"Y-your finger is glowing!" Marie exclaims, the rest of the questions not registering with her.
Allison arches an eyebrow, and it takes a second for her to remember that magic is not a normal thing to most people. Oh... Sorry about that. With a flick of her hand the light goes out.
My name ist Frau Doktor Doktor Allison Sabrina Nicole Jones. Believe me ven I say I am here to help you. I am not exactly sure vat has happened to you...
"You crazy hat. Of course he's going to win. If not, then I'll have to die fighting Cthulu avenging him."
Sun Mi scowls.
"And Rad won't let THAT happen."
"Marie Greer. I'm glad there's someone here to help, but I'm not exactly sure where I am. I just woke up, NAKED, after Marcus attacked me in our home, and he says he brought me back to life or something. I don't know what's going on. He was fine a few days ago."
Allison ran a hand through her long blonde hair and scratched her head while searching for words. Vell... From vat I know, you have been um... Gone for many months. De Vorld ist not de same place as ven you left it.
Dr. Jones paused a moment, Dis does not seem to be going vell... Let me try something new, ja? she reached into her lab coat pockets and pulled out her holy symbol of Loki. A brief muttering later in a language completely foreign to Marie, Allison held out the white gold object to her.
Please, hold dis if you vould be so kind, Frau Greer. It vill make explaining de missing time much more... Palatable. After that, the doctor mumbled more strange words under her breath...
Herr Doktor Greer. I vill require your assistance. she called into the room. Time ist of de essence.
Now. Frau Greer. Your Husband und I vill try to explain the gravity of how the world is now. Try to stay calm and listen vith utmost care, ja?
And for the next several minutes, Allison Jones explains what has happened since the world ended to the enchanted, formerly-deceased wife of Marcus Greer...
In the quiet peacefulness of the courtyard hedge labyrinth's center, where a marble fountain softly gurgles, accompanied by the songs of birds and pixies, Mikey Jay sits on the edge of the fountain basin, cradling the Sword of Sif on his lap and staring at the nearly opalescent metal of its impossibly-sharp blade, and meditating on the coming battles.... For the first time since he was a teenager, he begins to pray to a divinity....
Sif, goddess of battle-skill.... I have been an athiest for, like, twenty or so years now.... I stopped believing in gods and devils after high school science and history classes.... Well, I guess I still suspected....hoped, rather....that there was something like a benevolent God out there....or rather inside everything....but Charles Darwin, Richard Dawkins, and the daily news kinda make it hard to suspend your disbelief in supernatural causes for nature and reality.... But now.... Now, how can I deny the reality of gods, devils, angels, demons.... Hell, even fairies and elves....when I've met and even fought for my life against all of these things? So.... I guess what I'm praying to you now for, My Lady of Battle Skill....is for the strength and skill to win victory in the coming battles....no doubt the hardest of my life.... I'm devoting myself....my strength, my will, my hard-earned prowess in battle....all that I am....to you, Lady Sif.... Be my guiding light, my guardian, and my goddess.... Guide my blade.... I mean, your blade.... Help me to strike true and deep.... This I pray in the name of the Norns and the Nine Worlds....and in your holy name. Amen....
In her glorious hall on Asgard, Sif, goddes of Battle-Skill, hears Mikey Jay's pray, and smiles.
'Tis meet of fair and brave Mikey Jay so to pray.... I will lend what aid is fit for a goddess to lend a mortal man when he is in his hour of need....
Her Valkyrie shield maidens smile and exchange knowing glances....
Marie takes the holy symbol and holds it close, listening to the explanation.
"Oh." she seems shocked, but not disbelieving.
"That's a bit much to wrap my head around."
"Yeah, it's pretty fu-I mean messed up. But we're trying to fix it. And we'll win, kick that bast- uh evil Cthulhu back where he came from!" he seems reluctant to swear around his wife again now that she's in the flesh and they're no longer in a stressful situation.
Over the next few days, Merlin visits each of the FOs and instructs them to think on what he, the elven archmage Thandorias of Alfheim, and Pope Francis of the Vatican can use their potent magics to craft that might assist them in the coming battles against the Great Old Ones, and if it is within their combined power to craft, they will do so as a gift of thanks for all the FOs have done on behalf of Earth, humanity, and all races of goodwill....
(We don't have a gp-value limit yet, but kind of think of how you would upgrade your gear with, say, another 50,000 gp for now, and once we know about how much each PC would need to catch up with Xavier, you can make your gift request....)
In the privacy of Derrik's personal suite of rooms in the Castle, Jewels pours out the fears of her heart to her beloved....
Baby.... I.... I'm scared for you.... The way everyone's been acting--Dr Hoffmann was crying in the chem lab, and Professor Dirge and Sister Maria and Kermit were all hugging Radsworth and Grimm and, like, kind of saying goodbye just in case, and it's been an honor, and all that kinda stuff you say when you're never gonna see someone again.... I feel like....people are scrambling to tie up loose ends and make things right with each other, as if they won't get another chance.... You and the other FOs are fighting, like, demon-lords and demigods and s%%*, now, right? I mean.... We've always known that we live in a dangerous world since the Poo Hit the Fan in twenty-twelve.... But it feels like you guys are getting ready to go to battle for the last time and never come back....
Writing in a note she might or might not give to Derrik:
Dear Derrik,
I'm sorry that I don't have the courage to say this in person, and I'm sorry that I don't have the strength of character to just keep my silence, knowing that you are in love with Jewels and she is in love with you, but since I may never have the chance to tell you this soon, I wanted you to know that I am deeply and completely in love with you, and I would do anything for you, even fight to my death for you, which is what I hope to do in the coming battles against the Great Old Ones.
I only hope that you will always remember me, and be proud of how hard I've worked to become worthy of the second chance you and the other FOs gave me when you rescued me and the other women from Lido Key, and gave us a safe place to live, taught us how to fight to defend ourselves, and gave us back not only our dignity and some kind of life again, but hope for a better future.
I hope that I make you glad that you chose me as general of the Jaeger League, and I swear that I'll do everything in my power to earn that honored position. You saved my life, Derrik. And you gave my life a new purpose greater than I'd ever imagined my life would have. How could I not fall in love with you?
Sincerely, with love and respect always,
Amber Lynn
Standing on the shore of the Pacific Ocean, Grizzlegob addresses his horde of demons....
Now! This is how we're gonna play it, see? We'll 'port to R'lyeh and act like we's lookin' to join up with old Squid-Face, and be his goons, see? But really, we're just waitin' on my slow-ass great-great-grandson and his badass chums to get their pokey asses to the fight, and then we'll hoodwink the old Squiddy One! Hehehehe!!! We'll bamboozle 'em!!! They won't know what hit 'em!! Hehehehee!!
The greater demon begins to sing or croak in its horrible voice, the strange, prophetic song he has heard from greater powers of evil and chaos than he....
To R'lyeh we must go! To R'lyeh we must goooo!
Old Cthulhu's flipped 'es lid, t' R'lyeh we must goooo!
A-slaughtering we shall go! A-slaughtering we shall go!
With blood we'll paint the whole town red, a-slaughterin' we shall go!
A-screamin' as we go! A-screamin' as we go!
We'll cut some heads and leave some deads, a-screamin' as we go!
To Bedlam all we'll go! To Bedlam all we'll go!
A-raving and enslaving souls, to Bedlam we'll all go!!!
Feedledeedee!! FeedledeeDIE!!
We'll rip out your guts and poke out your EYE!!
Tweedledeedee!! Tweedledeedum!!
We'll step on your pretties and cut out your tongue!!
For we are Grizzlegob's unholy crew!
Defilers and wreckers of all that is true!!
When Doomsday comes, we get to play!
To poke, and rip, and tear, and slay!
When the Old One rears his ugly head,
the world shall blanche with pallid dread!
To lay him low the heroes hope, with wishes gained by kissing the Pope!
But foolish is the mortal wish, for even if Cthulhu falls....
He'll come round again when stars be right....
In another age he'll send out his calls....
Heard by those that dream at night!
And once again, the cycle complete,
the nightmare starts anew....
Unless a soul as pure as gold be sacrificed in stead,
the Squiddy villain will renew, and never be quite dead....
But if a pure soul joins with his in perfect symmetry,
a chance to end his evil cycle Earth shall finally see....
A willing soul will save the world, but thus erase his name!
And though the world is safe again, it's never quite the same....
In R'lyeh:
In Aklo: See my spawn, how my mortal pawns have done for me my most troubling tasks? Those who would try to destroy me have done for me the favor of eliminating my greatest rivals--Hastur has already fallen, though his robe drifts in the sea, which as we know eventually yields it's treasures to land....and soon, my mortal puppets will attack my other rivals for conquest of this world--Yig the Snake God and Shub-Niggurath, Black Goat of the Woods With a Thousand Young.... This is how war is waged.... Your sire has not lifted a claw or stirred a tentacle, yet his foes fall at their own hands.... Observe, and learn, for you, too, shall conquer worlds in my name....
Atop the ruins of The Temple of the Moon, silhouetted against the full moon, and glimmering in the moonlight, a marilith of the cult of Yig slices open the belly of a pregnant Latina laying spread-eagle atop an ancient altar, one of her six hands almost caressing the exposed fetus as she plucks it from the bloody gash.... Another hand, wielding a kukri, lashes forth with serpentine swiftness and slices open the squirming fetus' pale belly, letting the entrails spill into an ornate golden bowl held by a third hand....
The marilith inspects the fetus' entrails briefly before rearing her upper body high and hissing, several blades fanning out with the clink of steel as she extends her six arms and seems to welcome some coming challenge from the stars....
Father Yig must be informed.... An omen of warning is seen in its guts.... Warning of coming foes of great power.... Perhaps Father Yig's final challenge to secure a true apotheosis.... We, his daughters and concubines, shall play our part to the hilt....
Not to be outdone by an Egyptian god of magic, the divine ghost of Loki, slain in another age at the battle of Ragnarok, visits Dr Allison Jones as she sleeps in her private chamber in the Castle....
The Norse god of trickery and magic takes the form of a fly, and buzzes through a long window into Allison's room, alighting on the sleeping adventuress just long enough to bestow the power of continual mind blank to the legendary Tarnkappe she is wrapped up in....
There, sweet Allison! Let none say that Loki neglects his most powerful adherent.... Sweetest dreams til the dawn wake thee, child....
The wearer of the Tarnkappe now has continuous mind blank in effect....
Outside of normal time, and yet not entirely unnoticed by the tortured mind of Professor Marcus Greer, an elder god inimical to mankind out of inconsideration, yet more so inimical to Dread Cthulhu out of mindless malice, extends its gross feelers across the dimensions and touches the Caduceus in Marcus' hand....
Yog-Sothoth bestows the following power to the Caduceus of Hermes, and Hermes grants it (he would be powerless to stop the Opener of Ways): 3/day--mind blank.
Meanwhile, Hermes visits Dr Hugo Grimm and delivers a boon to the Philosopher's Stone, granting it the power of continuous mind blank while it orbits the head of its possessor....
The messenger of the gods is so swift that he is all but invisible and goes almost unnoticed by the addled alchemist, favoring him with a wink and a grin....
Down with The Great Old Ones! They aren't so great, if you ask me!
The encounter is more like a split second thought or daydream to Grimm, but he understands his artifact's newly-bestowed power....
It had come to the worst possible catastrophe in 2012.... Earth as humanity had hitherto known it was suddenly no more, and the ramifications were grossly thrust upon the ragged survivors of this Apocalypse in so many gritty ways....
Earth was a doomed planet, a conquered planet, a post-Armageddon ghost world....
Mankind, so used to being the masters of their ecosystem, was suddenly reduced to no more than fodder for a vast spectrum of ridiculously superior predators that had rudely interrupted humanity's long delusion of mastery over their universe....
Humankind were now no more than insects observed by, dissected by, and trampled upon by vastly superior monstrous scientists....
But in all of this bleak, desolate, woebegone wasteland....
Despite the apparent inevitability of humanity's extinction from Earth, there arose a light in the darkness....
It's seed had been planted by wise farmers who foresaw the Apocalypse long ago.... As far back as the Maya, whose primordial calendar had so unerringly predicted the return of the Great Old Ones....
It was cultivated by heroes throughout the ages, who fought the good fight against the terrors that pressed upon the frail borders between the dark and horrible worlds and our own....
It was nurtured, guarded, and quietly educated by generations of brave souls that had stared into the Abyss and still dared to do what they might to prevent or delay the inevitable Doomsday that awaited mankind....
Pandora's Box had grown out of the collaborative efforts of traumatized Miskatonic University professors and the descendants of police officers who'd witnessed what human eyes weren't meant to witness during raids on Louisiana's swamp cults or Innsmouth's degenerate neighborhoods....
It developed as the torch was passed from generation to generation, until it took root in the Florida Everglades and began to shine a light of hope....
Now, the fate of Earth rests in the callused hands of this beacon, this bastion of hope, this fire in the darkness.... The Fierce Ones are the distillation of those generations of effort and hope.... The Earths one hope.... The Champions of Humanity....
Now is the time for these great heroes to rise to the occasion, and save their world....
Well, Fierce Ones.... I'm as ready as I'll ever be....
Yeah.... I guess I'm ready, too....
Allison pulled on her newly enchanted lab coat and draped her legendary Tarnkappe over it as she walked to join MJ and Daisy, The rest has been nice, but ve must return to our quest, ja?
MJ nods at Allison.
No time like the present, right?
Daisy also nods in agreement with Dr Jones and Mikey.
Let's find the others and bring the fight to the remaining Great Old Ones, my friends.
When the FOs are rested, reequipped, and ready to adventure, Radsworth calls upon his mastery of the arcane and a swirling vortex of energy appears in the air, a gate to another location in time-space....
This gate leads to the time-worn ruins of the Temple of the Moon, ancient amid the more recent ruins of sprawling Mexico City.... A gust of steamy air, redolent of exotic flowers and rare herbs, wafts through Radsworth's gate....
Somewhere beyond this swirling vortex of reddish light that opens onto the top of the ziggurat as a wormhole in reality, Yig, Father of Serpents, awaits....
Daisy walks through Radsworth's gate, murmuring something to herself....
Abandon hope, all ye who enter....
Kowabunga, banzai, tally-ho, and whatnot!
MJ springs through the gate!
let's show these vile creatures that death reigns over them
they shall fear the might of this world and that of the dragons
Maybe this soundtrack music will resurrect the campaign lol....
I am ready to destroy the ones who took mt friends from me
No worries, everyone has been busy, as you can see....
Last real post was 2 weeks ago lol....
"I'm ready. Let's finish this."
Koran arrives one night showing up in the fey lands with a pack of weresquatch warriors. His eyes burn with a hate normally only noticeable when he is in a frenzy. His breastplate is etched with dark curling abyssal runes. The most obvious difference though is Mjolnir the once shining and brilliant weapon now gives off a different aura. The beautiful golden head is now made of scorched black iron spewing fire and lighting. The shaft seems to have been burned black by fire or lighting is impossible tell.
Mikey Jay notices Koran's new look, and wonders to himself what it denotes....
Koran is changing, and not in a good way.... He seems to be more....demonic.... I hope it's more a change in appearance than in his personality.... He was scary enough as he was.... If he is leaning more toward his demonic heritage, there could be trouble down the road.... I'm sure Derrik is thinking the same thing.... Should I bring it up in private with the others? Or is it too late at this point anyway? We have bigger fish to fry right now either way, I guess.... But it sure would suck if the big dude switched sides in the middle of a battle with a Great Old One....
Allison merely raises an eyebrow at the new Koran. Her expression and body language betraying nothing. But inside she is somewhat dubious of the continued changes with many of the Fierce Ones. Even Derrik seems altered some how. And regarding herself, how can she be sure she is untainted? After all, is not her patron one often villianized in legend?
Noting Mikey's unease, she pulls her hand from the coat pocket and places it on his shoulder. When Koran is out of earshot, she says Maybe being so close to the evils ve fight means ve can never remain pure ourselves. Dese battles have taken der toll on us all, ja? But, if de price to pay to save all of humanity is the lose of our own... I vould say it is a trade vorth making...
Mikey Jay nods in agreement with Allison.
Yeah.... I suppose you're right, Dr Jones.... And of all of us, Koran.... Well, everyone has their "demons" to struggle with.... But his might be a bit more literal than the rest of us....
He smiles at Allison.
I'm glad you joined us, Doc.... You're a good egg.... I just know that....if any of us was gonna go rogue.... Turn to the Dark Side of the Force....it wouldn't be you. You'd do what you could to make things right.... You'd do what you felt was the right thing to do, for the greater good. I want you to know.... I got your back. And whatever happens.... However things go down.... I'm your friend.
MJ bows gallantly to Allison, then looks around at the others.
I'm really proud of what the Fierce Ones have done so far.... Even if we lose in the end, and Cthulhu eats us up and s&+$s out our bones.... We have had some f$@@ing crazy times together.... Adventures I wouldn't forget if I lived a thousand years....
He gazes at the sky over Alfheim with a bittersweet smile....
I've seen more things I never believed could be real.... Lived more deeply than I ever thought I could live.... Felt sheer terror and the threat of mind-shredding madness....but also sheer exhilaration and the keenest glory....
He looks sadly at Daisy, and then at Allison....
I know better than to ask a lady her age.... But I know that you're still a young lady.... And Daisy, hell.... She's barely more than a kid.... And the things you've done to protect humanity.... The weights you've carried on your young shoulders.... I may not quite be a geezer yet.... But I'm no Spring chicken, either.... I've had forty good years.... Probably almost twice your age, I'm guessing.... Definitely twice or more Daisy's age....
Mikey grins and shakes his head, rubbing his eyes....
Sorry, Doc.... Don't listen to my babbling.... I'm thinking too much lately.... Ought to leave the thinking to you and Radsworth.... Stick to what I do best: making monster filets with this....
He pats the Sword of Sif, then chuckles and heads off to the taproom of the Festhall in the Castle for what he quietly considers could be his last flagon of elven ale....
Daisy listens quietly to Mikey Jay's musings from several yards away, where she pretends to be too preoccupied with making a wreath out of Alfhamian wildflowers to hear what MJ is saying. Her large brown eyes begin to well up with tears by the time MJ finishes, and she feels a sisterly love that had been gradually growing in her heart for all of her companions blossom into a fine, inner radiance that felt almost painful in intensity.
I won't let them down.... I won't let them die.... Not permanently, anyway....
looks at the good doctor
If it means saving those I care about I would go to any length and sacrifice my very self to achieve my goals.
dances a quarter sized ball of fire across his claws
so are we doing this or what?
Allison prepares her standard array of longterm buffs and soon her location seems to shift out of focus.
Marcus likewise casts his usual buffs, Communal Stoneskin, Fly, and Protection from Chaos on everyone.
Echolocation, Greater Spell Immunity (Feeblemind, Disintegrate, Destruction, Insanity, and Baleful Polymorph), Freedom of Movement, Shield, Shapechange (Boosted to 24 hour duration, currently in the form of a Huge Bronze dragon), and See Invisibility on himself.
"I'll try and come back safe, Marie. We've only got a little bit of work left to do before all this is over."
"Let's pound these Old Ones into dust."
Koran raises Mjolnir to the sky and shouts out in a strange combination of asgardian might and fiendish fury. The clouds darken and begin to swirl before wrapping around the massive tiefling in small tornado. His features twist and change into those of a primal chaotic being and at the same time the fierce ones all feel the spirits bolstered by the what should be a frightening sight.
His voice booms as if layered several times, but it underneath Koran's real voice can still be heard.
Let's get to it then.
I see we are all ready to travel now my friend. Who shall we go after Shub-Niggurath, Yig Father of Serpents, or the Dread Cthulhu himself?
I think we should save.chtulhu for last
"I'm not a fan of snakes. Let's go after Yig first.
"I dunno, smashing the one that's making an army of freaky aberrant babies seems like a better choice to me."