Sam: When last we left our heroes, they had just killed a half dozen minor magi without provocation.
Fanny: I was provoked. They were holding me prisoner.
Sam: Sure they were... Azreal is urging you to hurry.
Nate: "It is best we were away. Sir William is about to make a grave mistake. Come!"
John: "On my way!" Homer takes three tottering steps and collapses.
Nate (ooc): Oh yeah. He's still hurt, isn't he?
Sam: You could say that.
Nate: Healing anyone who's hurt with Life 3. Homer first. Taking two turns. (rolls) Three successes total.
John: "Thank you, Walter. I am not used to facing so many magic-wielders in combat."
Nate: "You are most welcome, Homer. But others now require my attention."
Fanny: I have Life 3, too. I'm going to heal Mary.
Sam: Dif 7. 6 with a specialty focus.
Fanny: (rolls) Two successes.
Sam: That heals two health levels. You get a point of Paradox, Christabel.
Fanny: Is she still hurt?
Mary: A little.
Fanny: Going to heal her again. (rolls) Two successes.
Mary: That heals me the rest of the way. "Thank you, miss. I am Clara Byron, Daughter of Ether and adventurer."
Fanny: "I am Christabel." She smirks. "Your stereotypical Irish witch. I thank all of you for rescuing me. The Fallen
Ones intend to force my beloved to become one of them. He says they have forced him to do terrible deeds, and fears what
will happen without their protection. Sir William told me that the Dark Masters intend to lead him through the Cauls
tonight, and that I mustn't try to stop him."
Mary: "Sir William?" Her eyes become cold as ice. "He killed my mother."
Fanny: She gives a start. "I...I'm sorry, Clara. Perhaps that is the terrible crime that has brought him here. He has
not been himself. You must understand that."
Bill: "Sir William murdered your mother, Clara? Christabel, you must face some hard truths about your fiance. William
is sick. The invisible Wyrm that flies in the night in the howling storm has found his bed and his life will be by his dark
secrets destroyed. I lost a dear friend to the manipulations of the Fallen Ones. Once ensnared, only hornets can escape the
spider's web."
Ed: "We imperil our very souls if we go on, I fear. The Leech has attempted to ensnare us in his masters'
manipulations."
Sam: Azreal looks up from where he has been quietly drinking the blood of the dead and unconscious magi around you.
"That was never my intention!" He looks hurt. "They caught me hunting their magic-rich blood and punished me by sending me
into torpor. I overheard them discussing Sir William, though, and it is as Christabel says. Perhaps that is why they tried
to eliminate us both. Sir William is the key to something the Nephandi want, and they are willing to kill to prevent anyone
from discovering their plans for him."
Christabel: "Then they will surely kill us, too. Perhaps he is right. It would be wise to leave this place before we
are discovered."
Nate: "You would leave a fellow man in the thrall of Satan's servants merely to protect your own lives?" Walter seems
shocked.
Everyone (ooc): Yes.
Sam (in a whisper as he shakes his head): No.
Bill: "Why not? Only people who attract attention have enemies. Enemies require so much energy. You water your wrath
in fears, night and morning with your tears. You sun it with smiles and with soft, deceitful wiles. It feeds on your blood
and devours your soul. The Nephandi would only feed on your hate, and then they would ensnare you with it."
Ed: "More than a few of your brethren serve the Fallen Ones, Walter. Do you not think they had good intentions, too? We
all are good people, until we turn to
evil."
John (ooc): I am unarmed. Strike me down, and you will take my place! Hey. What are you reading over there, Sam?
Sam (ooc): The Book of Madness.
Several accusatory stares leap over to Bill.
John (ooc): You didn't!
Bill (ooc)(shrugs): It was his birthday, and he didn't have it yet.
John (ooc): Neither do any of us. We don't even know what twisted ideas he'll find in there. And you tell me _I_ break
Rule Zero!
Bill (ooc): Speak for yourself. You don't think I'd give a GM a book for his birthday without reading it, first.
Sam (ooc): I was wondering where the tea stain on the entire Nephandi section came from.
Bill (ooc): That's not a tea stain. I "accidentally" spilled some etching acid on those pages, but managed to clean it
up before it burned through the pages. Paper is a bit singed, though. You can still read the text, right?
Sam (ooc): Oh yes. I can still read it.
Bill (ooc): Damn! I mean, good. I'd hate to give you a ruined gift.
John (ooc): And if you believe that, Snow White, he has an apple you might want to try...
Bill (ooc): 'Till it bore an apple bright. In the morning glad I see my foe stretched out beneath the tree.
Sam (ooc): No contact poison on the paper, right Grimtooth?
Bill (ooc): None.
Sam (ooc): Good. Shall we continue roleplaying, then?
Nate: "If God is for us, who can be against us?"
Bill: "The Nephandi and their Dark Masters."
John (ooc): And the Technocracy and the Vampires and the Werewolves and the Mummies and the Wraiths...
Bill: "We can't defeat all of their plans, Walter. We are only six."
Nate: "No, but we can defeat THIS one. All of us have reason to despise the Fallen Ones. They have murdered the
innocent, corrupted and killed our friends and family. They must be stopped from doing it again. They must pay now, not
merely in the afterlife."
John: "I am with you, Walter."
Nate: "Homer."
Ed: Allan eyes the feeding Ventrue with disgust. "I am with you."
Nate: "Allan."
Mary: "I came to avenge my mother, and that is exactly what I intend to do."
Nate: "Clara."
Fanny: "I simply must rescue William from these evildoers!"
Nate: "Christabel. Bill?"
Bill: Draw heaves a great sigh. "I always knew I wouldn't be able to stay neutral forever. Let's at least heal
ourselves before this mad ordeal."
Nate: "God bless you, Draw. God bless all of you."
Sam: Azreal nods. "If you will just follow me."
John: We do.
Sam: Azreal leads you through the twisted corridors of the mirror-walled labyrinth. The distorted glass and walls shows
each of you horrible reflections of yourself, revealing an image of your Avatars at one shoulder, and its shadow on the
other. Occasionally, the shadow bends down as though to whisper in your ear.
Bill (ooc): A seller of lightning rods came before the storm...
John (ooc): At least I don't break Rule Zero when we're wandering a Nephandi Labyrinth, Bill.
Sam: At last, you reach a doorway, veiled into opacity by a thick curtain of tangled black threads.
Ed: "Spider webs?"
Sam: Actually, think more along the lines of black cotton candy.
John (ooc): Agh! Cotton candy Barrabi!
Bill (ooc): That or it's a cotton candy Caul.
Sam: Azreal steps aside and stretches an arm toward the barrier. "After you, good magi."
Mary (ooc): Just because my character's Nature is Fanatic does NOT mean she's going through the Cauls on the invitation
of a vampire she's just met in an effort to maybe get her revenge.
Ed: Allan tries to cut a hole through it with his knife.
Sam: As sharp as the blade might be, it does not puncture the barrier. A man's voice screams from the other side.
Bill: Taking a few sips of my whiskey and using Cor 2 Life 2 to see if there is anything of interest beyond the cotton
candy Barrabi. Coincidental?
Sam: Yes. Dif 4.
Bill: (rolls) Three successes.
Sam: You detect two living things before a barrier blocks you out. The screams become muffled, but now a woman's voice
is chanting.
Ed: Chanting in Enochian to burn away the tapestry. Forces 3 Prime 2.
Sam: Vulgar. Dif 7, with your injuries.
Ed: Willpower. (rolls) Two successes.
Sam: The black cotton candy curtain burns away, revealing a vast chamber with a floor made of more of the black threads,
except these aren't as thickly matted. You can see a deep pit below it, and just make out the glow of hot coals far below.
At the center of the room is a cocoon of black threads around a man-sized and feebly struggling form. Next to it is a
chanting woman with long, raven black hair. More threads shoot out of her hands, further wrapping up the cocoon from which
the screams - muffled as they are - can only be faintly heard, now.
Nate: "Stop this immediately, and free that man!"
Sam: She smiles faintly at Walter. "No."
Nate: "In the name of God, I command you to leave him, creature of evil!"
Sam: "No one here by that name, dead man!" Hands of purest darkness reach through the weblike floor and engulf Walter.
(rolls) You feel the life force drained from your body, hear the whispers of the foulest temptations imaginable, even a few
you do not think any sane mortal could imagine. Take Agg 4.
Bill: Draw steps forward to see what's going on. He takes one look at the woman and gasps. "You!" he hisses, and then
faints dead away.
John (ooc): Am I the only one who didn't write some sort of Nephandi connection into my character history?
Mary (ooc): No. The murderer I seek just turned out to be a Nephandi, as it happens.
John: Homer pulls out two knives. "I have come for the life of Sir William."
Sam: "You are too late, death mage. He is now ours." The woman and the cocoon tear through the floor abrubtly, falling
down into the black depths below. There is a slight increase in the glow there, and then the black cotton candy becomes a
solid floor and the mirrors no longer show your Avatars' potential for evil. You hear laughter and realize there are now
children wandering through the hallways around you as though they had been there all along.
John (ooc): Well, that takes the Weirdness Award for this chronicle. I'm guessing that's all you had planned for
tonight?
Sam (ooc): Yep. Have a pleasant evening, all.
ST (Sam) - Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Clara (Mary) - Mary Shelley
Christabel (Fanny) - Fanny Brawne
Draw (Bill) - William Blake
Homer (John) - John Keats
Walter (Nate) - Nathaniel Hawthorne
Allan (Ed) - Edgar Allan Poe