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Feb. 16th, 2008 01:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
korafoxBack from break, and have a new mission report. There's a gap between the last one and this one...pertinent information is:
Draco Company has coup-ed our Organization (it was really in charge to begin with).
Four nearly indestructible demons are running the show.
To kill them, we need to obtain the "legendary weapons of humanity".
We are now based out of a military base in Alaska, and leadership and resources are unstable.
(usual disclaimer: this is a fantasy roleplaying game. no actual events are described herein.)
I can't deny the fact that it felt good to be out in the field again. We hadn't been cooped up in that room as long as the other teams, but their cabin fever was quickly getting infectious. Still, we started out on a tense note. Sam and Carter nearly pulled guns on each other while we were en route to the New York airport. Seems the two just couldn't help getting in each others' faces; I could tell Sam was resenting Carter being in charge. Can't really fault him for that--after all, Carter's been missing for two months and the last time we saw him he was acting somewhat unbalanced--but threatening to shoot him? There's better ways to express frustration. Not that, after all this time, I'd expect Sam to react otherwise.
Things proceeded fairly smoothly as we crossed into England. We obtained lodging and split into two gropus. Three of us took a bus to Oxford, to speak with Professor Aeccestane. The hope was that he could give us some direction toward the weapon we were looking for, but when we arrived it seemed he had taken a sick day. Instead, we spoke with one of his colleagues, a Professor Templeton. He didn't seem to have much respect for Prof. Aeccestane's work (or the man himself), but then he seemed the sort of person who has no cares for anything but his own puffed-up theses. At the very least, we confirmed that the weapon we sought was the legendary sword Excalibur. We returned to London and met up with the others outside Prof. Aeccestane's residence.
We decided to see if the Professor was willing to speak with us tonight; there was no sense in having to take a bus out to Oxford in the morning again. But when we went up to his front door, we found it unlocked and ajar. Inside was a scene which was becoming all too familiar--dead body on the floor, blood spatters spread across the room.
Our determination to avoid police attention was already thwarted. Not by any of our own actions, to be sure, but it was going to make further investigation a bit tricky. We quickly swept the house--not much of interest, although we found reference to the area around Stonehenge--and escaped out the back way just as the sirens started to approach.
With our one lead on information dead, there was little to do but head out for Stonehenge and hope that Seth's visions could take us from there. But as we left our hotel, the woman at the desk asked us if our "friend" had caught up with us yet. Obviously someone was on to our presence in the country--not only that, but knew exactly where we were staying. Still, nothing we could do but stay on our toes. Vigilance paid off when we got to Stonehenge--we immediately picked up on a young woman who was tailing us through the fields. Real punk-looking girl, too, carrying a long metal case. We were about to turn and confront her when a truck came roaring through the fog and deployed a bunch of soldiers--and a man wielding a longsword.
As luck would have it, the girl was not part of this *ever*-so-cunning trap, and she proved herself an ally when she opened fire on the newly-arrived soldiers. We would later find out her name was Verris, one of the mages who had been charged with keeping an eye on us--but that wasn't immediately important. What was important was the fact that she now held a missile launcher in her hands.
The damn swordsman cut it in half! A missile! Who does that outside of the movies? Anyways, we fanned out and defended ourselves. We apparently did so successfully, because when I woke up nearly everyone was conscious and the enemy was nowhere in sight. One of these days I'll manage to control the fire, rather than the other way 'round. Until then...well, I suppose I'll just have to try to keep my teammates out of danger as much as possible.
We left the area--arson, appropriate a charge as it may be, wasn't the one I wanted to get caught for--and slunk off to bandage our wounds. The mage girl got us a room to crash in on the Oxford campus, so it was there that we bunked down.
Once again, Sam and Carter came close to shooting one another. It seems, while I was turning the woods into a raging inferno, Sam tackled Carter to keep him from dosing me a second time with tranquilizers. Now, while I patched up the others, I heard the two of them start a very loud argument and saw guns come out. The rest of us, not wanting to see a shoot out in the middle of a college campus, tried to get them to calm down and put the weapons away. I don't think Carter handled the situation well at all--he's been with this group long enough to know that taunting Sam is just going to make him more volatile. In any case, I settled the matter for the time being--as much as Sam thought he was acting in my interests, I'd rather face the risk of an overdose rather than expose the others to even more danger than they're already in from me.
The next day, feeling refreshed and cautiously optimistic, we returned to the countryside near Stonehenge. We were successful in locating the lake alluded to in Prof. Aeccestane's prior work, and Verris confirmed that there was some latent magic to the place--although, this was true of most of the area nearby Stonehenge. To this point, no one had found anything unusual at the lake. But, they didn't have a bunch of headcase psychics around. Within a short amount of time, Dex made contact with a Lady of the Lake. Unfortunately, she wouldn't relinquish the sword to us without a certain word and the rightful bearer. Dex said the presence of the spirit seemed extremely powerful, so it looked like we had little choice but to go on an information search.
It was back to Oxford for us. Most of us hit the books at the library, and the others went to see what they could find in the late Professor's research materials and office. This really wasn't my preferred area of study; myths and legends about some dead king who may or may not have even existed never really appealed to me. Regardless, I didn't find anything of use, but the others did. It seems the Professor had hidden a combination to something in one of his desk drawers. So, it was back to his house to see if we could find whatever the numbers went to.
Trespassing on a crime scene...I think that's actually a new one. But it paid off, and no one showed up to arrest us. We acquired a journal which gave us the word we needed--"Avalon", in Gaelic--and prepared to head back to the lake.
We only had a few minutes of solitude at the lake before those soldiers appeared again. They must have been watching the area, to have arrived so quickly and stealthily. But then, they weren't exactly normal soldiers, either. From the references to "holy obligations" their leader with the sword was spouting, it's likely they were associated with the Templar groups still in Europe. The others distracted them while those of us who hadn't addressed the lake took our turns.
It was me...not really something I expected. I never cared for stories of knights and kings as a kid, so to be the rightful heir of Excalibur? I'm no noble-hearted warrior.
A castle rose from the lake, and steps of stone led from the shore to its gates. I started toward it, but as I stepped onto the first rock a voice called out for me to stop.
Two tourists we had seen around Stonehenge the previous visit were now standing by the lake. It seems we had picked up the attention of some Draco affilliates after all, because the two split from their skins and took off into the night sky, transformed into some sort of shadow-monsters.
Enmity between our group and the soldiers was set aside as the shadows tore into one of the men surrounding us. Someone lit up the area with a light spell, and the monsters collapsed into smoke as they hit its light. Still, this didn't seem to be hurting them, and the spell only lasted a few short seconds.
I wreathed myself in flame, hoping it would shield me from the monsters' claws, and took off at a dead run for the castle. Perhaps my tactic worked, because I reached the gates without a scratch. Diving inside, the world dissolved around me.
I woke, later, on the shore. I clutched the sword in my hand, and the castle had disappeared back into the lake.
------------------------------------------------------
Next time: Escape from England, and
Dr. Erickson, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the tactical airstrike that wiped all trace of that %*#$ research facility from the face of the earth.
Draco Company has coup-ed our Organization (it was really in charge to begin with).
Four nearly indestructible demons are running the show.
To kill them, we need to obtain the "legendary weapons of humanity".
We are now based out of a military base in Alaska, and leadership and resources are unstable.
(usual disclaimer: this is a fantasy roleplaying game. no actual events are described herein.)
I can't deny the fact that it felt good to be out in the field again. We hadn't been cooped up in that room as long as the other teams, but their cabin fever was quickly getting infectious. Still, we started out on a tense note. Sam and Carter nearly pulled guns on each other while we were en route to the New York airport. Seems the two just couldn't help getting in each others' faces; I could tell Sam was resenting Carter being in charge. Can't really fault him for that--after all, Carter's been missing for two months and the last time we saw him he was acting somewhat unbalanced--but threatening to shoot him? There's better ways to express frustration. Not that, after all this time, I'd expect Sam to react otherwise.
Things proceeded fairly smoothly as we crossed into England. We obtained lodging and split into two gropus. Three of us took a bus to Oxford, to speak with Professor Aeccestane. The hope was that he could give us some direction toward the weapon we were looking for, but when we arrived it seemed he had taken a sick day. Instead, we spoke with one of his colleagues, a Professor Templeton. He didn't seem to have much respect for Prof. Aeccestane's work (or the man himself), but then he seemed the sort of person who has no cares for anything but his own puffed-up theses. At the very least, we confirmed that the weapon we sought was the legendary sword Excalibur. We returned to London and met up with the others outside Prof. Aeccestane's residence.
We decided to see if the Professor was willing to speak with us tonight; there was no sense in having to take a bus out to Oxford in the morning again. But when we went up to his front door, we found it unlocked and ajar. Inside was a scene which was becoming all too familiar--dead body on the floor, blood spatters spread across the room.
Our determination to avoid police attention was already thwarted. Not by any of our own actions, to be sure, but it was going to make further investigation a bit tricky. We quickly swept the house--not much of interest, although we found reference to the area around Stonehenge--and escaped out the back way just as the sirens started to approach.
With our one lead on information dead, there was little to do but head out for Stonehenge and hope that Seth's visions could take us from there. But as we left our hotel, the woman at the desk asked us if our "friend" had caught up with us yet. Obviously someone was on to our presence in the country--not only that, but knew exactly where we were staying. Still, nothing we could do but stay on our toes. Vigilance paid off when we got to Stonehenge--we immediately picked up on a young woman who was tailing us through the fields. Real punk-looking girl, too, carrying a long metal case. We were about to turn and confront her when a truck came roaring through the fog and deployed a bunch of soldiers--and a man wielding a longsword.
As luck would have it, the girl was not part of this *ever*-so-cunning trap, and she proved herself an ally when she opened fire on the newly-arrived soldiers. We would later find out her name was Verris, one of the mages who had been charged with keeping an eye on us--but that wasn't immediately important. What was important was the fact that she now held a missile launcher in her hands.
The damn swordsman cut it in half! A missile! Who does that outside of the movies? Anyways, we fanned out and defended ourselves. We apparently did so successfully, because when I woke up nearly everyone was conscious and the enemy was nowhere in sight. One of these days I'll manage to control the fire, rather than the other way 'round. Until then...well, I suppose I'll just have to try to keep my teammates out of danger as much as possible.
We left the area--arson, appropriate a charge as it may be, wasn't the one I wanted to get caught for--and slunk off to bandage our wounds. The mage girl got us a room to crash in on the Oxford campus, so it was there that we bunked down.
Once again, Sam and Carter came close to shooting one another. It seems, while I was turning the woods into a raging inferno, Sam tackled Carter to keep him from dosing me a second time with tranquilizers. Now, while I patched up the others, I heard the two of them start a very loud argument and saw guns come out. The rest of us, not wanting to see a shoot out in the middle of a college campus, tried to get them to calm down and put the weapons away. I don't think Carter handled the situation well at all--he's been with this group long enough to know that taunting Sam is just going to make him more volatile. In any case, I settled the matter for the time being--as much as Sam thought he was acting in my interests, I'd rather face the risk of an overdose rather than expose the others to even more danger than they're already in from me.
The next day, feeling refreshed and cautiously optimistic, we returned to the countryside near Stonehenge. We were successful in locating the lake alluded to in Prof. Aeccestane's prior work, and Verris confirmed that there was some latent magic to the place--although, this was true of most of the area nearby Stonehenge. To this point, no one had found anything unusual at the lake. But, they didn't have a bunch of headcase psychics around. Within a short amount of time, Dex made contact with a Lady of the Lake. Unfortunately, she wouldn't relinquish the sword to us without a certain word and the rightful bearer. Dex said the presence of the spirit seemed extremely powerful, so it looked like we had little choice but to go on an information search.
It was back to Oxford for us. Most of us hit the books at the library, and the others went to see what they could find in the late Professor's research materials and office. This really wasn't my preferred area of study; myths and legends about some dead king who may or may not have even existed never really appealed to me. Regardless, I didn't find anything of use, but the others did. It seems the Professor had hidden a combination to something in one of his desk drawers. So, it was back to his house to see if we could find whatever the numbers went to.
Trespassing on a crime scene...I think that's actually a new one. But it paid off, and no one showed up to arrest us. We acquired a journal which gave us the word we needed--"Avalon", in Gaelic--and prepared to head back to the lake.
We only had a few minutes of solitude at the lake before those soldiers appeared again. They must have been watching the area, to have arrived so quickly and stealthily. But then, they weren't exactly normal soldiers, either. From the references to "holy obligations" their leader with the sword was spouting, it's likely they were associated with the Templar groups still in Europe. The others distracted them while those of us who hadn't addressed the lake took our turns.
It was me...not really something I expected. I never cared for stories of knights and kings as a kid, so to be the rightful heir of Excalibur? I'm no noble-hearted warrior.
A castle rose from the lake, and steps of stone led from the shore to its gates. I started toward it, but as I stepped onto the first rock a voice called out for me to stop.
Two tourists we had seen around Stonehenge the previous visit were now standing by the lake. It seems we had picked up the attention of some Draco affilliates after all, because the two split from their skins and took off into the night sky, transformed into some sort of shadow-monsters.
Enmity between our group and the soldiers was set aside as the shadows tore into one of the men surrounding us. Someone lit up the area with a light spell, and the monsters collapsed into smoke as they hit its light. Still, this didn't seem to be hurting them, and the spell only lasted a few short seconds.
I wreathed myself in flame, hoping it would shield me from the monsters' claws, and took off at a dead run for the castle. Perhaps my tactic worked, because I reached the gates without a scratch. Diving inside, the world dissolved around me.
I woke, later, on the shore. I clutched the sword in my hand, and the castle had disappeared back into the lake.
------------------------------------------------------
Next time: Escape from England, and
Dr. Erickson, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the tactical airstrike that wiped all trace of that %*#$ research facility from the face of the earth.
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Date: 2008-02-16 09:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-16 10:21 pm (UTC)