Zamenis explains Don that his safety can be guaranteed because he is is a skilled surgeon and has a healing Caduceus made with his own spine as proof of that, which would also be used to keep him alive and regrow his spine once the extraction is done. Would Don agree now? If he does, proceed with the surgery (Removing Don's spine while keeping him alive with the Caduceus.)
Zamenis agrees to owe him multiple favors.
Don is not convinced, and only agrees if Zamenis agrees to owe him multiple favors AND if Vince thinks it would be a good idea.
Vince says that it should be perfectly survivable given an experienced medic and a caduceus. The entrail snakes provide rather unsettling sibilant agreement. You're going to have to sort out the favours yourselves, of course.
The charred lich hastily straps Don to the operating table, or rather a stack of crates in Vince's garage with a tarpulin slung over it. Vince provides some recreational anaesthetic from the fridge, and Zamenis assembles his surgical tools, ready to begin the operation. The gut-snakes chatter excitedly about the possibilities of spine transplants and the difficulties of severing someone's spine without killing them.
It occurs to Don moments before he slips into unconsciousness that literally anyone can buy a labcoat.
Prac: 3
+1-1Zamenis cuts away at the flesh around the lower portion of the spine, his second spine removal in as many hours. Sawing through the connection to the pelvis results in a lot of blood haemorrhaging, but a low buzz of magical power through the caduceus fixes that problem pretty easily. The really tricky part, as the snakes explain, is not killing the patient while the top half of the spine connecting the vital organs and brain is removed.
As Vince watches, Zamenis quickly disconnects the ribs and levers the spine up and away from the flesh, channeling more power into the caduceus as blood spurts and sinews snap away. He forms new spine underneath and makes the final incision carefully, cutting the bone from the tender brainstem at the back of the neck. Removing it completely and laying it aside, he begins the intricate process of regrowing Don's backbone.
Quickly regrowing the nerves and bone, Zamenis is forced to channel a great deal of puissance through his staff, draining it almost as fast as he can produce magical energy. With Don's heart stilled and lungs inactive, his blood is rapidly deoxygenating, and Zamenis must concentrate on both preventing total organ failure and rebuilding an entire set of vertebrae. Sadly, as he focuses on the delicate area at the base of the skull, his attention slips from the bone reforming in less crucial areas. As his stress builds, excesses of power flow into the staff, and the rapidly regrowing vertebrae merge and swell, rapidly covering the open incisions in Don's back. As delicate nerve endings repair themselves with tiny trickles of puissance, the rest of the magical energy flows into forming a strong and new biological feature. By the time one of the snakes looks up from the spinal cord merging with the brain and says something, it's already far too late to do anything.
When Don awakens, he feels fine. Better than fine, in fact: he feels great. Unbeknownst to him, the general healing's solved a few liver problems he had, cleared his cholesterol, and rebalanced the chemical equilibrium in his gut. His muscle tone is improved and his skin is radiant.
When he tries to get up, however, something feels strange. His back is a fair bit heavier than normal. And when he tentatively explores it with his hands, instead of skin, he feels a hard, spiked casing of bone,
the form reminiscent of a sea-shell. It covers his shoulders in jagged pauldrons, runs down his back in rows of upward spikes, and even slips onto the backs of his thighs in overlapping plates.
On the one hand, it's a great defence against backstabbing, and the spikes could be sharpened into nasty points. On the other hand, it's a horrific deformity that marks you out as a product of aberrant and experimental surgery.
Vince walks back into the room holding a beer.
"Sorry, did I miss something?"
Also, Zamenis has a new spine now. It's just a matter of jamming it into his back and nailing it to a few other bones. He could probably have used a length of steel rod or something.
Upon hearing that Zamenis wants to remove someone's spine, Ben's gonna quickly go for his P90, and keep his back to a wall. He's not gonna be aggressive or attack without provocation or anything... just, after hearing something like that, it pays to be cautious.
(No action)
Ben nurses his gun and listens to the disagreeable sounds coming from the room next door. Pity about that Don, he seemed less stupid than some. Emphasis on seemed.
Hmm. Okay, I'll steal a stick of deodorant and make a wand of that. Upgrade to level 2 wand.
After that, go check out that puddle.
A random act of theft, eh? You grab the deodorant stick from a supermarket and walk out. Nobody stops you.
This would have been so much easier with a spray deodorant. Anyway, five spells.
Are you going to test them all now? Only asking because occult tests performed on mortals tend to have casualties.
The puddle is right outside an impressive stone building which you may or may not recognise as the Palace of Westminster or Houses of Parliament. The ground around it is completely dry, and it hasn't rained for days. The puddle reflects an Escher parody of the building behind it, crazed layers of angled towers and spires endlessly receding. You recognise the deep, even boundless space beneath the surface, abyssal entities lurking beneath in caucus, and step forward in stunned curiosity. Then a party of tourists barge past, a panopoly of puffer jackets and backpacks buffeting you from the pavement and into the puddle. Instead of colliding with the pavement inches below it, you pass straight in. It's not quite accurate to say that you sink, because direction doesn't really apply in this realm, but you certainly move away from the exit.
Some light filters into the maybe-liquid you float in, a distant wash from the surface of the puddle, but the photons realise that they don't really belong and politely refrain from illuminating very much. You don't drown, as the pervading substance in the realm is something more abstract than water, but its not exactly something you can live in either. You gradually develop an aura, as tiny flecks of more physical substances accumulate around you and glow, bringing you to the notice of two beings "deep" in discussion.
While neither is at all physical, you glean some sense of their structures and likely manifestations. One may take the form of a collection of great white flowers, long draping petals and leaves twisting in knotted chains according to unseen currents. The other you can only see as points of light that shine and glimmer in lattices and weaves.
"Look at that, a human fell in. Still covered in her parent's blood, eh? Not that we can help with that, simple mortals went to Belial."
The second examines you more closely.
"A witch, indeed! Explains how she entered. Well, I think we should put her where she belongs, after all. This really proves my point."
"I'm not so sure, we'll have to wait to see. Man is born in blood as the oak is born in soil: wood when worked need not return to the earth."
"No, you have it all wrong, the telluric forces act from without, the sanguine from within. Anyway, what I'm trying to say, is that..."
The two entities continue their discussion as they move away, apparently losing interest in Jane. Something a little like a bubble forms, and she leaves the depths.
A man-sized bundles of white rags or petals unfurls on the concrete outside of Vince's house, just as the door opens, and the bald, stocky man opens the door. The sky clears rapidly as the Coven leader peers down sceptically at the awakening form of Jane.
"And what do you want here?"
You can consider yourself a Coven member now, with all the usual stuff.
"The dark lord? Is that the necromancer? I'll tell you everything. I just don't want to die.."
Try to not die. Use the five-puissance spell that affects myself, and a two-puissance defensive spell for some cover. Try to quickly gather if the hunters are going after me or this undead warrior. If they're going after me, throw in with the undead warrior.. if they wanted to capture me, they wouldn't be firing crossbow bolts. If they're going after the undead warrior, concentrate on escaping rather than fighting back. In any case, feel free to use illusions and such to assist me, as well as attack spells. If possible, grab a pen or a marker for rune use. Also, if it looks like the hunters will accept surrender without killing me, that's on the table as well. In any case, if it gets to talking or negotiating, tell people what I know about the Necromancer, and include being willing and able to help whoever wins. In this case, what I know is that some alchemists had him geared up to strange machinery in a truck and were hauling him around trying to get a power source to him, and that most of the alchemists died in a firefight with witches.
I'd also like to call Vince for updates/more information, if it's possible.
3,
5+1 vs
2+3Desperately flinging yourself behind a table, you project several illusory giant mongooses, hoping to momentarily confuse or scare the gorgons. The undead warriors picks you up and drags you away as a series of crossbow bolts fired at random smash the large panes of glass at the front of the cafe, the remaining humans falling to their knees wounded or screaming in terror. Something slithers at incredible speed over the counter, a great iron curved sword scything through tables and flesh as you and the eastern warrior run through a window. As you cast the spells, blocky blue crystals form over your torso, while shards of glass sprout from your limbs and clumps of protective armour. A single glancing bolt hit is enough to shatter the protective coating and nearly topple you, before your grim companion pulls you back upright and out the door.
The two of you run across the street, heading for a tight alley, when an eerie rattle turns your head and stops you very nearly dead. A third gorgon stares at you, and the air seems to solidify, your sprint slowing to a walk. Cursing, the warrior with you pivots, slides onto one knee behind you with his rifle out, and shoots at the hunter wielding a mighty curving blade, sending her reeling back in pain. He recieves an iron bolt through the chest for his troubles, but apparently doesn't notice, grabbing your hand as you snap out of it and look away from the snake-person slithering towards you. Attempting to block you off, she moves in front of the alley, but your ally whips out his jade club and hurls it at incredible speed, the whirl of pure green slicing through the gorgon's wrist. He nimbly leaps the writhing serpent body, scoops the hand from the pavement and catches the flat club as it ricochets off a nearby brick wall.
Too impressed with his own luck to comment, the warrior leads you through an alley, out a private garage, across a cemetery, along a canal and across some railway tracks, and finally to a presently unoccupied house. After you give him your information on the necromancer, the ghostly Polynesian wanders off, too pleased with his trophy to think of killing or robbing you. Lucky, really, undead are seldom the most principled allies. You phone Vince, who says that he'll send a team to collect you.
Ok, people indoors right now at the Coven gain a puissant clot, and can go outside. The danger's passed.
Name: Nanami Adachi. (Nanami)
Unnatural beauty granted by demonic contract and the adoration of mortals. Slight charisma/popularity boost.
A few fingers short (bandaged, probably infected and giving you Weil's Disease as well)
Power from mortal media.
Can create illusions.
Conscripted into twenty-nineth legion of Amdukias.
Puissance: 2 +1 not from Amdukias
Ritual: 0
Runic Sight: 1
Banal Combat: 0
Aim: 1
Melee: 0
Agility: 1
Praticality: 3
Inventory: £25
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.
[Tier Two Glass Rod Crystal Wand] - Enhanced slightly through media
Large, fist-sized mind-controlling spacerock fragments.
Painting supplies, a glass cutter, battery powdered soldering iron, eighty feet of red cloth, white rag and thread
Diving gear: masks, suits and some scuba tanks. (dumped)
Knife
Runes
Pestilence: all living things will someday die. This rune accelerates the processes of death with the energies of life - a draining and a consumption at once.
Puissance: 11/13
Puissant Clots: 2
Ben Breeze
Stats:
Puissant fettle - 0
Ritual potency - 0
Runic sight - 0
Banal combat - 6
Aim - 1
Melee - 1
Agility - 3
Practicality - 0
Inventory: 2xtaser, handcuffs, police baton, stab vest, torch, incapacitant spray, and a first aid kit. All in sports bag.
4 Athames, 2.5 legs War Bacon (Vince's Fridge), a worn face-concealing hooded coat, bin bags.
Concealed: knife in one boot, knife on a leg, and one on his torso.
Two generous Roast Beef and Horseradish Sandwiches
Two bin bags of assorted pills from pharmacy (Vince's fridge).
£20
Set of keys and passcard
Gunfarmer P90 (50/50) (in bag)
FN Minimi light machine gun, 200-round belt, (59/200) round belt
Puissant clots: 6
Puissance:5/5
Name: Zamenis Paean
Puissant fettle: 3
Agility: 3
Aim: 3
LICH: feeds on the bleeding hearts of his enemies.
Undead. Necromancy bonus.
Heavily Charred, not that it matters to you. But you look like you've spent the night on a live barbecue grill.
Inventory: £25, Certificate from Belial (valid for one sample of occult substance)
Large Knife, knife.
Surgical tools: scalpel, a saw, and tweezers.
Dead Guy's pockets: a set of car keys, a length of shimmering, crystalline rope,
{Unknown Potion}
Dragon Tooth Phylactery on End
[Human Leg Wand]
[Ulna and Hand Wand]
Gunfarmer's Armour-piercing Amphibious Assault Rifle (30/30 Rounds)
Lightning Longsword
Puissant Clots: 2
Puissance: 14/14
Name: Don Joe
Entire back covered
Ritual Strength - 2
Runic Sight - 1
Puissance - 1
Aim - 2
Agility - 1
Practicality - 1
Inventory: £130
Murdered guy's wallet
Keys to Maserati
Card of Mortal-mind cleanup guy
[Chain Coin Pendant] - Used
[Giraffe Wine Chalice]
Simple Knife
Runes
Market Savvy: You know what things are worth, and who will pay for or try to get them. From your time spent as a banker, a passive rune.
Acid: a rune that eats into whatever it touches.
Nebula: a rune that glows brilliantly, written in brilliant points of light. Can be written on the sky itself to send messages through the stars.
Puissance: 3/5
Puissant Clots: 2
[spoiler=it's the cycle of life]
Name: Jane Zisigin
[Heeded by Deep Ones]
Puissant fettle: 2
Runic Sight: 1
Aim: 3
Inventory: [Tier Two Deodorant Stick Wand]
Runes
Megafauna: the first magical creature Jane really saw was a demonic rhinoceros trampling the broken bodies of her parents. This rune gives a passive awareness of nearby massive beasts, and will attract them when written.
Waif: boost to stealth when alone.
Author
Topic: COVEN: Gulled Goldsmiths and Lost Locomotives (Read 153855 times)