The Guardians of Light: Second Edition CHAPTER TWO- CLOSED, ACCEPTING CHARS FOR NEXT CHAPTER

[Xero Scythe]

Damien looked at the newspaper. "Well, the killer certainly is smart, I'll give 'im that..." He muttered. He then saw a pose of some of the victims. He was taken aback. "Well. This man certainly likes Da Vinci. Look- That man's posed like the Vitruvian man, those two are like his famous skeletons." Damien put down his weapons case. "I would expect maybe the Sidhe to make such tributes, but their kills somehow never are found. Must be why they are one of the few unhunted magical creatures left." Damien looked closer. "It's not the Crellyx- they're far too picky, the Loup Garou are too messy, the Necromancers would take the bones- unless they wanted to impersonate someone, and the Tallow wouldn't be able to be that meticulous. I think just a human sick in the head might've done it."

 

[Hussmann54]

"I cant think of any kind of demon that would go through that trouble." Kin said looking at the article.
"But I suppose if one really wanted to send a message, this wouldnt be a bad way to do it. But if they are just trying to get their jollies off by killing as usual.... no, not likely. Doesnt match any psych profile for a demon I cant think of. I would have to get my hands on one of the bodies to figure out whats up. I agree with Damien, probably some serial killer with some sick Da Vinci fetish"

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Silas pondered a bit and then said "Duh, I'm an idiot..." and using the metal shaving formed a little simulacrum. It was of a greenish skinned elf-like being with tapered ears and long fingers. Slender and dressed in a gown which reach to the floor it seemed to shimmer in and out of focus. "A Daedra...gods damn me for this...an Aurican Daedra. They hate humans with a passion, some call them the Dark Sidhe. I've seen the way they skin people and then fill the skins with dried leaves and twings, animate them as hommunculi and use them as slaves. They drove the Avalonians out to Earth and indirectly created the Great Guardians. They are punished by having their beloved king and ruler smitten down and their entire race made impotent, few Daedra are born every year. They sort of hold it against us..."

Silas sat back and watched as the new, fancy train pulled out the station and started rushing towards its destination. "Though, I guess if they find the skins later filled full of leaves we'll know if I was right...funny though, I would have thought the Gatekeepers would have the gates closed still and wouldn't Avalon have noticed since the portals are literally right on top of them..." Silas sighed and said "No matter, theres a long journey ahead. I suggest everyone take as much rest and food as they need while they are here. It will be another day or two before we get to our final destination in Romania. The Tomb is hidden and guarded for a reason, and I want everyone on their guard when we are there. Genn, is Daniel here?"
Genn nodded "Yes, my son is here. He's in the boiler room right now."
Silas nodded "Tell him I said hello, oh and if anyone is up for cards later say so..." then Silas turned back to the newspaper. He heard the gentle, slithering voice speak into his mind We are your past, your future. We are your salvation through eternal service. You will become as one of us, the Illrian Shadow foretells it so. as the voice faded, the tiny simulacrum made from metal shards vibrated and erupted into a purple flame before disintegrating. Silas jumped a little and said "Did I do that?"

 

[Hussmann54]

Kin snapped awake, he had removed his helmet and nodded off while watching the countryside pass by.
"Easy killer!" He said sitting up. "What did you do?" He pondered looking at the tiny pile of remains on the ground.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Silas stared at it "Too much magnetism I guess...sorry." then he leaned back to close his eyes. "Wake me in an hour."

Spoiler: OOC

Time jump time, we are going to skip to arrival in Geneva so as to not waste time. Hussman, this is your start.

The train hissed into the snow bound station. Wrapped in his thickest coat, his ears muffled by warm wool and his fedora tied to his head Silas stepped out into the cold. "You know, I really hate the cold!" he had to shout as a gust of wind tried to blow his words away. Genn seemed warm in his shaggy fur and shook some snow off of himself and said "I will pick up supplies and wait for you here." Silas nodded and said "Alright everyone take five and meet at the Archivum. You can't miss it, it's the cathedral over there." he said pointing to the tall steeple in the distance. Silas then walked off to find his contact, he needed his update on events in the area and he had a bad feeling things in the area weren't that great.

 

[Hussmann54]

Kin looked over at his shoulder as he disappeared into the crowd at the train station. Several hours later he opened the door to the roof of a taller building, the sun was setting and the city lights created a beautiful scene.

A man in black clothing was waiting for him. "Kin" He nodded, his breath visible in the night.
"Cartwright." Kin nodded back as he took off the heavy white coat to reveal an all black body suit with several pockets and straps. Cartwright was wearing the same.
"You got the new tech I see..." Cartwright said, a thick British accent was audible. "... magnetics and everything?"
"Yea. Its all in, works too." Kin said remarking at what he was wearing. Small magnetic plates were woven into the suit in various spots. They allowed flexibility, but a magnetic current helped slow down bullets enough for the plates to resist.
The two hooked into two lines on harnesses in their suits.
"fourteenth floor." Cartwright said. "Ropes measured and ready."
Kin trusted his judgment. The two put black ski masks on and Cartwright handed him a silenced pistol. "In and out, we will have.... five minutes...... maybe six...."
"Not the worst I have had...Who is inside?" Kin murmured.
"Brusie Goldstien and Ulrich Ritchofen"
"Good." Kin said. He liked them, they were reliable.
The two looked at the opposing edge, to which they were strapped into.


The two hooked the ropes to anchors on the edge of the building, then walked to the other side. Then without warning, the they ran for the opposite edge and flung themselves off....

In an office, six floors below a well dressed man sat a desk doing paperwork. Five guards stood inside watching. Nobody saw two figures swing down and towards the window that looked out towards the city, guns drawn...

......................................................

A minute later Cartwright and Goldstien dragged the man through broken glass, screaming in sheer terror, into another room. On his way to follow them Ulrich pointed his gun down at one of the guard. He was attempting to crawl to retrieve his weapon, which the kick of a bullet had caused him to fling a few yards away. A silenced shot was heard before he rejoined Kin and the two locked the doors and were closing blinds on windows.

Cartwright already had a brass knuckle out before they could tie him him.A swift jab was delivered along with "Alright, I know you arent gonna tell me what I wanna know so do you think you can give me one good reason I should shoot you and leave you ass for the cleaning lady?" His voice was strong and firm, his question was more of a statement or hypothetical question.

Kin cut in. "We have a demon, possessor. On his way."
Cartwright looked at Ulrich and Goldstien and pointed to the door. "Handle him."

The two nodded and walked out.

Kin grabbed a hold of the mans head with his bare hands.

The last punch from Cartwright had formed a Meta Splinter. Kin was now in an office. He began to rummage through the desk. "Cmon, what are you hiding?" He found nothing in the desk, he slumped back into the chair, looking around.

The office had all the trapping one might expect. A secretary desk to the side, bookshelves and paintings.
"He is hiding behind identity Kin. What is he doing? Think Nicholas..." He looked at a painting of a family crest.

... A shield..

Standing up he walked over and took it off the wall. A grin slid across his face as he looked at the safe hiding behind it.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Spoiler: OOC for Hussman

Hussman, this is 1925. There are no silenced pistols...in fact I'm pretty sure the silencer wasn't invented for a while but feel free to prove me wrong. Also, pretty sure there are no high rise buildings in Geneva either. In fact, did you forget the time period?

Silas moved through the streets in a hush. The snow was being blown in swirling shapes, it was darned cold. Silas had two things to do, and time allowed a leisurely pace. The city was not as cosmopolitan as for example London, but it was beginning to see the face of the new era. The roaring twenties had been kind to Switzerland. Automobines, Model T fords some of them, scooted by at a medium pace as Silas crossed the street. The pub ahead was where his contact had arranged to meet him. Inside, he took his hood off and sat down. This was a monster-friendly pub so hoods weren't unusual and neither were horns or fur. The bartender was a grey bearded devil with cloven hooves. "Seen anyone come in looking like the love child of Da Vinci and the Jersey Devil?" he asked the bartender. He snorted and said "He was here, left a while ago...said he had business." Silas nodded and turned to leave. Outside he looked up at the rooftops, there was something odd going about. Then he saw one of the gargoyles move, it wasn't a statue but a man in a grey cloak and he sprang up the building like a flash and ran across the rooftops. Silas was hot on his trail, trying to follow him. He knew Jack had metal all over him, he just needed him to be in range. It wasn't long before a magnetic spell grabbed a hold of the man and sent him careening into the ground. Silas stopped him before his face was jackknifed into the pavement and said "Jack? You know not to run from me." the man brushed himself off. "Ya, it be alright lad. Just keep your voice down, things aren't right here since a week ago."

In an alleyway, Jack told his story. A week ago, a shadowy group of people arrived on a train of horses number ten in all. They wore dark cloaks up to their faces and had black satin gloves over their hands. They started up trouble, robberies and murders, trying to get the local criminal underworld to cow to them. The criminals fought back, before they started showing up dead with their hearts torn out of their chests. They started hearing rumors these strangers had sharpened fingernails and sharp teeth, and that when you caught them at night they could just fade into the shadows and become nothing but the wind. Then all of a sudden, people started going missing and it had been continuing until the day they arrived. "I tell ya, boy. Its not safe out at any time. People here got it easy, they aren't being targeted. Everyone thinks its some vigilante giving us criminals what-for. They aren't human, I say." Silas nodded and turned to look out at the street. "How I long to be as oblivious..." and turned back but Jack had already sprung off and was probably leaping rooftops. Silas sighed and turned to the cathedral where the Archivum was hidden.

Spoiler: OOC

Oh I see, I didn't put an exact date on the front page. My bad.

 

[Hussmann54]

Spoiler: OOC

Silencers came into play around the first decade of the nineteenth century. And as for the building, i didnt picture it being Sky rise high. like maybe 15 stories at most, I dunno, thats why its fantasy.

 

[Hussmann54]

Spoiler: Whoops

So the updated forum rules thingy screwed with my computer.

 

[Hussmann54]

Spoiler: Accidental triple post

ughhhhh

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Spoiler: OOC

I await the eventual quadruple post and banhammer sandwitch but whatev...

Silas stood, ready to enter the Archivum. However, he had the decency to signal everyone on their communication devises to meet up again. Meanwhile, he stood inside the door in the warm if musty antechamber. The place was actually exceedingly good looking on the inside, the outside looked like the worlds most spikiest and creepiest building but it had a nice feeling. It was slightly suppressed when Silas looked up at the artwork to find so symbols of the Guardians or of Avalon, almost unassuming the place that was chosen to hide the most powerful artifacts of the Midnight Council. He went over to speak to one of the priests "I seek the Archivum." and discreetly showed his badge. The priest nodded and Silas added "I am awaiting the arrival of others, have the doors unbarred and I will bar them when I leave." the priest nodded and shuffled away. Hurry up, guys he thought.

 

[Hussmann54]

It took him a minute or so, but he crack the safe. Taking a stone out of his pocket, he began reading every piece of paper within the safe he could, his hand still feeling the stone. He was transferring information to it for another imperiomancer to find. Suddenly he felt a hand grab his shoulder, shaking it roughly.

Kin snapped out of the meta splinter. "They are all over the building! We are leaving!" Cartwright said, loading his pistol.

"What happens to me?" The man said helplessly.

"I dunno." Kin said walking out the door. "What happens?"

They met up with the other two and managed to escape without being seen.
"Make sure they get this." Kin said taking the stone from his pocket and giving it to Ulrich.
"Take care man." Goldstien said as Kin walked away and headed for the cathedral. Inside he met up with Silas.
"Done." he said simply, satisfied with the job.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Silas nodded to Kin "Within here is the Archivum. I need to confer with the Cylix of Vision, I need to see what the future holds." Silas moved off at a brisk pace to a cloister away in a corner, where a stone doorway stood gaping. "Down here." siad Silas, it was dusty and dark. Light flickered from somewhere deep below and they followed it. In a corridor much like a burial vault, torches were lit and the flicking light showed many rooms of granite with many artifacts, each one labeled. They walked down this corridor and down several other series of stairs, each one gated off by a stone door that seemed far to heavy to lift.

In the deepest corner of the Archivum stood an open cloister. In it, a large bowl like vase stood, filled with dancing orange flames. Silas stopped at the doorway and said "I shall peer first, if you wish to look here is the dust one needs." and showed a small blue bag, filled with shimmering purple dust.

Silas cast the dust over the bowl of flames, chanting as he did. "What I seek beyond the veil lies twisted 'neath a starry trail. From shining heights far above to darkened depths thereof. I call to the abyss so that the abyss might answer, show me what my future holds. Reveal to me and behold! Thou art the harp and I the player, show me now what is to come later!" the pool of flames dimmed and became purple and formed shapes. Deep within, he saw a scene forming. A snowy peak overlooking a dark and dread castle, then the scene showed what seemed to lay within where two stone collosi stood guarding a great stone door. Then the vision showed him a great room, what seemed to be that of a church or of a castle. There he saw two figures swing swords and clash, but the scene soon melted to show a final one. A great horned beast with bat wings and a great sword stood facing a winged beast in fanged armor and then a laugh pierced his mind. "Your future is writ, Silas Grey, in blood and ash. Your fate is sealed, else creation shall be undone. The Illrian Shadow has forseen this." then a sereis of babbling voices in multiple demonic languages burst fourth, he felt drawn into the fire as it roared back to its orange height and a six eyed hooded face emerged, from this face the voice of the Obsidian Flame boomed loud enough for all to hear "YOU ARE MALEDICTUS!" then Silas fell back and the pool of flames settled. A final whisper echoed in his mind "What is done, cannot be undone."

As Silas sat against the corner, trying to catch his breath. An itch in his hand made him look down. Burned against his skin was a mark, that of a curved shape like a crab claw with a dot in the middle of it (think the logo for Elder Scrolls: Oblivion). The mark had not been there before, and it seemed seared into his flesh.

 

[Hussmann54]

Kin rushed to Silas, and saw him grab his hand.
"Lemme see it." Kin said, he turned it over and inspected all of it.
He looked at the mark for a moment, thinking.
"Thats... yea, thats definitely it..."
He let go of Silas, but stayed crouched. He rolled up his own sleeve, revealing his Stewards mark. As Kin drew his arm closer to Silas` his mark seemed to move, veins that looked as if they were made of ink like a tattoo protruded from his mark and seemed to wriggle in place. The thing seemed to be attempting to reach for the mark on Silas.

"You have been marked. At least, you show every symptom. I dunno what that thing was, but it seems you two have spoken before, and on a few different occasions." Kin looked back into the center of the room.
"Whatever marked you probably knew to use the obsidian flame as a jumping point between two realms."

"What does it mean?" Silas replied.

"Its kinda like a supernatural bounty. Somebody or something wants you dead. Usually a demon puts it on somebody. Dont worry though..."
Silas looked puzzled as Kin turned his own hand over.
"Look closely. See how some of the skin has a reddish color?"
Sure enough faint red lines were barely visible, making an outline similar to that of the symbol on Silas."
"It happens more often than you would think. All you need to do is kill whatever put it on you and it will begin to fade. You must be careful, as the symbol can drain you of power over time, depending on how you use it."

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Silas was dumbfounded, he tried to think, to imagine what could want him dead...what had the power to mark him so. Then he had a thought, "The Mirror.....I need the Mirror of Scrying."

Up one floor, there it stood in another alcove. It was gilded in gold, showing arcane symbols and reliefs of sages marching up to meet what appeared to be a Buddha. Silas stared into it, and spoke the name "Obsidian Flame". The pane darkened, and the Voice of the Obsidian Flame appeared. "Silas Grey. How may the Obsidian Flame aid you?"
"Somethings happened to me and I don't know what. Ask the flame what he's done."
"The Flame already knows, it is not his doing but the working of fate and what must be done. You are so marked by Azariel, Daemon Prince of the Far Veil."
Silas shuddered "Don't speak his name!"
"The Flame fears nothing. You have power beyond reckoning, that which you once believed mythical now stands with open arms to you. You have been granted a dark gift, the Midnight Council knows this, it is time to return to age when your world was guarded and safe. It is time to return to an age when Demons fought Demons. The once-broken have now been reforged from ancient blood, it was done because it must be done."
"What, Obsidian Flame, what was done to me! I demand to know!"
"You may demand nothing of the Obsidian Flame, but know this. Great power once given only to Angels and Demons lays in your hands. The Maledictum has returned, they search for all who were granted the boon of Perdition. The Illrians seek out their charges. It is time to revive the ancient order that once guarded the realms, for chaos is rising and must be defeated. I will say no more, mortal, for it is not for the Flame to reveal all. Go to the Scholomance, your answers lie there."
The image faded from the Mirror and it only reflected Silas in the dim light. Looking at his hand, he sighed deeply. "Lets get back to the train."

~

Upon leaving the Archivum and leaving two gold coins in the offering plate, Silas stepped into the cold and was just wrapping his scarf up where he heard it. A long howl, a signal used by Wolf Cults, the signal for danger. A coyote like howl with two yips at the end, Silas had learned this long ago. "Genn!" he shouted, running off through the streets and summoning up a cushion of magnetic force and running it through the metal in his boots he began to surf on the current quickly down the street. Using a sort of whiplash, he tied Kin to the energy and he surfed along behind him on a cushion of energy.

The train station was a mess, the train was puffing and ready to go and the rest of the team was gathered and backing away from shadowy creatures perched on the top of it. They had long claws, pale skin and when in the shadow they seemed to fade away to mist...they flashed long fangs and hissed like snakes. Silas came to a stop and abruptly fell over onto his face.

 

[Hussmann54]

"Damn....." Kin said. He drew his pistol and pointed it at one of the creatures. "What are they Silas?"

He cursed inwardly, his armor was back on the train.....

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

"I don't know." said Silas.

He cocked the Arsonator and said "This aught to work." and shot one square in the chest. It burst into flames, screamed, and turned to a small pile of ashes. "Anyone else?" he shouted at the creatures. They responded by leaping directly at his face screaming and hissing. He had the stock of the weapon in the mouth of one creature, wrestling with it. "A little help here!"

 

[Hussmann54]

Spoiler: OOC

seriously people, post....... me and LA are doing all the work.....

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Silas shoved the beast off, smacked it with the butt of his rifle then shot it into ashen bits.

The creatures were prowling, waiting for the opportune time to jump and attack again. Silas back up to Genn and said "Where did they come from?"
"Don't know, they were here when I got back."
Silas nodded and leveled his gun at another one. "My hideously overpowered gun might remedy this situation, Genn." and laughed a little.

 

[Hussmann54]

Kin loaded another mag into the colt pistol. He liked these new guns, and the silencers as well.
Taking a shot at one of the creatures, he said "Think its time to go?"
He didnt want to draw attention to himself, especially after the job he had just pulled....