We set out to find the Padre's powers. We pretty much know where they are and we know it's a trap, but thats part of what make this fun. We descend into the sewers near the Fae court's threatre (ya i know the proper spelling is er, but these are fae. There isn't a whole lot proper about them.). As we delve in deeper the stonework soon fades to overgrown plants and other fauna. It doesn't take a horticulture degree to know these aren't "normal" plants. It looks and smells like some trolls had too much to drink. The first intersection leaves us with some thumping noises from one corridor that is probably an actual troll and the other is quiet. We take the quiet. We travel on for some time passing through intersection after intersection. GPS shows us moving in the general direction of the theatre but not directly. We soon seem to be going into circles and it becomes apparent we are in a maze. Spatial awareness reveals that we are in an area of warped space similar to the type of labyrinth a Master of Space could create. We wander some more using Red's nose, the GPS and my skill with space to try to map out where we are going when all of sudden this big green fist comes out of one of the walls and connects soundly with Danno's face. Of course Danno didn't even really feel it and then the green fist is gone. Last thing any of us expected was a sneaky troll. This troll kept taking pot shots at us, not doing a whole lot other than be annoying. A few times we would get a clear shot at him and do a little damage. I had enough of these games and told everyone to stop and group up. I can command space myself. I set up a looping pocket of space directly upon us and we waited for the troll to come back through and as he did he became stuck. It was only for a small period of time but it was enough as we all unleashed on it and it dropped dead. We saw another flash of green moving away and howling at us in anger. It looked very similar to the dead one and Padre suggested they were probably brothers. I think all the trolls look a like so we will go with the Padre's answer. We now had a direction and using our previous tricks managed to finally escape the maze and find a the corridor the other troll ran down. As we rounded the corner we saw the troll and he had some friends, these fucked up looking things with a lobster claw. Danno sprung into action and taunted the troll about killing his brother which infuriated it and it charged. The Padre pulls out his mace and slams it towards the ground and I felt a surge of power come from him. Perhaps his faith and that mace finally congealed into something. As he unleashed the power an image of Lylith appeared and did the dragon strike thing but instead of the bluish green flame there was a shockwave of force directed towards the lobster things. The shockwave smacked into them and knocked them on their asses. Ohm quickly took advantage of the situation and lobbed a grenade down the corridor and it bounced right into the mouth of a lobster and with a loud bang and some dust, there were only lobster pieces left. Danno and the troll are engaged in their own little melee, the troll being no match for Danno. Danno shatters his club and eviscerates him from the groin up. Well that was too easy, this can't be the "trap"
We follow the corridor and it begins to expand into a large cavern. GPS shows us being almost directly under the theatre. Immediately we know we aren't alone and we catch a glimpse of large purplish eyes barely peaking out of the dark. Ahh theres our trap. The Padre sees somebody off to the side that the rest of can't seem to perceive and heads towards it. I attune myself to the Padre's wavelength to keep an eye on him while the others watch the thing above us. Soon we hear a familiar voice and Janice makes himself known. He is over near the Padre and erects a dome of reddish black flame over the Padre and the other "person" becomes visible, it is a spitting image of the Padre. The Padre begins to fight himself. And Janice comes over to us and the thing with the purple eyes appears and land between him and the Padre. The thing is a big blue wyrm. Ya kinda looking like a dragon. Janice or Samiel or whatever his name is now wants to have a little fight while the Padre is occupied. I tell him we aren't really interested and he is just going to cheat and the leave when things get bad. He still wants to fight and since we can't leave the Padre, this fight is inevitable. I tell him to at least make the wyrm thing go away and he tells it to leave and it portals itself back to Arcadia and we fight.
The fight goes on with neither side gaining and advantage. Ohm feels a familiar presence and all of sudden Kraven come running into the cave. Wasn't expecting that. Janice doesn't like the odds and cheats and calls back in the wyrm. The wyrm has this strange disorienting effect about it that seems to hinder the others attacks. Bullets also bounce right off it and it has this magic dead zone too. The wyrm emits this wave of fear and everybody but me is effected. I don't know what they are seeing but they all seem to be afraid of something and they are looking at everybody nervously. I move around so I can see all of my companions and raise my dagger in the air and shout at them "stay this madness!" (I really should get a staff and pointy hat for these kinds of moments) and I attempt to influence their minds and quell their fear. It works for all but Red. I try to calm Red down as the Padre rejoins us. He looks a bit more leafy and tries to talk to the wyrm. The wyrm is under contract to Janice and he really doesn't want to protect him but he has to. As the Padre keeps trying to talk the wyrm down Janice does that shadow step thing that Stephen used to do and moved around to engage Kraven. He then starts to twist and bones snap and he transforms into garou form. I was thinking great, he didn't just resurrect Stephen, he merged with him. As soon as that happened the wyrm's disorienting field went away and the wyrm stopped his attacks. Apparently with Janice going wolf he was no longer Janice in the eyes of the fae contract. Janice soon had enough and turned back into Janice and used the phoenix gate to make his escape, just as I predicted. At that point it really was a good time to leave quickly but this cave was having strange spacial fluctuations that I sensed would interfere with my portal. The wyrm didn't carry on the attack though, with Janice gone he didn't feel the need to protect him so we stopped fighting. The Padre continued trying to convince the wyrm to break his contract. The wyrm pretty much refused even though we told him that we would have to kill him if he didn't. Nothing was going to convince him and we couldn't leave him here knowing we would have to fight him the next time we tackled Janice so Danno started fighting again. It was a pretty boring fight, Danno and the wyrm trading blows. Kraven throwing some lightning bolts. I was completely useless, I just couldn't seem to penetrate it's mental defenses and the spatial warp made my back up attack a bad idea. We started seeing that look in Danno's eyes and knew we would have to retreat soon before he went into a rage. So we backed up out of the cave and the fight was over.
Well at least we got the Padre's powers back. Now I was curious as to what the hell Kraven was doing down here. He told us the council has been looking for this place for a while. They knew there was an unnatural connection to Arcadia somewhere in Chicago but apparently this things unique spacial warping prevented anyone from finding this cave unless they knew how to get there. Since we were sorta told where it was by Janice, Kraven was able to follow us. Now the council can send down a team to see what they can do about it. Ohm and I offered our services but Kraven said we were not to be disturbed as we were on a very important mission for the Prince of Chicago. Can't argue with that, so we decided to get the hell out of this place and back to normality. So we returned to the warehouse to plan our next move.
Cygin
<-----AEMP----->
I find myself really hating the fae now just as I found myself really hating vampires after Vincent. I never really thought of myself as a bigot but here I am hating all members of a supernatural race because of a few bad apples. The odd thing is this doesn't seem to be an isolated feeling. All the supernaturals seem to have this innate hatred of everybody else too. It almost seems like a twisted universal constant. It makes we wonder if it's just one of those universal truths, that aspect of human nature that no one, not even vampires, can shrug off. Or is it a product of the Lie, a subtle influence upon all creatures in the fallen world used as a method of control. We can't fight the Abyss if all our focus is on fighting each other. This is turning into another one of those paradox like thought experiments, a supernatural version of nature vs nurture. The kind of thing that can drive a mage mad. I guess the answer lies within ourselves. Nature or nurture, it doesn't really matter both can be changed by will. Just another test on the road. Of course that really doesn't seem to change my outlook on the fae, I still hate em. Welll maybe not hate them, but I hate their ideals. This archaic sense of courts and contracts. They get off on the mental anguish of others, always working their back room deals, always secretive and backstabbing. Gah look what they did to the Padre, they drove him into madness. And it is like a drug, they keep going back for more. They care not for others, they care nothing for the fallen world or the creatures within. They only care about their own little area of the world, they are drama queens. Hmm. I'm noticing a pattern. Switch a few words around and I've just explained the very same reasons I dislike the vampires. Interesting. But yet I can't seem to draw the same parallels to the Uratha. They seem to keep to themselves and away from the drama. While they might not get involved with the goings on of the world they serve the greater good by patrolling the gauntlet and keeping the spirits of the shadow realm at bay. And of course the mages are guilty of their own drama and backstabbing but they tend to keep it internalized. I don't pretend that my views aren't biased, they are, but I still feel my observations have some truth. But regardless Lady Abigail has used us an example of being above this hatred. The Prince of New York has shown we can work together. So I will have to put my own feelings aside and rise above. Hell I am the Moral Compass. And I will keep that shit pointing north even if kills me.
</----AEMP----->