Time to get back to work. There are some violent and seemingly random murders happening in Helsinki, Finland. The time difference gets us there around 6 am. It's in the dead of winter and we are at a high latitude so it's still dark enough so Danno doesn't have to take a nap just yet. We figure the easiest way to get started is to head right into the police station and pretend to be cops. We know there was a murder just last night so we figured the investigators would still be around. I posed as an Interpol agent and Ohm was an FBI agent. Our ruse was that the m.o. of the murders were similar to some going on in the US that the FBI was investigating. I flashed my "badge" and they let us right on in. The murders were quite violent and strange. Limbs cut cleanly off, perfect holes straight through chests. We could clearly see why the police were stumped, this didn't make any normal sense. This was definitely the work of a supernatural and I hated to think it, but it really looked like the work of a mage. I quickly scanned the room with mage sight and found a mage sitting in the corner by the name of Sergeant Mercer. I was hoping he was at the scenes and checked them for resonance. I asked to talk with him away from the sleepers. He already knew I was a mage when I used my "badge". He did check out all the scenes and this was the work of a mage, in fact several mages. Each murder was done by a different mage and each one had caused a paradox at the scene. This wasn't good. We quickly headed out to the scene of the recent murder. It stank of an anomaly. As we scrutinized the scene out of the corner of my eye I saw movement. I turned quickly but saw nothing. I then realized that there used to be a trash can over near the wall. I put up my spirit sight up and saw the trash can, it was in the shadow realm. This anomaly had ripped a verge in the gauntlet, this wasn't good either. We can only hope this is a short one, having a verge right here at the site of a gruesome murder will attract some nasty critters from the other side. But there wasn't much we could do about it at the moment so we focused back on the murders. Since I had a location and a general time of the murder I closed my eyes and focused on that time. I willed myself back to a few seconds before the time of the murder. I saw a crazed looking man running after the victim. He created a sword of energy and clearly cut the victim's arm off in one swipe. The victim fell to the ground and and the mage kneeled over him with glowing blue eyes and reached out towards his chest. A bluish black energy flowed out of the victim into the mages hand and he had that look of a drug addict who just got his fix. I didn't need to be there to know what that energy was, he just devoured that poor guy's soul. I blinked my eyes back into the present and told the others what I saw. I did the same thing for the other murders and they all followed the same pattern. We had a group of mages who were mad and devouring the souls of sleepers. Did I mention this was bad?
Sergeant Mercer had also mentioned that a few mages had gone missing recently. He got us photos of 3 missing mages and sure enough they matched our first 3 murderers. As far as he knew none of these mages really knew each other and I confirmed that by sensing the threads between them. I willed my senses to tap in to the data stream of the first mage I saw. He was sitting in a dark basement, rocking back and forth and talking to himself. After a while he seemed to be aware of my presence which normally shouldn't be possible with my attainment. I then started to feel disoriented and dizzy and I quickly severed the connection. This was getting interesting, Since the seventh murder was done by the first mage we assumed the next murder would be done by the second mage so I scryed him out too. He was in a bed hiding under the covers in the same state as the first mage. And soon enough he noticed my presence and I felt dizzy again and killed the connection. We had to stop this guy from killing again and find out what the hell was causing this behavior. It really looked like they were possessed, but by what? And how did it possess all of them? Hopefully we would find out soon enough as we jumped in Sergeant Mercer's car and drove to the house of the second mage.
The sun was already up so we were without Danno. We had Red and we figured we could take out one crazy mage. We snuck in unnoticed and kinda realized we really didn't have a plan. It didn't matter much as we noticed the crazed mage staring right at us. I lashed out with my sap and smacked him pretty good. He just gave us a nasty look and I felt one hell of a headache. It hurt a bit and I couldn't help but chuckle, so that's what it felt like to the people I used that trick on. Red managed to get up next to him and tackle him to the ground a couple more solid hits from the sap and he finally went out. We bound him knowing it wouldn't stop him from casting but it was better than nothing. We needed to get him some place safe, especially from the eyes of the sleepers. Sergeant Mercer says we can use the Guardian's building. He says they will let us in for at least a day. All I could think was great, of course this guy was a Guardian of the Veil. I'm sure I'll get a very warm fuzzy welcome once they figure out i'm Free Council. We just love each other. Sergeant Mercer seemed willing to ignore any of our differences so we could work together on this thing and I did the same.
We got the mage back to the Guardian HQ and started trying to piece this together. After a very long and thorough exam we come to a few conclusions. He isn't possessed. It looks like a disease and it seems to be possess an insect level intelligence. It tries to spread itself whenever a mage casts a spell at it or near it. It does this by creating a sympathetic connection back to the caster. This thing is utterly fascinating, a sentient magical disease that uses several different arcanum to spread itself. It is also extremely frightening that such a thing could exist. At least now we know how it spreads and I know I can use a spacial ward to block it. Ohm tried to remove the disease but it is beyond his current skills. We need a Master of Life. Sergeant Mercer informs us the only Master of Life in Helsinki is currently indisposed. He just happens to be the first mage. Who we are considering to be patient 0. We know of only one other Master of Life, the Arrow healer known as Priest, aka grumbles. I leave this up to Ohm to call Kraven and convince grumbles to come over here and take a look at this disease. It doesn't take long for Kraven to convince Priest to come and check this thing out and a few hours later he is hopping through a portal I created right in front of the palace. We at least provide transportation for our guests.
Priest does his own analysis of the mage and confirms our theories about the disease. We ask if he can remove it and he thinks he can, but he will require access to patient 0. We sorta figured that would be the case so we rested up and waited until night fall. Going after a Master of Life wouldn't be an easy task, we were going to need Danno for this one. I just hope we can keep Danno on a leash, he doesn't do well with the concept of taking someone alive.
Cygin