Our next mission sends us to Detroit. My mentor, Dr Anderson, has asked I check in on a friend of his who has fallen into a mysterious coma. We find Mr Hugh Phillips in a run down building in the heart of Detroit (although it was hard to not find a run down building) being cared for by his fellow mages. We learn that Hugh has been dabbling in the Goetic arts and that is most likely the cause of his coma. It also becomes apparent that all the Vampires including the Prince have gone mad, cheese raping mad. They have decided that they are the superior supernaturals and they must cull the city and break the Masquerade. Even to us non-vampires, we know that breaking the Masquerade is a big no-no and Danno consults with the Lady Abigail on what to do about it. Meanwhile I propose we enter Hugh's Onerois to see if we can remove his demonic influence from there. Since entering the astral realms requires the power of a Demense we call upon our 9ft tall supermodel to aid us. Bored with sitting around she agrees to come to Detroit and we enter Hugh's dreams. His demon likes riddles and we are presented with several, the first few we manage the next we don't and the demon engages us. The fight was similar to a mage duel, but since this wasn't an actual duel I decide to cheat and we easily defeat the demon. Hugh is now free of his coma and fills us in. Apparently Hugh's goetic demon manifested itself and took over the Prince, hence his madness. Lady Abigail charges us with dealing with the Prince and asks we spare his life and remove the demonic influence, she feels there is still much good in him. The vampires have been destroying all the mages who have tried to leave the city so we use the remaining mages as bait to lure out the vampires and hopefully the prince. The gambit works and we fight the vampires. In the end we lose the Arrow mage and Lylith beats down the prince and we hold him alive. I call Jericho back in Chicago and ask if he can come out and remove this demonic influence since none of us have the ability and Jericho is a vampire of god (ya that sounds weird, its a long story) I mage transport him into the aftermath of the battle and he removes the goetic demon and we return everyone to Chicago.
In addition to the summary of our journey I believe I will add in another section detailing my personal thoughts. This section I will encrypt using a blend of mind, space and old fashioned military grade algorithms. I shall call it the Arcanum Encrypted Message Protocol. Maybe after this is all done I will release these personal thoughts, but until then they will remain secret and merely an outlet so I can ponder them.
Cygin
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Seeing what happened to Hugh and his Goetic demon has really put me off on the whole Goetic magic road. While the details of it I still find quite interesting, this is not something you deal with lightly, it requires strength, fortitude, concentration and time. I do not have the luxury of time.
During the big battle with the vampires, the abyss finally struck back. My vulgar use of magics has finally caught up with me and I actually grew a pair of horns, yes actual physical horns. At first it was quite entertaining, I unleashed my full nimbus and really played the part of demon. Thinking about it now after the heat of battle I realize I do need to be more careful, how many mages before me have flaunted their use of vulgar magic thinking they were more powerful than the abyss and lost, permanently.
On the trip to Detroit we began to confront the Werewolf known as Red. I made it apparent to him that I don't trust him. I find this lone wolf thing of his disturbing. There seems to be a reason he was brought to us, maybe he is supposed to replace the ailing Padre as the 4th but I can't seem to get over this ghost wolf thing. He purposely gives up his connection with the pack. To me this seems anti-wolf, that pack is the one defining feature of the wolf, it is a bond that transcends all other bonds. How can he give that up, how can I trust someone that does? On the surface the ghost wolf thing does lend itself to not being a team player, and to be one of the 4 you need to be a team player. The others are finally starting to see that and are at least questioning this and his potential to be the 4th. They aren't as untrusting as I am though. I've been trying to find a real answer to that distrust, is it because of my connection with Kat?, is there a little wolf in my soul that cries out at this sin against Father Wolf I may not be fully aware of? or is it merely petty jealously? He has this family and just throws it away whereas I have an emptiness in my heart, a longing to be part of a family again? This is the first time I have though about my parents since I fell down this rabbit hole. I do miss them, but I think it is best they don't know I'm alive. How do you explain you are fine and now working for an Angel/Vampire? Maybe when Donovan is no more it may be safe for them to know, but until then they will be safer with ignorance. And what happens if Red becomes one of the 4 and forsakes the pack? With Kat being a permanent resident of the warehouse, what kind of tension is going to show up there, what happens when I have to choose sides between one of the 4 and my soul mate? It won't end well because I'm siding with Kat and then that makes me the non-team player. It really does seem the best choice is not let him become one of the four.
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