or collapsing outright.
Ruination: when written, it makes a bad situation worse, and an irretrievable one more so. Learned after the second mission.
Puissant clots: 1
Puissance: 6/6
Name: Sir Worthington the Fourth
Has a pretty crappy wooden broom for a leg.
Broken-ribbed and bleeding: will have trouble with exertion. Can still use magic perfectly though.
Stats: Ritual Potency: 3
Practicality 3
Agility: -1 (wooden poles and plastic bristles do not a good leg make)
Inventory: £25, Pint of royal blood (stored at Vince's), blood covered knife, Cursed String
Stored at Vince's place: mortal's tendons, skull and leg bones.
[Glass Eye Pendant] [Paintbrush Wand]
[Toad Demon Battery Acid Tupperware Chalice]
{Scuttle Gem}
Novice's Pyromancy Flame - Heal Burn (1P), Create Flame (1P), Flame Claw (3P)
Puissant Clots: 0
Puissance: 5/5
Jimmy "Car bombs" Castanza
Slightly slowed by a heavy load.
Puissant fettle - 0
Ritual potency - 0
Runic sight - 3
Banal combat - 1
Aim - 1
Melee - 0
Agility - 0
Practicality - 3
Inventory: £20, very rusty saw, length of pipe stuck to block of concrete, highlighter pen
[Lightbulb Antenna Wand]
[Broom - TIER 3] - Bike handles for steering.
[Omni-tool]
Milk Bottle full of space-warping venom.
Glock 17 (7/10)
Runes:
Detonation: volatile stuff explodes or catches fire more when you're around it. You can't help it, it must be genetic. Written rune used to detonate volatile substances.
Dead Man Running: you escaped the wrath of a mafia boss. Higher chance of surviving things that should really be deadly.
Mafioso: a mafia hitman, you preferred not to let your targets know they were hunted until after they were spread over an area of three hundred metres. Bonus to carefully planned unexpected attacks.
Alchemical (definitely idiot) savant: you saw an alchemist's shop when wandering around London, and deluded yourself that you understood something of how it worked. Because of the nature of magic, this belief is now partially true. Use this rune to make substances a bit more useful or volatile when used in alchemy.
Trader: a rune that when signed signifies to people that you'd be a good guy to buy from and sell things to.
Reticence: a rune whispered to you by birds perched on phone lines, you can get information without giving away much about yourself.
Bethel: a rune that enhances and aids summoning performed where it is written.
Degeneration: you saw men turned into animals. This rune turns advanced things like steel bolts into crappy primitive things, like wooden bolts.
Entrance: a god tried to break into our world. You now have a +2 in breaking into magic places you shouldn't be messing about with.
Hiijacking: Sand crashed a summoning-party and inserted herself into the centre of the ritual. Things with this rune written on will be more central to events and will conduct more power and magical energy than they should by rights.
Hassle: a rune that allows you to deal more effectively with multiple threats, distractions and tasks at once.
Scrap-crafting: after making a wand with bicycle horns, you have improved at making stuff out of junk. And you were already great at making stuff out of junk.
Oligarchy: a rune revealed to you the first time you flew over London, spelled out in the twistings of the financial buildings and the houses of millionares. Increases your power according to how much money you have.
Punctuality: You're good at getting things done on time.
Puissant clots: 1
Puissance:5/5
Ben Breeze
Stats:
Puissant fettle - 0
Ritual potency - 0
Runic sight - 0
Banal combat - 4
Aim - 1
Melee - 1
Agility - 2
Practicality - 0
Inventory: knife, taser, handcuffs, police baton, stab vest, torch, incapacitant spray, and a first aid kit. All in sports bag
Also a bag of athames, 2.5 legs War Bacon (Vince's Fridge), a worn face-concealing hooded coat, bin bags.
Two generous Roast Beef and Horseradish Sandwiches
£20
Set of keys and passcard
Gunfarmer P90 (44/50) (in bag)
Mediocre Pistol (6/6)
Puissant clots: 3
Puissance:5/5
Steve
Puissant fettle - 0
Ritual potency - 0
Runic sight - 0
Banal combat - 3
Aim - 0
Melee - 0
Agility - 3
Practicality - 0
Inventory: £50
Puissance: 5/5
Clots:3
Name: Bella, the Speed Witch
Runic sight: 2
Banal Combat: 1
Melee 1
Agility 2
Runes:
Inventory: £0,
Delicate Rune-engraved Machete: heavy bonus when facing multiple weaker victims. Likely to break on misshits/heavy armour.
[Tier Two Racing Broom]
Runes:
Speed lover: +1 to doing anything while moving faster than you need to. Does not prevent (but can negate) maluses from trying to do things while moving faster than is sensible.
Slaughter: enhances speed and efficiency of murder when facing many opponents/victims. Passive boost, but can be written on things.
Broom Dodging: makes you better at dodging things while on a broom.
Puissance: 5/5
Clots:0