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Malediction Malediction glances through the door the unfortunate cultist just came through, then glances nervously to the north. Without anything else to guide him, heading away from that is the best he has. "Negative," he says, brushing past his mysterious companion, "South is a good way for me to head right now. If you wish to sew confusion, use our unconscious friend over there." After taking a moment to check for signs of life on the other side of the doors he opens them and slips through. Guess I won't be taking the sewers then. Let's hope this warehouse is near a river.
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Feb 9, 2014 18:24
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Dr. Herwig Wolfram Beats: 3, Cover Beats: 1 "Keep me up to date on their movements and progress. If we don't have to go in at all, that might be best. Although amidst this confusion, finding the linchpin would be a slightly easier task." The doctor steers his car neatly through an alleway to avoid a red light. "We should discuss tactics now, if we're planning on actually making an entrance. I believe the hoody, for instance, might help one of us look for the linchpin in the safest manner possible."
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Feb 9, 2014 18:42
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Mr. Bright That works too. Bright leaned down next to the ill-starred chump, passed a hand over both of their faces and closed his eyes, opening them in a different skin. And with the man's social standing too, including any respect within the cult. He dragged the man's unconscious body away from the door as best he could, and quickly went through his pockets for anything of interest- some dark glasses to cover his glowing eyes would be especially helpful. Once he found whatever he found, he headed up the stairs behind the altar to the east, looking for any other cultists or potential linchpins or sources of waste Aether. Using Identity Theft on the unconscious guy: 1 success
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Feb 9, 2014 23:08
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Ilaniel Health: 8, Willpower: 5, Cover: 7 , Primium: 1 , Aether: 1 => 3, Beats: 3, Guilty, Inspired "Well, I can certainly take care of the distraction, if you can handle the linchpin. I wouldn't mind that rifle for it, though, if that's all right with you Mr. Culp. I suspect I might know my way around it better than you, no offense. How much further?" Ilaniel said, and then added, "Herr Wolfram, do you mind if I smoke in here?"
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Feb 10, 2014 00:23
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Mr. Bright With a slight flexing of the code surrounding you and the man, you assume the cultist's identity. After finding a pair of sunglasses in his jean pockets, you ascend the stairs and enter through a door at the top to the second floor of the warehouse. You see another cultist heading towards you from the right. He's a blonde Scandinavian-looking man and he is carrying a scoped hunting rifle. He comes close to you, looks around and whispers, "So, did you figure out what made that noise? We can't have anything gently caress this ritual up, man, or we're screwed." Malediction You enter the south area of the building and are hit by the smell of death. Something is rotting in here. You have entered into a long hallway with multiple doors lining it; you count about six total, three on each side. There are dark stains on the floor leading to the door in the middle on the right. At the end of the hallway is another set of doors. The Car You close in on the warehouse. ETA: 4 minutes. SunAndSpring fucked around with this message at 01:00 on Feb 10, 2014 |
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Feb 10, 2014 00:56
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Mr. Bright "No," he whispered back- yikes this guy had a high voice, "i'm freaking out here. Hold me?" With sudden speed he clamped a hand over the man's mouth and grabbed at his wrist to tuck it behind his back, trying to hold him still as a plug snaked out from between a newly-made fork in his tongue. Trying to establish a grapple so I can use Memory Theft, what's his Defense? And Composure/Willpower for that matter?
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Feb 10, 2014 01:55
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5 defense and 2 composure, as well as 5 Willpower.
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Feb 10, 2014 02:00
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Yikes, forgot Defense is higher with GMC. Spending 1 willpower, 2 successes
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Feb 10, 2014 02:11
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Mr. Bright You have to exert a large amount of effort to do so, but you manage to get the man firmly in your grasp. He groans and then goes limp when you insert the brain jack into him. You are free to commence downloading.
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Feb 10, 2014 02:56
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Mr. Bright There wasn't time for a long operation- he overclocked the quantum computer of his mind, furiously ctrl+f'ing for the sensations that were tied to this man's memory of the previous Gathering so that he could experience them for himself. Downloading an hour's worth of memories of what happened at the last Luguspartei, 5 minutes per roll, spending 1 willpower: 5 successes! everything's coming up kellsterik Kellsterik fucked around with this message at 03:36 on Feb 10, 2014 |
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Feb 10, 2014 03:30
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Dr. Herwig Wolfram Beats: 3, Cover Beats: 1 They were getting close now. "I am neither the stealthiest, nor the best trained in combat among us; furthermore, I possess the only legitimate invitation to tonight's Gathering, should we be unable to bring down the cult this afternoon. I am also the only one who can quickly patch any of us up should we become wounded. On the other hand, I suppose tonight's Gathering may be postponed due to this afternoon's events." The doctor quickly checks his phone for any messages regarding this. Herwig really wasn't keen on going in and blowing both his literal and his more metaphysical cover. "Perhaps I could enter under less 'clandestine' circumstances, however." He did have that invitation with him after all. "Oh, and no smoking. The smell lingers and could possibly betray my own proclivities towards smoking that I must insist remain mysterious and nebulous in nature."
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Feb 10, 2014 04:26
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Malediction An abattoir. Unsurprising for a group that engages in human sacrifice. The urgency of the situation prevents him from checking the doors, but he spares the attention to check the rooms for other prisoners as he rushes down the hallway at a brisk canter. Heading through the next set of doors if I don't detect anything living on my way down the hall.
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Feb 10, 2014 04:38
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The Car Dr. Wolfram weaves through apartment complexes and bad neighborhood to get within a few blocks of the building in the fastest manner possible. 2 minutes until you arrive. Dr. Bright You begin to absorb vast quantities of the man's thoughts and memories. Eventually, you manage to completely download as much as you can from the man and decide to view the memory in your mind's eye. What you see isn't pretty. You have a bird's eye view of the Gathering from the rafters; you guess the man you're stealing this knowledge from usually runs guard duty during these events. The ritual begins when a tall bearded man in a dark-green double-breasted suit ascends to the altar. One man is tied to the altar already, and he is screaming as he tries to escape his binds. To the left of him is a boiling cauldron, filled with some unknown liquid. The leader begins chanting in a language that you cannot understand exactly, but shares common roots with that of modern Gaelic. You can recognize the words for "dedicate to", "blood", and "Lugus" among them. The crowd nods, chanting single word affirmations in response to certain points of the lecture. Eventually, the leader stops and draws a steel knife with a white wooden handle. The sacrifice begins to rock back and forth even more violently, alternating between prayers to the Lord Jesus and laying as many curses as possible on the cultists. It's evident that the man being killed did not know who these people were. Eventually, the man's cries are ended when the leader drives the dagger into the man's heart. He gasps and seems to hang on for a few more seconds, looking the man in the eyes with an expression of utter terror, before passing out and dying shortly thereafter. The man then is handed a box by another cultist. He draws a slip of paper from it, and then points to the crowd. The people in the crowd look for the person who had won the lottery and find her; she is dragged, kicking and screaming to the stage. Two burly men escort her to the stage, holding her arms behind her back while they bind her with enough rope to fully immobilize her. The leader resumes his speech, ignoring the former cultist's pleas for mercy. When he finishes, the men lift her up and drop her into the pot. She instantly begins to cry out as her skin begins to slough off; you wonder if the cauldron is filled with acid for a moment. The process is repeated, and this time an Asian man has one of his arms locked into the center of the wheel at the far end of the stage. After the incantations are done, the wheel starts to rotate. It snaps, twists around, and eventually tears off the sacrifice's arm. As the ritual finishes, you can see disappointment on the leader's face; it seems as if he was expecting something to happen and it clearly did not occur. As he walks off the stage, the vision ends. Inspired as usual. Get the 3 Successes = Exceptional Success rule for rolls relating to extracting knowledge from people's minds. Feel free to follow up on your current exceptional success. Malediction Your blind sight allows you to see past the doors of the cells. Most are empty. The bloodied room has a few rats and insects devouring the corpse of something. You can also see something thick and liquid flow down a drain into a large tank below the building in the room to the right of that room. You shudder to think of what it really is going down that drain. Eventually, you get to the door at the end and open it. You are in what you think is the entrance. You see a pair of cultists watching a set of cracked glass doors opposite you. Their backs are turned to you, and so far they don't seem to have heard you. You can see the outside through those doors. To the left and right are even more doors. SunAndSpring fucked around with this message at 05:11 on Feb 10, 2014 |
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Feb 10, 2014 05:03
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Mr. Bright Bright tries to reach deeper into emotional context, not repulsed as his Cover says he should be but morbidly fascinated. Somehow he suspects that this ceremony has been attempted many times before, with the same disappointing anticlimax of merely a triple homicide. But they keep trying, still reaching for the divine with bloodstained hands. Faith, he muses with an eye toward the Integrators, is stronger than all the evidence in the universe. With that in mind, he tries to feel what the nameless man whose memories he now intimately knew felt at the end of the ritual. Was he confused, disappointed, elated, or was this what he expected? Did he have a specific image of what he thought would happen, but didn't? He also looks through the cultist's eyes with his own outside knowledge: did anything happen during the ritual that can't be explained through human action? Was there any sign of angelic presence or activity? Finally he focuses on the man's emotional reaction to the bearded man in the dark green suit. What does he know about him, and what was he thinking at the time of the ritual? Does he view him with reverence, or cynical recognition that he's a charlatan, or shared knowledge of a secret?
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Feb 10, 2014 05:53
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Malediction Two guards. One he could take out from behind, but the other would certainly see him. The least he could do is draw more attention this way, and he'd likely need to be put down for seeing his true form. But perhaps there was a way he could turn this to his advantage and not spill any unnecessary blood. He straightens his body and strides confidently forward. "Humans," he bellows, "is this how you receive the vanguard of your god? Why do you not show your reverence and kneel before the Sword of Lugus?" Manipulation + Subterfuge + Specialty to convince these guys that I am a facet of Lugus freshly summoned into the world. The Biggest Con: 9d10o10h8 5
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Feb 10, 2014 06:27
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Mr. Bright You dive back into the memory, the natural curiosity of an Inquisitor driving you towards finding more information for yourself. You first start with examining the man's emotional state at the end of the video. You can tell that he, as well as the cult's leader, was upset by the outcome. You see for a moment what he wanted to happen: for Lugus Himself to appear in the center of the stage in his many-faced glory and to guide his cult to even greater riches. You then look towards his feelings of the man in the suit. You pry a name from the memory, Kent Ballard, and derive that the cultist has deep respect for him. The cultist seems sympathetic to Kent as the ritual fails yet again. At the very least, new recruits have been brought into the fold to help out. Finally, you search the area and to try and see if any Angelic influence is noticeable. At first, you see nothing of note, asides from the graphic murder. But, during the part of the ritual where the first cultist selected for sacrifice was been lifted up to the theater, the man lifts his rifle's scope to his eye to follow her. You get a clear view of both the knife and the altar and notice that the altar is etched with Angelic script that you did not see on the altar earlier due to the lack of proper lighting. You can make out the words and their function is clear; they dedicate any blood spilled on it to an Angel designated Lugus. You wonder why exactly it did not work. Give me an Occult plus Intelligence roll if you want to see how they screwed up. Malediction The cultists react to you almost immediately. They begin to fall to their knees, bowing to you. One of them, a bald white man with a poorly hidden swastika on his neck, says, "Oh, Lord, you've arrived early! I knew you would come! All those unworthy we fed to you have drawn you into the physical realm! I'll serve you however I can!" The other, a similarly bald black male, cannot seem to muster up the words to speak to you, and simply nods in agreement with the ex-Nazi. Well, you can't be double inspired, so take a Beat. God drat, you guys are lucky rollers. The Car You arrive as close to the warehouse as you can get by car. Dr. Wolfram parks his car in a nearby parking garage. You must walk the rest of the way to get to the warehouse, hidden behind the freeway and the slums. SunAndSpring fucked around with this message at 06:45 on Feb 10, 2014 |
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Feb 10, 2014 06:37
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Malediction "It was the zeal of one of your brothers, delivering the blood of the unbeliever with his bare hands. But the ritual is not yet finished, and I am only one face of many. There are others, though, false gods who have held dominion over this world for too long. Even now their agents race to this place, drawn by the force of my summoning. They hope to squelch me before I can attain my full power in this world. Faithful servants, you must see me from this place, to somewhere I can safely gather my power for the day We bring salvation to this world."
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Feb 10, 2014 07:11
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Intelligence + Occult: 4 successes, in what will surely be my last lucky roll of the thread
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Feb 10, 2014 07:37
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Redactor WP: 0/4 Beats: 2 Cover Beats: 1, Cover XP: 3, Aether: 8 "Of course," Redactor said, handing the gun up to Ilaniel. "You're right, it is a bit loud for my tastes. I suppose if you can draw attention I'm the one who should be poking around for the lynchpin." "It'd be better not to draw attention at all, of course. But maybe we're past that point." Redactor exited the car, stretching Culp's legs -- it hadn't been a long car ride, but Culp was an old man, and his circulation wasn't great. The warehouse was a short distance away... Well, a longish distance by human accounting, but just at that moment Redactor wasn't thinking in terms of humans and their sad, useless little limbs. "I'll go on ahead, shall I? You two find that fool Mal and be sure he's out all right. This is going to be a wasted trip if that Infrastructure doesn't fall... The angels will be all eyes and I doubt we'll get another run at it." He turned toward the warehouse and took a deep breath, tension running out of his shoulders as he slowly exhaled. Culp blinked out of existence like the picture fading from a dead monitor. In his place, a horror remained.  Standing roughly 7 feet tall, it was an assemblage of wires, pistons, pylons, props, and blades endlessly shifting in form, recombining and reassembling itself into the form of arms, torsos legs, heads. The only constant piece was a porcelain mask, its eyes and mouth spilling forth cold blue light. It was hard to look at, not just in the sense that it was frightening and confusing, but physically hard to look at -- one's eyes seemed to naturally shift away from it without registering what they had seen. If a person was able, with supreme concentration, to stare directly at the demon's form, he appeared somehow not entirely real, a shimmering form like a mirage or a fever dream. Redactor skittered off at an impossible speed, moving centipede-like on an assemblage of half formed legs. Assuming Demon Form! Compromise roll for assuming demon form +1 WP: 6d10o10h8 1 I'll take a glitch roll Glitch Roll: 2d10o10h8 0 Minor Glitch. Also spending an aether to activate my aether sense. Now I'm going to get to the warehouse as quickly as I can while still remaining stealthy. Stealthily advance on the warehouse: 12d10o10h8 5 I'm going to try to get in unnoticed and then search around for the lynchpin. Baby Babbeh fucked around with this message at 11:41 on Feb 10, 2014 |
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Feb 10, 2014 09:19
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Dr. Herwig Wolfram Beats: 3, Cover Beats: 1 The doctor gets out of the car and carefully straightens his clothes and realigns his tie, while others among his company take more drastic actions. "I will head for the front door and see if I can't gain access that way; I'll say I misunderstood the time, maybe distract a guard or two so that others can make their escape or entry, mhm? Can you tell me where Mal is, Mons?" Do I gain a beat for being a Tempter and convincing someone else to look for the linchpin? Also activating Occam's Razor for the scene: Occam's Razor: 6d10o10h8 0 which fails.
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Feb 10, 2014 16:00
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Mons "He's inside, though I've not got enough info to state where." Mons brought his sight back to the world around him and after a moment climbed out of the car. "He's currently working on subverting the cult by acting as their god. He's aware that there are Angels on the way." He adjusts his coat, making sure he could reach his pistols.
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Feb 10, 2014 22:49
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Ilaniel Health: 8, Willpower: 5, Cover: 7 , Primium: 1 , Aether: 3, Beats: 3, Guilty, Inspired "Hey, Mons, I think I have something for you back here," Ilaniel said, moving to Wolfram's trunk. He opened up the duffel bag he had brought along, and brought out a UMP with a few magazines (5d10h8 4, the 3-Harm weapon from my bolthole for this chapter; Two-Handed, Autofire). Offering it out with a grin, he zips the bag back up and leaves it be. "I know you usually prefer something smaller, but if push comes to shove I'd rather you put someone down fast. Oh, and take care of it; I'd like it back when this is over." Next he checked over the AK and shoved it deep into his knee-length peacoat. "Let's give Culp a few moments to get into position, let Wolfram talk his way in, and then you and I will kick in the door. Politely."
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Feb 10, 2014 23:26
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Mons "Oh, how kind of you. I'll keep a close eye on it. But don't worry, I'm always 'armed'." Mons's said, eyes flashing. Stashing the UMP on his back and stuffing the ammo into one of his pockets. "Define polite?"
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Feb 10, 2014 23:31
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Redactor You escape the gaze of the God Machine for now, but you had to slightly readjust your Cover to do so. Nothing too major, as it will reboot within an hour of reassuming your human guise, but for some reason you now seem to be emitting a spicy odor. But for now, you feel in your element. It's great to flex your cables and pistons after pretending to be a feeble old human for so long. You now smell strongly of cardamom. Could be worse things to smell like. As you skitter towards the building, you see two guards walk past, submachine guns in hand as they patrol the area for suspicious activity. For a short moment, they stop to talk about the football game last week, and that is your chance to bypass them. You run (for lack of a better word) into the warehouse and leave them none the warier. You then begin your search for Aether. You are in a room filled with junk and debris. A single chair lays in the middle of the room. Fragments of rope are on the floor around the chair and a Hispanic man is lying face down on the ground nearby. You sense that the ambient Aether in this room is unusually low; you guess this is where Malediction was held prior to your escape. There's a door leading to a room with ominous implements of torture and an altar to the east, as well as what looks like yet another unconscious cultist. Standard rules for Inspired. Make 3 successes into an exceptional success for any other rolls involving being sneaky. Mr. Bright You reexamine the Angelic runes more closely, and you can see what exactly went wrong. A typo, of all things, is the one thing preventing this Angel from being summoned into the world. The script is coding meant to convert the Essence released upon the death of a human into the Corpus of the Angel, allowing it to be summoned forth into existence. However, due to what you strongly suspect is human error, the occultic program does not run this function but simply stores the Essence in the altar. You wonder how much more Essence will cause the program to overflow. You cannot even begin to guess what would happen if that were to occur; the glitches of a human program are nothing compared to that of angels. Dr. Wolfram You sure can get a beat if you make someone do what you should be doing for you. You walk up to the front of the warehouse and notice that the welcoming party is currently preoccupied. Specifically, they are bowing in worship to your comrade, Malediction. He has assumed his Demonic form as well, and seems to be milking it for all that it's worth, the dummkopf. Malediction The ex-Nazi keeps bowing profusely to you. "Anything for you, oh Master. Anything!" He has tears of joy streaming down his face, as does his comrade. Pathetic, but you expected as much. Eventually, they manage to compose themselves enough to be coherent. "Where do you wish to be taken, Lord? Our other comrades are currently in their quarters at rest, including our leader, Grand-Scientist Kent. I'm sure that he will do anything in his power to protect you, Great One. If you'd follow us down that door to the left, we will take you there." You feel a surge of Essence again rushing from the north. This time, it is much closer to you and rapidly approaching. Whatever is hunting you, it is fast and certainly not relenting in its pursuit. Everybody Take an XP beat, everyone, for getting through another chapter. Cover beats for everyone but Malediction. Take an XP beat for both amusing me (by knocking out two dudes and making two others worship you) and for bringing the others to a dangerous situation, GoatLoard.
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Feb 11, 2014 05:31
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Dr. Herwig Wolfram Beats: 5, Cover Beats: 2 Looking rather sure of himself, the doctor walks up to the front door, only to find that, that was exactly where Mal was. This was precisely what he had wanted to avoid, as, in his current form, Mal was demonic honey to the angelic bee. Cursing silently under his breath, the doctor has to think fast; Mal was being hunted, so how could he prevent the Angel from just following Mal's tracks if Herwig took him to his car. "If you have a desire to go elsewhere, oh Great One, I could drive you to a safe place and the men here could fight off your pursuant." He took on the poise of a hero that had arrived exactly in the nick of time, positioning himself in the light of the doorway to enhance the effect of his stunning features. Hopefully this would help the mooks overlook that he wasn't actually supposed to be here. "Quickly, rally!" Persuasion: 8d10o10h8 4
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Feb 11, 2014 16:09
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Malediction "Excellent, more true believers have heard the call of my incarnation. You two, gather your brothers. The agent of the false god is nearly upon us, and you must do everything you can to destroy it." As he speaks, he lays his blade-arm on the shoulder of each man in turn, as if bestowing some sort of blessing. The placebo effect is not to be underestimated. "I warn you, this agent has only one goal: my destruction. It will tell any lie it must to achieve this goal. Go now, I shall return when the ritual is complete and Our full glory once more shines on the world." He does not wait for a response, instead galloping out of the building and grabbing Dr. Wolfram on the way. "Where are you parked?" he whispers once the two of them are out of earshot of the cultists.
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Feb 11, 2014 17:23
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Dr. Herwig Wolfram Beats: 5, Cover Beats: 2 Why was Mal rushing at him? Oh, drat. Was all that went through the doctor's head as he is swept up by the monstrosity on its way out. "Right over there, in the parking garage. You will need to assume your human form sometime soon, though, if you do not wish to leave a trail of Aether behind." That gave the doctor an idea. "Put me down for a bit." He takes off his watch, carefully wipes it clean of all fingerprints and then infuses it with Aether, before stashing it in a trash container that was leading in the opposite direction of the parking garage. "That should give us an extra few moments, too. Now, move!" Infusing my watch with 1 Aether to draw off the Angel in a different direction, to gain us a little more time.
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Feb 11, 2014 18:47
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Mons Well that was rather unexpected. If they were lucky the Angel might just destroy the cult itself looking for Mal. If they were unlucky the Angel would reset abolish control over the cult and come after them again. Ether way they needed to get out of here, it was a pity they wouldn't get to slaughter the cult themselves but there was little point starting a gun fight when there was an artillery piece on its way, metaphorically speaking.
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Feb 11, 2014 19:11
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Ilaniel Health: 8, Willpower: 5, Cover: 7 , Primium: 1 , Aether: 3, XP Beats: 4, Cover Beats: 1, Guilty, Inspired Ilaniel stood, momentarily confused, halfway to the door, when Wolfram and Malediction came running by him. Matching pace, he followed them back to the car, and watched as Wolfram set up a decent escape plan. "Wait, are you saying there's an angel back there, coming to fight us? Shouldn't we stay and, you know, dismantle the cult like we were asked to? And where are Misters Bright and Culp?"
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Feb 11, 2014 19:50
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Dr. Herwig Wolfram Beats: 5, Cover Beats: 2 "You are welcome to stay, but I have nothing to fight an Angel with. My plan is to make sure Mal shakes the Angel and then to double back here to pick the rest of you up. It's either that, or we all try and fight it, right here, right now. But that plan doesn't sound too great to me, unless we know the Angel's ban. I have a date tomorrow, you see." The doctor keeps jogging towards his car as they talk.
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Feb 11, 2014 20:03
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Malediction Once he turns a corner and is safely out of sight of the warehouse, and his sense confirm that nobody else human is watching, Malediction places the doctor down and shudders a moment as he resumes the guise of Clarence Gilbert. "Yes, you are the one who enjoys killing Angels, feel free to stay," he says, without slowing down. "Last I saw the demon who teleported to me was heading upstairs. I did not see anyone else."
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Feb 11, 2014 20:23
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Redactor Redactor surged through the doorway of the warehouse, thrilling at the acceleration as his many arms and legs scrambled silently across the pitted concrete. How limited humans were! It was easy to forget, ensconced in that soft, flabby body with its ridiculous, stumpy limbs, its bulbous lump of a head, its wrinkled, drooping face. It was easy to forget true beauty — skin of steel and plastic, the perfection of pumping pistons, manifold reaching limbs! But he could not lose himself in the sensation of himself. He had a job to do — and there was danger here. Moving circuitously over walls and cealings, trying his best to be unseen, Redactor searched subtle lines of essence and infrastructure that would lead him backwards to the source. Not sure what the roll is here. It seems from the book that large bodies of Aether should just register to me as they come into my range, unless there's something hiding them. I'm looking for the lynchpin. Wits+Composure? Looking for the lynchpin: 4d10o10h8 2 Trying to stay hidden: 12d10o10h8 4
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Feb 11, 2014 21:34
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Redactor Your search for the Linchpin continues. You briefly stop in the altar room, noticing that the altar itself is giving off intermittent gouts of Aether, like how a teapot releases blasts of steam as the pressure and heat inside of it builds up. You wonder for a moment if it could be the Linchpin, but realize that destroying the altar, while it would surely ruin whatever was going on here, would be exceedingly dangerous to everyone around the area. Eventually, you arrive near the door to the cultists' quarters, and you can sense a large amount of Essence degrading into Aether inside. This might be the linchpin, but you risk being detected if you enter the room. Mr. Bright You hear glass shatter above and behind you. You hear a screeching cry like that of nails on chalkboard mixed with television static. It is only one floor above you, but you can hear it skittering around on many legs, running towards what you guess to be Malediction. Eventually it stops right above where you are. It paces around, as if it is looking for something. Your choice on what to do. The Rest of the Ring As Dr. Wolfram chucks his watch into a dumpster away from the parking garage, you see the two cultists at the front entrance take defensive positions around the entrance. They aim at where Malediction came from, anticipating the "false God" that is hunting him. You'd feel sorry for them if they actually knew what they were going to be fighting.
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Feb 12, 2014 03:52
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Mr. Bright Beats: 4+1, WP: 2/4, Aether: 1 The Essence, the fuel for the summoning- it was still there. Waiting. Even one more triple sacrifice could cause it to boil over, but until then, there was an Angel just behind a locked door of human error, simultaneously existing in the quantum states of existence and nothingness. It was, hypothetically speaking, at his mercy- he knew exactly where it would manifest, if only it could be pushed over the edge, forced into the material world on his own terms, b-b-open:/break.the_!ssseventh_!ssseal Oh, my. That was a dangerous thought. Where had it come from? And what was that noise? He slowly stepped away from the vaguely Scandinavian guard, confident that the recovery from his thorough memory theft would keep him from forming any coherent thoughts for a little while. Something crystallized in his mind, and without thinking too hard on it, he picked up a forgotten stress ball from a desk and began tossing it against the wall and floor with one hand, bouncing it in a rhythmic semi-pattern just loud enough to be audible in the room above. Cause: bouncing a ball. Effect: the entity upstairs becomes aware that someone in the room below them wants to speak on friendly terms. Cause and Effect, 1 success
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Feb 12, 2014 04:48
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Mr. Bright You bounce your ball, hoping to alert whatever is above you to your existence. You see the tiling above you slowly crack and then it bursts out of the ceiling, dropping onto the floor where you are. It rises to its full height of seven feet and looks at you, staring you in the eyes with the approximation of a face that it was given. It is hunched over and it constantly drips slime from its wings. It is like Malediction, in the sense that it is shaped much like a centaur, with two pairs of legs resembling an animal's and an upper body resembling a human's. The similarities end there, however. The Angel you see before you resembles a cockroach rather than an armored horseman. Bits of assorted metal poke out from under its exoskeleton; a wire there poking out from the chest's chitinous covering, a vent that emits a black smog there by the thorax. A large television screen is embedded where its head would be. This CRT television rapidly switches from channel to channel, showing you snippets of programs from every era of TV in blurry black and white. It looks at you and rubs its claws together while bleating out static-filled Angel speech to itself. human.status: lookingat me. analytics prob 73.124023981% human. update parameters/talkto human. makeit prove humanity. The channel switching then becomes coherent. It begins to assemble words from the snippets of television that is is displaying. "You're going to tell me everything. Don't make me angry."
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Feb 12, 2014 05:30
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Mr. Bright He couldn't be sure whether the angel saw such subtle indicators, whether they meant anything to its cathode eyes. But he knew that he had been installed with the ability to see auras and body language to make up for the lack of social graces given only to Messengers, and making his body's heartbeat quicken and sweat collect on its brow seemed to come naturally anyway. "Finally- something pure! Uncorrupted, sane, holy! An emissary of Lugus!" Calm. Calm inside. You're not fooling a method actor here. There's almost definitely backup somewhere, even if they don't recognize you and you can't talk. Still enough Aether to blink out. but not enough to turn back after, hmm? you fool. some rescue mission. some cunning plan. all-knowing. "The brethren, even Ballard, their faith wasn't strong enough. They've turned away from the path of obedience in their hearts. They've corrupted the summoning ritual, and they know I found out. I tried to fix it in service to the Many-Faceted One, but the energies are too concentrated now. If we wait any longer, their irreparable blasphemy will cause the summoning of Lugus into the world to suffer a fatal error. This machine is broken." He made his eyes desperately plead. "You- you understand, don't you? Exalted one?"
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Feb 12, 2014 06:07
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Mr. Bright The antenna on the creature's head twitch as you talk to it. Grease continues to dribble down from its limbs and wings, and as it comes closer to stand over you, the oily substance drips onto your face. It smells like putrified human flesh, and you have to gag to avoid tipping off the angel that you are not human. The TV face tilts to the side, and then another burst of static emits from it. notafraid. prob of cult causing this phenom 53.333333. reference "LUGUS" found; meant to besummoned monthsago/hasnot been summoned. continue/interrogate human. "Show me proof." As you wonder what to do, you are reminded of the fact that your face's donor is currently downstairs in the altar room, and that the angel would likely find it to be proof of your demonic existence. Redactor You can hear something in the cult's quarters. Someone is yelling, "Come quick! Lugus has come, and is in danger of being destroyed by a blasphemous demon!" You hear movement as some people rise up to leave, and you can sense the source of Aether slowly follow them out of the area. SunAndSpring fucked around with this message at 06:29 on Feb 12, 2014 |
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Feb 12, 2014 06:21
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Mr. Bright Think. Think. Look afraid, and think. If there's one meager advantage of the human flesh-hardware it's the pumping of adrenalin to sharpen the mind in a crisis situation, and it doesn't seem to be kicking in yet. "I-I-" He shuddered, voice quavering. "I'm sorry, mighty one, sir, it's- your, your divine visage is too-" There. "I heard Ballard talking to one of the Enthroned yesterday- he didn't know I was outside the door. That was when I realized they had turned against Lugus. They said they had been told a great mystery by some kind of infernal power- how they could, begging your forgiveness for even saying it- claim the summoning for themselves, for their own power. They were promised that they could corrupt the summoning of Lugus, the holiest, and chain him to the physical world as a debased demon." His face was stark pale and sweating, guts wrenching with cosmic disgust and revulsion at the prospect that such a thing might even be possible. "I remember," finally, hurriedly, "they said they had been 'enlightened by the First of the Fallen'."
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Feb 12, 2014 06:42
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Mr. Bright The angel begins hissing, releasing steam from vents under its head. Its oil begins to spew everywhere, as it grabs you by the collar of your shirt and pulls you up to look within inches of its screen. The volume dial on the TV screen keeps going to the right, increasing the volume of the angel's speech gradually. You guess this is what passes for shouting for this being. "Lead me to the others. I will judGE THEM TO SEE IF THEY ARE WORTHY. DO NOT RUN AWAY." It then sends another burst of data out. minor.task/kill human ifno cooperation. "First of the Fallen" prime designate fordeath. known tobe affiliatedwith Apollon Group. personally knows renegadeApollon itself judging from unprobable levels offoresight. Parameters/ tend towards caution.
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Feb 12, 2014 06:59
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 01:41 |
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Mr. Bright The disgusting stench of rotting-flesh oil splashing onto this mask's face, the ear-splitting noise mixed with randomly flashing Best-Of clips of increasing violence, the raw, brain stem-level panic of being lifted off the ground by a hostile party were compartmentalized in favor of the gears rapidly turning in his true mind. If only Babel stood unbroken and humans knew the Angel tongue, he just might have been able to ask for clarification on that last bit without breaking cover!! "I" urk "swear to you I would not run from divine judgment I could, mighty one, but...but they know I am not part of their unholy scheme, and would slay me if they saw me. But, if it pleases you, I know a way to bring them here. We have a secret way to call each other." And with an angel lifting him up by the collar, his dark glasses balanced precariously on his nose, his feet dangling two feet off the ground, Mr. Bright desperately wet his lips and began to whistle a tune that he hoped more than anything would echo in precisely the right way off the warehouse walls. Even more than he hoped the cultists would actively draw weapons at the sight of another monster threatening one of their members- a few seconds of the angel's attention elsewhere would be enough. Here's what i'm thinking: Cause and Effect, where the cause is whistling a certain melody and the effect is any cultists in the vicinity converging here out of curiosity- possibly this is the kind of trick that led to Bright discovering the Summon exploit, since it's kind of halfway between them. If that's stretching the power too much I can roll something else or just have it fail or whatever you want obvi. 1 single success Kellsterik fucked around with this message at 07:38 on Feb 12, 2014 |
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Feb 12, 2014 07:36
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