It was fun, and I do commiserate. I have been struggling with wanting to DM, but knowing that I do not have the time to do it myself. It is a hard thing to have ideas and not be able to use them.
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Blair pulls out a piece of chalk and starts making quick marks across the front wall, spending longer marking the frame of the door then quickly inscribing a long runic circle around the remainder of the office. "I am not going to put too much into this, but it should act as a sort of magical ground. Once I activate it, anything crossing it is going to get connected to the earth and drained of a measure of energy."
As the two men enter the office, Blair completes the circle with a final scratch of chalk and a bit of energy. There is no sudden buildup of pressure, instead standing close to the ward, he can feel a slight flow, like a soft breeze moving towards the ward. Blair does his best to look menacing in the back of the room and less like a moderately rumpled college professor.
I will look at the rules and make the roll when I get home.
Ryuko, any suggestions on wards? I want Blair to set up one that will essentially ground out any magical energies that leak up against it...sort of like a lightning rod/wire cage...grounded out to the earth. So its like a veil, but it veils magic by leaching out any magic that gets within an inch or so of it.
"I believe that if we are going to deal with anything significant, better containment is in order. I will work out some wards for the building."
"I wear tie pins. What are you saying, getting your tie in the soup is ok?" Seeing that Zoe is done with the phone, Blair moves over to look at the various items on the table. "Huh. Zoe, I don't have any underworld contacts. But it looks like we have several things to check out now. We can see if there is anything at the apartment that is listed here. We can also research the urn, once it is in our posession, to determine anything about its history and what rituals it might be linked with. At the very least, we should see about destroying the urn, I am certain that it isn't an object that we want lying around for any would-be ritualist."
"What is it with people and blood? Its as if they are unable to accept that there is no actual power in sanguine fluids, no matter what animal it is. The power comes from the metaphysical associations rather than the media." Blair groans and rubs his face. "The upside is that we know that someone out there is playing fast and loose with magic, and that they are not terribly skilled. The down side is that power and skill do not go hand in hand, and use of blood by the uneducated is indicative of the bent of the Ritual, if not what the actual results are supposed to be."
"Thank the universe that Wardens don't use cellphones..." Blair moves to the far side of the room as Zoe talks into the device.
Blair paces the office for a moment, thinking, before turning to Zoe.
Blair smiles for a moment seeing Zoe, then suddenly frowns. I officially hate the universe...this is one thing too many today... "Of all the coffee joints, in all the suburbs, in all of Michigan, you had to walk into this one..." Sounded better in my head. "How have you been Zoe? Still bench pressing engine blocks and chasing critters of the night?" Blair looks at Simon. "Oh I wouldn't say that we know one another Simon. We have seen some interesting things together, but we barely exchanged more than a few words before someone took off like her hair was on fire." Blair rounds on Zoe. "Zoe, do you have any idea how long it took me to clean up that mess to the point it didn't look "out of the ordinary?" Blair grimaces with frustration as he looks past Zoe to the other customers in the room. "We need to have this conversation elsewhere. Back to your office Simon?"
Simon finds Blair standing among the stacks, leaning against a tall ramshackle shelf, stuffed full of paperbacks. He has a paperback open and is reading as Simon approaches. "Simon. Finished with your business?" Blair asks as he closes the yellowed pages of the paperback and places it back on the shelf.
Agreed. He is a fruit. It was good reading when I was younger though to really open my eyes to alternative patterns of thought and behavior. And he did write Starship Troopers...which is still awesome.
"Hey! "The Cat Who Walked Through Walls!" Man I haven't read that book in years. Heinlein wrote some good stuff..."
"Fine, fine. You probably don't want me to sit in the car for very long though, I am starting to be a bit agitated by all of this. You don't need me melting your car stereo," Blair replies grumpily. Blair unbuckles and steps out of the car onto the curb. He turns in a slow circle on the sidewalk before spying a bookshop across the street and a few stores down. Jay-walking across the street carefully, Blair makes his way to the store where he non-comittally grunts and waves at the single employee manning the register, before disappearing into the musty stacks of forgotten fantasy, self-help psychology and wonky metaphysics.
Blair looks at Simon levelly. across the interior of the car, then turns to look over his shoulder at the house. He stares at the house quietly for a moment, thinking, but finally turns back to Simon and shrugs. "I don't have enough information to form an opinion right now. I don't believe that she is going to explode in demonic rage while we are gone...she certainly seems to be stable for the moment. So we might as well deal with the active problem first. Lead on MacDuff." Blair re-buckles his seatbelt.
Simon leads Blair outside where they clamber into his vehicle. A few moments later and they are moving through the mid-day traffic to the address that Simon knows.
"Goodness, I have no idea. For all we know they monitor the psych wards, or the morgues and test bodies that show up. Or the local Warden's ran into something." "Do you have an accurate history on Lisa? Where she has been working, living and the like? Investigating where she has been, may be the best first step."
"Honestly I don't know if he should execute people without evidence. As to whether Tony would execute someone without evidence, I think that is a yes. He is unscrupulous, cunning and slightly mad." Blair leans back and rubs the bridge of his nose. "If I had gotten a way to contact that younger Warden, we might have had that as an option. But I didn't think about it...I was too busy facing down an old nightmare. Anyways, that ship has sailed for the moment. You want to know what to do with the woman. I am not certain that she is a woman anymore...she seems to be more of a carrier for that demon than a mortal. Even worse, it appears that it was done of her own choosing. I could be wrong, but what I saw did not indicate that she was under any significant duress, rather the demon that she was chained to was seemingly imprisoned. We do need to investigate further to see if we can determine the penultimate cause of her malady." "How about you and I go check out where she lives, take a look around her neighborhood, ask some questions and then we can do some research and see if we can find a phenomenon that matches what I saw."
I will be out of pocket for several hours while travelling to the Phillipines. I have no idea how long it will take me to get an internet connection set up in the hotel...or if it is possible. Please bot me if you feel it is appropriate, I will be in touch as soon as possible.
Thank God for small favors. "Good. Because there are Wardens in town. They are searching for whomever did that damage to the woman. One of them is an old enemy of mine...who I might have twitted a bit. And being moderately pathological, I don't expect him to be calm and rational in his assessment of guilt and innocence...in fact I expect him to execute summary judgement of anybody he finds connected to this, especially me." "In a pinch he would settle for you, just knowing that we are collegues."
The click of the mug on the tabletop brings Blair out of his contemplation. "Something is horribly wrong. That woman is no longer fully human. I cannot tell what she is, but whatever it is, it isn't good." He sips some coffee and leans back into the chair. "It appeared to be a demon of some sort, chained to her, but I do not believe that was by its own choice, it appeared to be enslaved by her, the chains were leashing and encircling the demon, but not her." Blair looks at Simon. "Please tell me that you haven't modified your techniques. You haven't been entering people's minds have you? Or making adjustments, to help them?"
Blair attempts a smile, the vision of the beast still swimming in his mind. "Just fine, just fine. Thank you for asking." He straightens up and moves aside to allow the couple to move out the front door. As the door closes Blair moves over into the other room to find a comfortable piece of furnature and settles into it with an audible sigh. He rubs his temples silently, his mind far away... a creature... chained to the shell of the woman below. The creature is large, hulking, and red, with whip-thin muscles sheathed in rocky skin, and bloody claws extend from it's hands. Between the woman and the creature runs several chains, blocking in the creature while seeming not to restrain the woman, but oddest is the chain wrapped around the neck of the creature, which seems to swing free, staying far away from Mrs. Lanning. She herself seems sickly and pale, likely her fatigue from lack of sleep and though her eyes move around a lot, she seems to never look at the creature behind her...
Barely holding himself together, Blair slams the doors shut on his third eye. The only sign of his extreme discomfort is his white knuckled death-grip on the door frame.
"A pleasure to meet the both of you. I wish it could be under more social circumstances, but we take things as they come. Simon is a brilliant young man, and while I have not been apprised of the particulars yet, I know that what little help I am able to provide will be minor compared to Simon's great skill and efforts on your behalf." Personality rewritten? I hate coincidences...this one is a doozy if it turns out to be true, and there is only one way to be certain quickly. Blair avoids catching the eye of either of the couple as he speaks, protecting himself from beginning a soulgaze. As he talks he reaches out and steadies himself, gripping the doorframe tightly. This isn't going to get any easier for waiting. Reluctantly, dreading the sudden flood of sensory input, Blair unlatches the catches on his third eye and looks for the briefest of moments at the couple with his Sight.
"I think that you need to introduce me as a consultant so if we need to talk to them in the future it isn't as awkward. Then we can see them off so that you and I can talk. Trust me Simon, this is important, I think that you are in terrible danger."
"Good. At least you remember what I told you about thresholds." Blair says as he steps through the doorway, shutting the door behind him firmly. Hearing a mutter from the other room, he looks sharply at Simon. "Is someone here right now? Did you...", Blair twiddles his fingers at Simon in a slightly ridiculous manner and then motions with his chin to the people in the room.
Blair had dropped the veil a few moments after he got off the bus, feeling the creeping strain of maintaining the magic for such a long time like a small throb behind his right temple. The combination of the dull ache and his ruminations as he made his way from the bus stop to Simon's door just made Blair more upset. He shouldn't have gone after Antonio the way he did. Certainly he was an enemy, but his challenge would make the man crazy...crazier. He wouldn't have any problem with simply wiping Simon and Blair out. Simon! Simon skirted the edge of the Laws every time he worked. It would be easy for an insane bully of a Warden to simply snuff Simon out...just to be safe, of course. Simon had to leave town. Simon's office was out Cass Avenue in one of the office buildings that had seen its better days back in the 60s and 70s. The area was trying to come around now, and there seemed to be artsy folks in their 20s everywhere doing things during the day. But there were still bars on the windows, and the Cass Corridor had a reputation for danger after twilight that only surpassed its reputation for music and nightlife...of all sorts. Blair didn't know what Simon's car looked like, so he didn't recognize the presence of the unfamiliar car parked in front of Simon's office. He rang the bell.
I am here, I just don't want to walk in and complicate Simon's show before he gets to a good point. Simon, just tell me when you are ready for me to show up story-wise.
Blair closed the door with a thump, turned and leaned against the solid oak. Heart pounding, blood thumping in his ears, fear, frustration and triumph mixing in equal parts as pure excitement sung in his veins. The solidity of his layer upon layer of wards behind him provided some measure of comfort against the small terror that Tony was close, and knew where he lived, but that comfort was longer enough. Tony was a Warden...and he had one of those damnable swords that cut through magic. Blair was no longer safe in his own home. He wanted me to know that he had a sword too...I wonder if there is a way to make the spell snap first. Like one of those explody things on the side of a tank... He walked back into the house, the wooden floorboards creaking and settled down in a chair to think for a moment. No sooner had he settled back in the chair than he sat bolt upright. Simon! Dammit! Blair jumped back up, grabbed his foci and started for the door. As his hand grabbed the knob, a little paranoid voice spoke up in his head. What if Tony is out there watching...veiled? He could be waiting for me to lead him to Simon. Not that he knows Simon exists... I should go to the school, there are plenty of good alleyways and corners. I can go there, veil myself and then head to Simon's safely. Hmmm...I have never ridden the bus veiled before...this is going to be interesting.
"You were there you cretin. You know what Goldstein said. Council business is no longer my business..." Blair says, his voice rising in anger. Then he stops Blair pauses and looks at Arturo with narrowed eyes. "Wow, age and experience certainly put a different frame on the past. Tony, did you know that I have been teaching primary education for the last 15 years? It gives a person a very different view of life, grounds you in a community, lets you see the personal growth and triumphs of the individuals around you." "Tony, the odd thing is, in the last 30 years, you have not changed one whit. Certainly you have your fancy new job, but you still behave exactly the way that you did years ago when we were both students. You are a bully Tony. I admit that I didn't realize it fully until this moment, but when you are a teacher you get good at recognizing things, even those matters that you are so close to, that it is difficult to get perspective." "You aren't here to ask questions...you are here just to torment me. So why don't I give you some truth to play with, for the education of your partner." "The Council threw me out nearly 30 years ago. According to the old men, I was learning too fast for a new apprentice. Someone had convinced that I had consorted with a Power or some other nonsense. I was trussed up and brought before the Council for questioning. When I told the truth, that I had never even contacted an sort of Power. They couldn't accept that. What I didn't tell them was that I did have a second teacher beyond Master Goldstein...isn't that right Tony? Tony here took it upon himself to practice his evocation against me. So I learned really quickly how to Ward myself, deflect energies, and hide. It is amazing what a motivator pain is." "And before you say I should have spoken up Warden Lee, yes I agree, with 30 years of life behind me, I have the perspective that I should have spoken up. At the time, I was a homeless child and desperately afraid to loose the one good thing that I had in my life at the time." "I have waited a long time to say that to your face Tony. Now piss off. I am not you, I don't hurt people."
Fear and anger surge in Blair as he stands in the doorway, staring at a face that he thought he would never see again. His hand holding the doorknob creaks with white-knuckled tension, and he releases it. What does he want? Is it Council business? Do they want me back? "Normally I would say good afternoon, or that I was pleased to see you. But as neither sentiment holds, I will stick with: why are you here? The Council made abundantly clear what they thought of me when they decided to throw me out...and before you ask to come in...no, you are not invited in. This is my place, my house. You can say whatever you came to say right here."
My not having played this game before is causing problems. I cannot quite figure out how to set up the rotes. Do I want foci in my rotes? I know that if I use them, I have to always have them, but what is the benefit? I couldn't quite parse it out.
Are we going with the ghoul throwdown in the lab? Followed by Blair helping Zoe track the ghouls to their hideout, then perhaps Zoe sneaks in, and steals the information back?
Or a whole city block, all in the same night?
I would suggest changing it from the factory, which most likely would not be doing research, to an engineering university. The research is sponsored by GM, and one of the research assistants blabbed about it to the wrong sort of people. Mob? Does the mob use ghouls for dirty work in Detroit? Blair is at the university just coming home from giving a talk on American history, when (by dumb luck) he sees the ghouls entering the building, and a very fast moving person chasing after them. Not knowing what is going on, but not wanting ghouls wandering around the campus eating students, he goes inside to find Zoe in a full scale brawl in one of the engineering bays. Engine blocks, power tools, airguns and arc-weilders are wielded by the various combatants in a symphony of destruction. Blair throws in with Zoe and uses kinetomancy to help her drive the ghouls off.
Whoops. Yes lets change the last bit around some. mmmmm. I am making a small change to Blair, taking away full evocation to give him a point for the Sight. Soooo: On visiting his old friend in the hospital Blair learns from the doctors that they can find nothing wrong to explain the coma that he is in. Blair uses the Sight and finds that the victim's psyche underwent some sudden trauma. So Blair shows up on Simon's doorstep as a very suspicious person and after figuring out that Simon is a real practitioner and not a charlatan, accuses Simon of being a bad guy and warns him of *dire consequences* (breaking the laws) for hurting Blair's friend. Blair believes that Simon is the culprit, but cannot fully prove it, so he starts investigating. Blair rocks the boat a bit, going to the plant and the hospital, asking questions, and he gets attacked while . Simon, saves Blair, and the focus of the investigation becomes a contract negotiator for the auto industry plant. The shift worker is a minor sorceror, Abraham Verghese, that has been psychically invading union leaders to undermine ongoing contract negotiations. He enters the minds of the leaders through their dreams and makes alterations. Blair knows that it is only a matter of time before he is attacked through dreams as well, and enlists Simon's aid. With Simon's help and instruction Blair is able to create a battlefield in his mind. Blair and Simon fight in Blair's dream, and Blair is able to work some thaumaturgy to trap Abraham's psyche in the Nevernever.
@ryoku and Sasha: Are you guys still here?
@Simon. We can have the foreman still be alive, just very damaged mentally and in the hospital. A persistant vegitatve state? Blair does not have the sight, but it makes sense that he would be able to determine that as there is nothing physically wrong with the victim (according to the docs) and that his psyche underwent some sudden trauma. So I show up on your doorstep as a very suspicious person and after figuring out that you are a real practitioner and not a charlatan, accuse you of being a bad guy and warn you of *dire consequences* (breaking the laws) for hurting my friend. So you are motivated to solve the mystery and save the day, and I am in the background dogging your steps. (like a middle aged ninja in a suit and oxfords...so not so good on the dogging) Perhaps toward the end of the story it becomes obvious that you are not the bad person and I give you backup as you go after the badguy in the Nevernever, where you use your powers to stop the badguy.
Simon, what if one of Blair's old friends from the days he worked on the line, was the most recent victims? An older man, a senior shop foreman or somesuch who had been talked into doing the eastern health practice thing by his wife?
Gotta love the union! Got that alternative care in the health plan! Also for Zoe, check out the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Its a graduate program in the arts, which may suit Zoe. Blair teaches AP History at Cranbrook Kingswood, the "upper"/college preparatory school.
It looks like we need a few more 1st stories to be posted, then we can continue with the rest of the character creation. Are we planning for all the 1st stories to happen in/around the Detroit area?
True, well, we are trying to make our own story, not one that is a pale copy of the Dresden novels. Additionally, there are plenty of wizardly types of all shapes in the novels working together and our power level precludes us from any lone-wolf(cat/wizard)-isms.
Hmmm. Perhaps Blair should consort with some other powers then...I am not planning Blair to be an evoker type character though, but much more professorly...well heck, perhaps I should just unpower him and go pure mortal? Thoughts?
Phase 1: Background::
Events: Blair was born in Windsor, Ontario to Michael and Rebecca Renault. With the rising strength of the auto industry in the 50s and 60s, Blair’s parents immigrated to the US and settled down in the sleepy suburb of Troy where his father quickly found work as an automotive engineer. Blair grew up in the quiet suburban neighborhood and after remaining in the country for a few years, all three became US citizens. Blair was an avid student and his parents were very encouraging of his academic pursuits. Three months after Blair’s fourteenth birthday he blew out all of the computers in the school’s new computer lab. Nobody, not even his parents believed that Blair had done nothing to the computers. Thousands of dollars of damage, school and neighborhood condemnation resulted in Blair being expelled. Feeling persecuted by his family, friends and school acquaintances, Blair ran away. This was a difficult time for Blair. For nearly a year, he was hungry, exposed to the elements and things seemed to never go right around him. Shame at running away, shame at failing, shame at the recriminations kept him from returning home. The accidents continued away from home and the school however. Small fires broke out, tree limbs crashed into the tents of other homeless, cars and generators sputtered to a halt around him. Blair started to wonder if he was jinxed. A young homeless worker and a sensitive caught wind of Blair and brought him in to a shelter before the Michigan winter began. That fall, he was introduced to the concept of magic and was tested for his aptitude. He tested well and was accepted as an apprentice of Ibram Goldstein. Phase 2: Rising Conflict::
Events: Wizard Goldstein took Blair in as his second apprentice. His first was the slightly older Antonio Tremaine. Tony was already beyond Blair in his training and took every possible opportunity to lord over Blair. His training was disrupted, his homework burned, his clothes soiled. Tony would constantly inflict small harms on Blair at any opportunity, no burns or bruises ever showed, but the treatment only got worse. Blair learned however. The constant challenges posed by Antonio’s constant assaults pushed Blair to learn faster and faster. Ibram didn’t understand how Blair was progressing so quickly and began to slowly distrust Blair. As Blair’s abilities to manipulate magical energy bloomed, Ibram settled on a belief that Blair had made some sort of deal with a power. As Antonio’s assaults on Blair began to be stopped by Blair’s growing understanding and skill, Ibram, without meaning to was discussing his youngest apprentice to members of the White Council. It wasn’t long before others began to distrust Blair as well. As odd as this seems, these years were the happiest of Blair’s life. He felt connected to a larger society. He was able to tell his parents that he was alive and in a special school. Most important of all, he fell in love with the study and essence of magic. He found beauty in magic for its own sake. He began to hear magic wherever he went. Unfiltered and raw like the white noise from an unturned radio that rose and fell in waves with the ambient strength of the magical field. From that, Blair would spin music. Simple things sounded like a violin, or a clarinet, or an oboe. Others had multiple weaving strains of melody. Once he was even able to weave together something that sounded like a string quartet. The end came when Antonio was made a full wizard. Perhaps Antonio said something to Ibram, perhaps there were whispers among other members of the Council. Blair was pulled before the Council and questioned. He was questioned about his magic, questioned about his strength. Accused many times of consorting with powers. In the midst of this inquisition he became aware of Antonio questioning him as well, and though others did not see it, Blair saw the hunger and the anger in the newly minted wizard’s eyes. Blair knew then that he could never be a member of their family. He would never trust them, those that would blindly accept a monster like Antonio. Blair told the wizards what they could do to themselves, in no uncertain and distinctly scatological terms. Ibram raged as Antonio smiled, broke his apprenticeship, took his robe and denied him assistance, rest or surcease from any member of the White Council. He was cut off. Blair was an older and wiser young man when he was dropped off on the streets of Detroit. It was the early 60s. Blair started working at the Mack Avenue Ford Assembly plant (known as the Mack Plant back then). He learned to keep a tight rein on his magic and his emotions, but he bored of working at the plant after a few years and put himself through night school, becoming a high-school teacher at a private school in Detroit. Phase 3: The Story: Copper Curse: When several old friends are hurt in an accident at the Mack Avenue Assembly Plant, Blair Renault, private school teacher and one time apprentice wizard must pit himself against a rising tide of dark magic, mobster ghosts and piles of ungraded tests. But will he find the cause of the terror before old enemies on the Wizard Council decide that Blair’s summary execution is the quickest way to end the threat?
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