All Roads/Session 14

ST: The thick smoke that envelops you is all-encompassing. It's so hot that it burns on your exposed skin and orange embers burn brightly, whipped up in the billowing cloud.

ST: You barely have time to take a breath, however, before it parts and the scene around you has changed utterly.

ST: Isis has been here before, as has anyone who shared in her vision. You stand in the almost empty living room of some kind of apartment. The entire place is filthy. The carpet is dark with grime and on the floor behind you an old matress sits covered with a blanket. Newspapers litter the ground, and near the makeshift bed is an ashtray packed with more than just cigarettes.

ST: Doors lead off to the right and left, and a window behind has a view over a city you're not familiar with. You're quite high up. What captures your attention more, howver, is ahead. A man, easily recognisable as the suspect you were shown in relation to the Orchard street incident, stands in the adjoining kitchen. His eyes are wide and he seems frozen in place, staring at what must be the front door.

Isis: stumbles backwards as the burning smoke hits her but catches her balance again on the other side of the transition. Her arms raised in a defensive posture, a phrase of High Speech ready on her tongue she looks around with wide eyes, expecting to be attacked at any moment.

Isis: "This ... this is like the dream I was made to have ..." she haltingly explains when no attack comes, at least not immediately.

ST: The door suddenly rattles in his hinges as someone pounds on it from the other side and the man flinches in shock. "Open the door! Now!" The voice on the other side has a southern English accent, and even though you understand him somehow you swear he's speaking French.

Isis: Isis jumps and takes a step back at the sudden pounding against the door.

ST: The man hesitates, then suddenly goes rummaging in one of the kitchen drawers. Almost at the same time you feel a spell release an instant before the door is kicked open violently and sprays the room with splinters. Standing behind are two men who quickly push their way in. One you may recognise as Alastair, the other you don't at all. "Check the place." Alastair growls and his accomplice makes to move past you.

ST: They don't seem to see you at all.

Nebuchadnezzar: glances around his eyes shimmering in the dark. "Be calm now Isis, we are no longer looking for nightmares and you must be calm to properly face what is ahead." He is stunned his own voice sounds so calm... but then he has had time and worse things than this to temper his resolve.

Isis: In the grip of confusion and fear it doesn't occur to her to invoke the scales of Ma'at again to confirm whether any of these people are part of or the whole of the entity.

Kenan: looks rather nervously at the door, trying to see both it and the man inside the room at the same time, but doesn't take any action yet

ST: The man, panic all over his face, turns away from his search and towards Alastair. "He's not here!" At the same time the second intruder barges his way into what appears to be a bedroom to your left.

ST: There is a moment of tense quiet before a sudden scream, a young girl, comes from that room. It grabs Alastair's attention and in that split second the younger, panic-gripped man lunges forward; apparently having found himself a weapon, the flash of steel appearing in his hand.

Isis: At Nebuchadnezzar's admonition Isis nods nervously. She really should be more calm, deal with this as she would with any other situation ... but then it isn't, is it? There is her soul at stake here in the worst case.

Isis: Still, she has to try or she won't have any chance of prevailing in this confused battle against whatever it is.

Isis: Breathing in the pattern she has been thought she wrestles the fearful part of mind down as best she can.

ST: What happens next is nigh instantaneous. "NO!" You all feel a spell burst from Alastair's soul but as it hits the air it erupts into sickening paradox. The man's knife drops with a clatter and that sensation of paradox explodes into something all-consuming. He howls in agony, and Alastair stumbles back to fall to the ground.

ST: ((Who has mage sight active?))

ST: You all see then with relative clarity the unquestionably distinctive process of awakening in the first guy. As the spell hits him, a mind spell, his soul is elevated but as it does something else happens simultaneously.

ST: Paradox infects him, for lack of a better description. It clings to him, his mind and soul. ((Int and Occult if you want a more in-depth idea of what it is.))

ST: Manifestation, no doubt. Possession.

ST: Very powerful one, too.

ST: Far more potent than Isis's current visitor.

Isis: Eyes wide, her back to the wall Isis watches the scene unfold and chaos erupt.

ST: The man clutches his head and at the same time Alastair's accomplice re-emerges, a young blonde-haired girl held tightly to him. He barely has a chance to say a word though as the young man lurches and another spell, one of his own this time, lances through the air again laced with paradox. They crumple instantly and the girl falls to the floor with them, though squirms; apparently unharmed.

ST: Alastair's eyes are wild with fear and it only takes him a moment to find his feet and flee.

Isis: Unsettling as the scene is, it's what Isis' mage sight shows her that strikes her like lightning in quick succession. Thoughts of spells of her own are blown away like leaves on the wind before the realization of what the scene played out before them is trying to show them.

ST: From there the man struggles with his abyssal burden, snarling and crying out in abject pain. He takes two steps but slumps to the floor. The girl stands, tears streaking her face. Her blonde hair falls thick around her shoulders and she's dressed in a grubby pink t-shirt and jeans. She can't be older than 12. She looks a lot like Isis. "Jean?" Her voice squeaks.

Kenan: looks uneasily at the scene, then back at Isis, then back at the scene

Isis: "... what ... ?" Isis has difficults bringing out the words.

ST: He doesn't move but to writhe on the floor. "Uncle Jean?" She takes a few steps forward. All at once the man springs up. His hands clasp around her throat and an expression of pure, animalistic rage crosses him as he utterly strangles the life out of her.

ST: When he's done with the unspeakable deed he slumps limp to the ground, and begins to wail.

ST: "Je suis desole.." He cries again and again as dark smoke begins to curl off his form.

Isis: "How ..." Still wrestling with the overload of information Isis shrinks back against the wall as violence erupts anew.

ST: Cracks snake their way across the walls around and the whole apartment greys with decay. The smoke becomes thicker and thicker until his silhouette is utterly obscured.

Nebuchadnezzar: "Is this what we were waiting for?" Neb's voice is ice, no emotion or reaction at the scene whatsoever.

Kenan: Taken aback by what he witnessed, Kenan lays his hands on Isis' shoulders, trying to reassure her

ST: The scene darkens more and more, large chunks of the outer wall crumbling suddenly.

ST: The city outside, it's not as it was in the vision. Wind whips in savagely through the holes left in the walls and the landscape is recognisable again. You're in the blasted landscape of your nightmares once more.

Isis: "Oh. Right ..." It's only as Neb prompts her that Isis remembers what they are here to do. Quickly she casts a spell of Death.

ST: Though this time far above it, and not alone.

ST: Two glowing coals burst to life in that smoke-billowing figure. Eyes, ones you have seen before. Embers begins to wick off its silhouette and suddenly it unfurls. It's the demon you faced, no doubt.

Isis: "Yes," Isis breathes. "Yes, this is all of it," she confirms a second time in a firmer voice, her determination renewed by the prospect of finally being free of this invasive curse, this cancer in her soul.

ST: "I am.. Sorry." It wheezes in an inhuman sound and then, in a mirror to the act you saw moments prior, it reaches its long, blackened limbs out towards Isis.

Isis: Raising her hands she begins to chant in High Speech, her voice growing stronger with every word.

Isis: Stepping forward and away from the wall defiantly Isis faces the demonic figure before her with supernal law as her weapon. Her Nimbus rises about her as she puts everything she has, everything she /is/ in this place into her spell.

Isis: Blurry and dream-like, whipped by unearthly winds, her tone reminiscent of the iron of her Watchtower she appears in this moment less like a child and more like the goddess that is her namesake.

Isis: The Unravelling Practice unlike in the Fallen World appears as faint streamers of silvery light trying to rip the entity apart from within.

ST: It reels. Glinting silver light lacerates its body, shimmering and bright amidst the smog.

ST: Purity in the face of its sheer corruption.

Kenan: Kenan quickly utters words in High Speech, targeting the being with Chronos' Curse, in an attempt to slow the monstrosity down and give everyone more time to act

ST: The magic holds and the beast's movements slow to a crawl, becoming predictable and easily outpaced.

Kenan: "it will wear off in a moment, I'll try to slow it down for longer" - Kenan nervously announces, as he's beginning to focus on casting the spell again

ST: It advances all the same, its movements fluid though hindered. With hardly a gesture the orange burst of flame suddenly flares within it and it belches a blast of cinder-laced smoke towards the three of you.

Isis: Isis braces herself even as she scrambles to avoid the burning smoke, much less fearful now there is a concrete danger she is facing rather than the creeping dread in the face of abyssal corruption. Facing merely very dangerous things she has had to before, she has ways of coping with that.

Nebuchadnezzar: Neb's laughter, short and brusque filters through the smoke and flame as he leaps clear. "Everyone out of the smoke?"

Isis: Grasping that Neb is about to employ a Matter evocation Isis tries to get as far away from the smoke as she can.

Isis: "Clear," she calls out. Which is not completely true, but she's as clear as she can be, she figures.

Nebuchadnezzar: "Best grab onto something secure!" He yells even as he begins to shape the mudra the chaos around him dimming and the noise of his shout dying.

Nebuchadnezzar: Not seeing Kenan he shrugs having delayed as long as he can, the smog thinkening into dark, tainted and then gradually clearer and clearer water which pelts the room, alongside Neb's muted and silent laughter.

ST: The creature screams and hisses in equal measure. Steam pours off it as it is drenched in the deluge of pure water. Underneath all that smog the demon is a wretched creature indeed. Vaguely the same shape as the manifestation at the brewer's hall its stretched skin is blackened and burnt. Charred bone shows in holes in its flesh and its face is twisted in a perpetual snarl of agony; its head vaguely humanoid but for its jaw of jutt

ST: The searing coals of its eyes still burn bright but it seems pained by the sudden change. It doesn't take a moment, though, for the white steam to begin to turn into a trickle of black.

ST: All the while this has occured the whole building has continued to decay. More and more the rapidly-aging concrete sloughs off both the outer and inner walls; exposing you to the icy elements outside.

ST: When that sudden rush of water hits the ground there is a groan and a large section of the floor gives way in the far corner, where the mattress once lay.

Nebuchadnezzar: pushes himself back to his feet, spitting water. Staggering, sodden and wet he imposes himself between the creature and Isis. "If you want the girl monster, then you best come through me."

Isis: Isis retreats from the creature, her eyes fixed on the creature seeminly unaware of the terrain. With a smooth, circular gesture and a whispered word the world seems to grow dim all around for the entity, but only for a moment as her spell seems to fail.

Isis: When clarity returns Isis has inadvertently maneuvered herself into a corner where the creature might easily catch her ...

Isis: ... or so it appears to the entity's confunded senses. In reality where Isis looks to be standing is just empty air beyond a wall that's almost completely crumbled away.

ST: Kenan, with his mage sight active, realises Isis's is attempting something and holds himself back to prevent distracting the beast.

ST: The creature itself, however, is none the wiser. Once more its becoming obscured by its everpresent smog it turns its attentions on the trapped girl.

Isis: The hallucinatory Isis at this time seems to realize that she has no way out and looks around panicked, ready to just try and bolt and hope for the best. Necessitating quick action if the creature wants to get her ...

ST: An almost perfectly executed trap, it lumbers forward then is just about to launch itself at the illusion when its clawed foot hits the crumbling lip of the structure and slides towards the hungry void below.

Isis: Meanwhile the real Isis is walking in a half circle, one hand reaching toward the abyssal thing, her expression one of intense concentration.

ST: However, at the last moment it catches itself and latches its the claws of one hand deeply into the concrete of the remaining, adjoining wall.

ST: It roars, position precarious as it clings on and begins to twist its body desperately to remain inside.

Isis: "Now is the time," Isis calls out brightly. "Strike it down!"

ST: Dark shapes circle the building in defiance of the wind. All flapping wings and black feathers, but each the size of a large dog and blurred against the stormy skyline.

Nebuchadnezzar: Neb grins, looking out one of the holes at the ground below. "Can you fly monster?" His right hand helping his steady both himself and the Imago he is building, as he backs towards Isis and Kenan. "Time to find out."

ST: More nightmares, but nothing as potent as the one you prepare to end.

Nebuchadnezzar: His right hand brushes the floor... and the entire building ceases to be.

Isis: Her hair flying in the wind Isis looks up despite the strain of maintaining every detail of the illusion she doesn't yet want to relinquish. What are these creatures now?

ST: The crumbling building disappears beneath your feet in an instant, dissolved into utterly nothing. Dark, broken ground below begins to rush up as you're all suddenly falling through the air.

ST: The crumbling building utterly collapses beneath your feet. The ceiling above and the floor below break into chunks and all around the sudden-ruin goes into free fall. Amidst the falling debris you see the demon twist in the air, and you can hear its frenzied roar even over the bone-shaking sound of the structure's fall.

Isis: Isis' jubilant exclamation as the monster is dropped toward the ground dies quickly as she and Neb join it in freefall.

Isis: Unfortunately there is not much she can do about this ... neither Mind, nor Space at her level of ability lend themselves to escaping a 'death' by crushing rocks. The only way to survive something like this is by sheer blind luck ...

Isis: Three shouted words in High Speech brush across the threads of fate, reordering the tapestry to provide for the heroes of this narrative, namely the cabal.

Nebuchadnezzar: is shouting in High Speech, a plea to the winds, if Isis recognises the language correctly as his form shimmers.

Nebuchadnezzar: Yelling at the top of his lungs, "YOU SEE MONSTER, I CAN!" as the winds pick up and fail to be as impressive as Nebuchadnezzar hoped they'd be as though the cabal is swept from the building while the creature is not, it does not in anyway slow their fall...

ST: The cabal's luck doesn't seem to be favouring them as the wind only takes them over a roadside patch of dead, straw-like grass. A softer landing than concrete, perhaps, but not by much.

ST: Seeing the ground rushing up to meet them Kenan grits his teeth and releases a desperate spell; one that could rewrite all of their fortunes..

ST: "Now is the time," Isis calls out brightly. "Strike it down!"

Nebuchadnezzar: Neb grins, looking out one of the holes at the ground below. "Can you fly monster?" His right hand helping his steady both himself and the Imago he is building, as he backs towards Isis and Kenan. "Time to find out."

ST: "Don't collapse the building!" Kenan suddenly yells in reply, looking right at Neb with an expression only a time-traveller can muster.

ST: That being sheer, boundless desperation.

ST: "We won't make it!"

Nebuchadnezzar: Neb alters the Imago, his right hand instead shooting outward and away. The winds picking up, with the toll of bells. He mutters a word of High Speech, that for wind as he does so, to ease the transition.

Nebuchadnezzar: The wind picks up, howling even as one of the creatures in the sky is torn from it, and the whole building is battered by winds. The pressure however is centred on the manifestation, a wind of hurricane proportions flinging it out into the open air.

Isis: Isis makes herself small to reduce her profile and holds on to whatever she can find to avoid being blown away herself by the sudden storm.

ST: The thing utterly blasts from the opening, wrenching a chunk of the wall with it. Its howl echoes on the wind as it flies through the frigid air at breakneck speed before slamming into the face of a ruined apartment some distance away. The wall it strikes breaks with a crash and the sound of rumbling bricks.

ST: There's a plume of dust from inside, but then nothing more.

Isis: Seeing that Neb has tight control after all over the forces he has unleashed Isis rises up again, casting a spell to make the creature visible to her regardless of obstacles in the way.

Nebuchadnezzar: More quietly Neb goes "And at the moment I probably can..."

Nebuchadnezzar: As the wind rushes round the building

Isis: "That ..." Isis shakes her head, her eyes wide. "I didn't know you could do something like that."

Isis: After a moment she takes a deep breath to refocus herself. Even so her work here is not yet complete. Her eyes narrowed in concentration Isis steps as close to the edge as she can get without being drawn into the draft of Neb's localized hurricane and begins to gesture slowly and precisely.

Nebuchadnezzar: shrugs and gives a sad smile. "We are limited only by our imaginations." He says quietly...

Isis: Over and over she draws Atlantean symbols representing the manifold aspects of the mind followed by sigils of dissolution and unravelling, muttering a steady, low chant as she does so.

Kenan: "Indeed we are" Kenan remarks, looking down, still shaken after the recent events

Isis: Slowly and meticulously, without fanfare Isis takes apart what remains of the thing, devising one lethal thought after another to disintegrate every last bit of thought, every memory, every twisted emotion that makes up its identity. It takes a few minutes until she is satisfied for not even the mental equivalent of a single atom can remain unsplit into its every constituent particle and dispersed never to cohere again.

Isis: "Some things I don't want to imagine," Isis says quietly. "Blasts of air are not bad, though."

ST: Though unseen by anyone but Isis the smoking carcass of the beast disintigrates slowly. Its body breaks down until the last wisps of smog dissipate into the air, leaving absolutely nothing in its wake.

Kenan: "do you... think it's over now? What exactly was that thing? and what did we see earlier? - Kenan doesn't try to hide his worry and confusion

ST: Not a trace of its corruption remains and the cabal are left buffeted by the wind in the gaping remains of the apartment from their vision.

Isis: Her work finally finished Isis sits down on a broken chunk of wall and takes a deep breath. "A pattern of thought, a shadow of almost-mind, a spark of not-quite soul," she says.

Nebuchadnezzar: "An awakening gone wrong, and a Guardian to blame for it... if the vision can be believed."

Isis: "The origin ..." She sighs. "Abyssal. Perhaps a splinter broken off from the manifestation at Brewer's Hall by my mental attack upon it. Perhaps transferred from the mind of the ... the one responsible for ... the one possessed by ... I'm not sure."

Kenan: "I'm just... worried that it might not have been everything. This thing is dead, gone, but was it all of the problem, or is something else behind it?"

Isis: "Maybe a deliberate attack, maybe an accidental imprint of thought and purpose on an Intruding spark," Isis thinks aloud.

Isis: "Communication seemed to be part of its design or intent."

Isis: "There still is the Scelestus," Isis nods.

Nebuchadnezzar: "Did either of you two have anything else to do in the Astral Realms, before we run out of time with the Demense?" Neb says

Isis: "And this Guardian of the Veil ... wasn't that the one you ran into at the ritual?"

Kenan: Kenan just shakes his head. Then, he brightens up "we'll deal with this when time comes. The important thing is, you're safe, at least for now"

Kenan: "me? I might visit my own self again, I'm keen to experience more of it. I haven't traveled to my Oneiros before"

Nebuchadnezzar: He shrugs in response to Isis' question.

Isis: Isis nods. "Yes, I am free of it now." She smiles tiredly. "Thank you both. I don't think I could have done this alone. It might even have made things worse if I had tried. Thank you."

Nebuchadnezzar: "I doubt we have long..." he says. "I don't think I will reach the Temenos today sadly."

Isis: "I can reverse the dream bridge," Isis nods to Kenan. "There will be other times," she says to Neb. "What were you planning todo?"

Isis: "I have been in the Temenos once or twice, if you think I can be of help I would love to."

Isis: "The Dreamtime I know mostly only from descriptions, though. Without an Amnion of your own travel there is very difficult."

Isis: Feeling very much like someone whose death sentence was from one moment to the next lifted Isis is beginning to reclaim her natural curiosity.

Kenan: "to be honest, I'd like to help as well, if you think I might be useful. This is all new to me"

Virgil: "I'd rather visit the Temenos alone, I'm looking for something.... 'personal'..."

Virgil: Neb says after awhile. "And I believe with the time remaining, we will be booted out of the Demesne before I can find anything I want to out. The curator was rather pedantic about us being out on time."

Isis: "If you do get more demesne time, there are things of my own I'd like to investigate as well ..."

Kenan: "aye, if you do get more time, let me know" - Kenan appears rather keen