"Five thousand? Now that's more like it, I knew you'd wise up! Now, can you tell me anything else about what we're going up against? Who else are we defending this unholy toothpick from? Cultists with blades, again? Cultists with guns? How well are they funded? Anything in particular we should watch out for?"
Asking Vince questions.
Vince unhappily turns his attention from the television.
"You're looking at one or more well funded groups, likely using firearms or arcane weaponry, as well organised and trained as your average terrorist organisation or militia. You're going to have to be on your guard against known threats dependent on your route, and prepare countermeasures accordingly, but also be wary of unknown assailants. Typical bandit tactics are to be expected - diversions, roadblocks, surgical strikes."
"Sweet-smelling poison that you don't notice 'till it's too late, and flesh-melting acid all over everything.
...
Brilliant."
Well, now that that's cleared up, time to go hunting. There is a specific demonic rhinoceros out there. Find it, making good use of the Megafauna rune, so that I can melt its flesh off.
You write the megafauna rune, nice and big, with a bit of soft white stone on the floor of a large public square.
Attracting a specific megabeast... that's a trickier prospect.
6+1
Well, you beckon the demonic rhinoceros alright. The thing comes charging into the square so fast you barely have time to duck behind a set of plant pots. Mortals run screaming as the creature roars and stamps, bellowing out a challenge. You use the acid-creating spell.
Behind you, humans sitting at a cafe give out blood-curdling shrieks and whatnot as their skin starts to melt and bubble. The demonic rhinoceros, its thorny hide glowing infernal red with cryptic runes, merely breathes more fire from the depths of its burning mouth, lighting the skies with great gouts of flame. It's completely fine, and proceeds to tear apart innocent bystanders as you crouch behind the shrubs. Just like it did your parents Oh god, not this again...
Don will buy a new suit (genereic men's stop) if his current one is messed up, and then go back to the Coven and register for mission. Onwards. Also, does it feel like the demon comes from a dimension like the giraffe dimension? Basically, does it feel like I could tear the rift wider?
Oh, also, before I get back, drop a giraffes on a nearby street with only a few people on it, drop it on the people. I never did see what happened to civilians.
You get a snazzy new double-breasted suit, the current one being a bit covered in ash and blood and all. Expensive, but well worth it.
The demon you just summoned is unlike the giraffes, seeming more like a creature that visits your plane of existence for a few seconds to wreak havoc and destruction at your behest before returning freely to its own. The flame-creature is working for you. The giraffes on the other hand just want to burst into the mortal world and drive people insane.
Speaking of, unleashing the giraffe demons on a handful of unsuspecting civilians is fairly horrifying. The creatures really go to town, surrounding the weak-minded mortals and incanting their mind-bending chants. Most of the humans try to run, then sink to their knees or curl up in a ball when they realise they can't escape, the demons pressing closer and closer around them, rainbow-hued giraffe necks wrapping around their shoulders. One man... oh jeez, are those his eyes? They are, aren't they... Jesus Christ...
You leave hurriedly, and Vince directs you to Nanami, who you catch just in time to enter the HQ of the organisation you're delivering for.
Continue hovering close to Nanami's position to make sure nothing wrong happens. Also try to find a nearby hobo in some dark alley in which to test my unidentified hand wand spell. After doing the spell, impale him with my phylactery.
You watch Nanami enter the large stone building, presumably an accountancy firm or something acting as a front for your generic magical base. Usual secret stuff. Anyway, time to kill someone.
You find a homeless person crouching in an otherwise empty alley. He looks up at you hopefully, an emotion that quickly turns to confusion as you level your wand. The spell does nothing at first. Then his hand curls into a fist, seemingly against his will. He stares at it, and it relaxes. You raise your phylactery, and his arm raises at the same time, to the same poisition. A few experiments satisfy you that you can now control the movements of his hand, while the spell is maintained. Takes about one puissance every ten seconds.
Then you step from the shadows, revealing your horrifying undead visage fully, face charred to the bone, and levelling your weapon. The dragon's tooth smashes through his chest and carries his bleeding heart out the other side, impaling him on the steel mop. The sweet blood sings to you.
See the sellers and ask them some basic questions. If these are the buyers, ask them where we can find the sellers, and vice-versa as we'll need to plot out a route.
"So what are we hauling around, exactly? And what are the hazards of it? Do we just have to not touch it? How big is it? Can we just put it in a lead box and carry it in a bicycle basket, or a messenger bag?"
Tell Dave I've got 200 pounds for commissions, and he can do what he likes with it. That should be enough to get started. Give it to him now, if I can manage that without being there in person. (Or retroactively.)
For this turn, try and recruit a cameraman. I want the cameraman to be enthusiastic enough to become a cultist, too. The rooftop of a nearby building should be good enough site for shooting, and I'm sure I can convince someone to give me the keys. I want to do double-duty, by doing interviews in a cafe or place across from a bank, so I can see if there are any armoured car deliveries.
((Also, how are Nan's clothes holding up? Should I find a clothesmaker or designer while downtown?))
You knock on the door of the building Vince sent you to, Don by your side. It swings open, and you catch a glimpse of a receptionist's lobby before the floor liquidates and runs away, revealing a series of downwards steps carved into stone.
A hooded figure stands there, somehow looking monkish despite a massive iron cuirass and greaves. He bows once to you in greeting, and beckons you onwards. As you descend the passage, he speaks.
"You must represent the Coven, correct? I assumed there would be more of you, ha ha, but perhaps the others are in your pocket. I joke of course, it would be unwise to send your entire operation into an unknown location, friendly as it may seem."
You get the impression of a perfectly cheerful man who hasn't tried humour for a very long time, and has forgotten the "don't make veiled threats" part.
"I am brother Horatio, marshal of the knights Hygieian. Our order is dedicated to hunting down and destroying the... less savoury Gods. Make no mistake, we have no truck with demons, it is the deities that feed from and encourage baser aspects of humanity. Observe, our central storeroom."
You leave the tunnel, and come out into a massive spherical chamber, in a strange mixture of ancient classical, Gothic, and modern military design. A tank emblazoned with gold symbols lies parked among marble columns and piles of shells. A pool of molten steel in the centre of the room is fed from a series of channels descending the wall, while molds for swords, armour and steel and heaved to and fro by knights twice the size of ordinary men. The air stinks of sulphur and coal, and resounds with the clash of metal and cries of sparring knights.
"For certain reasons, our order does not like to venture aboveground, although we are not lacking in supplies. We have enemies on the surface, so cannot fight alongside you, but would be willing to give you some equipment. Sadly, we can spare little of what you see here."
Horatio leads you into a quiet alcove, gold-lined benches stacked with medical equipment and ammunition belts, and from there down a calm passage to a stone cell, in it nothing but a massive metal crate.
"We recently succeeded in destroying a certain god, or their incarnation upon earth. One of a number of deities responsible for the financial destruction half a decade ago. Twisted, greedy, megalomanaical and malevolent, it was a creature capable of inventing things and people from lies and rhetoric. We struck it down, but creatures like this just don't die."
He unlocks the cell, strides in, and places his hand against the top of the box. Neon pink sigils light up on the sides, and the lid slams back momentarily to reveal an outsize human head floating in green liquid, its hair twisting snakelike in the syrup, eyes rolling in malevolent anger. Yanking the container shut again, Horatio scowls at it.
"It can't do anything unless you give it permission, but it possess horrifying power. Men and beasts will kill for an artifact like this, so be careful. We need you to take it to a group across the river Thames, who can safely dispose of it there. You should probably rendezvous with them, decide on a pickup point. I'll dig up some maps of the surrounding threats."
Horatio walks off, his armour clanking, leaving the two of you in the centre of the Hyge-whatsit knights. Seems like this deal isn't the only thing these guys have going.
Nanami gives Dave the money, and manages to get a cameraman who'll work cheaply, if not for love. You don't have much to pay him with.
Name: Nanami Adachi. (Nanami)
Unnatural beauty granted by demonic contract and the adoration of mortals. Slight charisma/popularity boost.
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
Gunfarmer's Silenced MK-23 Pistol 12/12
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: 7
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.
Respined and very slightly shorter.
Inventory: £1, Certificate from Belial (valid for one sample of occult substance)
Large Knife, knife.
Surgical tools: scalpel, a saw, and tweezers.
A length of shimmering, crystalline rope,
{Unknown Potion}
Dragon Tooth Phylactery on [Tier Three Steel Mop Broom]
[Human Leg Wand]
[Ulna and Hand Wand]
Lightning Longsword
Human spine caduceus
Puissant Clots: 0
Puissance: 14/14
Name: Don Joe
Back covered in bone casing, small spikes
Ritual Strength - 2
Runic Sight - 1
Puissance - 1
Aim - 2
Agility - 1
Practicality - 1
Inventory: £890
Card of Mortal-mind cleanup guy
[Chain Coin Pendant]
[Giraffe Wine Chalice]
[Venom Blood Syringe Chalice]
Simple Knife
Five bone spikes
Gunfarmer's Browning 9-mm 13/13
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.
Carnage: paint this on something, and increase the likelihood of large numbers of people being killed or maimed near it. How on earth could you have picked up such a rune?
Puissance: 3/6
Puissant Clots: 1
[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]
£50
Bag of living scrap metal
Samples of: Human blood, Roses, Rotten Food
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.
Clots:0
Puissance: 3/9
((Sry about timeframes, pretty busy/tired atm))
Author
Topic: COVEN: Gulled Goldsmiths and Lost Locomotives (Read 154010 times)