VIGIL I: We don't have a cool title yet...

[Quinsar]

[Mountain Base - Courtyard]

"Fancy," Thariza comments. She then looks around herself. "Well, here we are. VIGIL's mountain base. I understand it used to belong to some cabal of wizards, before the people from Watchtower settled down here."

Well that's interesting.

Quinsar smiles and looks at the mountain base with a new appreciation.

I'm assuming all traces of them have been removed, r

[Ashen Lilies]

[Mountain Base - Courtyard]

"Not quite."
The sardonic reply comes from a small cat, black as coal, with an equally black collar around its throat. The collar is made out of some odd, glassy material, like smooth obsidian. He's sitting directly on the side of the wall - sticking out horizontally in all defiance of laws of gravity, though after a yawn and luxurious stretch, he walks down the wall, stepping into a more sensible orientation on the grass.

[Mountain Base - Library]

Kr has returned to the studies she had been removed from in pursuit of the staff, which is now sitting safely in the tower vaults, along with the other dangerous items WATCHTOWER had collected over the years. Or... had she been doing something different? Maybe going to the college? It hardly matters. All trivial matters, compared to the staff sitting in the vault. It needed to be put away. Or studied. Or put away and studied. Something. Something needed to be done with the staff.

[Morty]

[Mountain Base - Courtyard]

Thariza blinks, and her two pairs of ears flick.

"Okay, the talking cat is new. Not the first one I've met in the Nexus, of course. Hello... cat."

[Deathkeeper]

Mountain Base- Courtyard

Spako Highclaws is up and awake enough to respond to the alarm, though he isn't entirely sure where to go or what to do. He settles for hopping out a nearby window and gliding down to the courtyard. He's got his full set of chainmail on now.
"Wenomir, sir! Reporting. What's the situation?" he says to the man he knows, trying to sound proper.

[The Bushranger]

[Entrance]

No, just visiting. She smiles back as she shakes Erin's hand. I'm Rhapsodia, Aspect of Angela the Poetess.

"It's good to meet you, Rhapsodia," Erin says, smiling brightly (after slapping her player around the head a few times). "I could show you around, then, if you'd like," the half-ghost offers with a cheerful tone.

===

[Mountain Base- Courtyard]

Meanwhile, a portal opens, and out of it steps a raven-haired young woman in a (rather tight and low-cut) purple dress, the matching stockings and heeled boots providing a hint that is confirmed by the crescent-moon pendant she wears - this is Patricia O'Connell, High Priestess of Angela, Selenite Goddess of Lust.

Also a telekinetic and soulknife, judging by the crackling purple energy around one fist that forms into a psychic blade.

"So, where's the fire?" she asks, glancing around at those present and kicking herself for not having checked an updated members' list after the merger.

[Arkhosia]

Courtyard

Sophia arrives, her uniform pockets signaling the fact she's recently acquired some new equipment. Upon her back, a flintlock rifle that knowing the nexus is probably actually significantly better than a real life one due to magic or something is slung, and a loaded pistol is holstered in an inner pocket of her jacket.
What's the situation, sir?
She inquires, saluting

[Quinsar]

[Mountain Base - Courtyard]

Thariza blinks, and her two pairs of ears flick.

"Okay, the talking cat is new. Not the first one I've met in the Nexus, of course. Hello... cat."

[Mountain Base - Courtyard]

"Not quite."
The sardonic reply comes from a small cat, black as coal, with an equally black collar around its throat. The collar is made out of some odd, glassy material, like smooth obsidian. He's sitting directly on the side of the wall - sticking out horizontally in all defiance of laws of gravity, though after a yawn and luxurious stretch, he walks down the wall, stepping into a more sensible orientation on the grass.

Mountain Base - Courtyard

Definitely not my first talking cat, but interesting none the less.

Quinsar smiles and takes a step towards the cat. Flare moves to quickly start orbiting around him, letting out a quiet squeak.

Hello my strange clawed friend. Were you here with the old mages? What is your name?

[Ashen Lilies]

[Mountain Base - Courtyard]

"A relic, yes." Says the cat irritably, studiously annoying the orbiting little fluffball. "I am Zhirael."

As Quinsar approaches the cat, he may detect some of the magic of the obsidian collar. It contains a binding spell of hideously impressive strength, as well as a variety of other spells that compel obedience (of a sort) and tie the bound being to the tower and its surroundings. The binding spell should come most clearly though, as it is the strongest, and the collar is also spelled to broadcast knowledge of the spell and what it does to any nearby being. If Quinsar's particularly attuned to magic (or at some point does some actual detecting), he'll know that only a mortal would be able to touch, or indeed remove, the collar. Any non-mortal being attempting such is likely to meet a similar confinement. If they're powerful enough to even survive a spell of such disgusting power.

The cat's own nature is hidden - blocked by the collar's magic - but judging by the collar itself, it's not likely to be a being of a particularly friendly nature.

[Morty]

[Mountain Base- Courtyard - 1]

Thariza peers down at the cat. Something is off about him...

"So what happened to those mages? I understand this tower was already empty when the first Watchtower members moved in. Except for some monsters. I've heard one of them was routed by furniture. Talk about embarrassing."

[Mountain Base- Courtyard - 2]

"We've got likely hostiles incoming," Wenomir says. "A lot of them and nasty ones, apparently. See the mist swirling outside the walls? That's them. Sophia, you stay with me in the front. Everyone else, stay back and shoot any that get past us."

[FireFox]

[Ocean Base - Kitchen]

Rho nods appreciatively. Oh, please do. I'm sure the merger with Watch changed many things since I was last here.


[Mountain Base - Courtyard]

Spyridon puts up his hood and just kind of shrinks away at all these people appearing out of nowhere. Where did they all come from? That was some alarm system. Wenomir's got that command presence on point. Um, I'll go try to translate this writing and, uh, maybe it will have important information. The necromancer mumbles and charitably leaves so that the people who like hitting demons with pieces of metal can have more of their preferred violence to go around.

[Mountain Base - Library]

The emerald wizard walks in and begins the laborious task of finding a book that has writing similar to the rubbings Mitch brought back from the tomb.

[UncleWolf]

Mountain Base - Courtyard/Outside

It's only a few minutes after Spyridon leaves before the fog outside swells up and swoops in, encroaching on the base and reaching the walls within seconds. Unless something prevents such, it will build up and begin to pour into the compound. Anyone touching it will feel a bolt of instinctive fear go down their spine. Something was in the fog and it sure as hell didn't mean to pass them girlscout cookies.

Mountain Base - Library

It is about this time when Spyridon is able to find several small scraps of paper tucked away in a dry rotten journal. Much of it is illegible, written in a foreign shorthand, but there are sketches of similar symbols like Mitch has copied with notes in another hand underneath them, arrows pointing them out. One such passage is quite a bit longer, written quickly and across several pages.

It seems there used to be four of Them, driven by powers that even I cannot comprehend. According to the Mage-Kings of Ancient Alzor, these things were unimaginably old even by their times eons ago. They lacked true names or even clarifications on what they were, but I've given them names of my own based off of their qualities. The first, shown as a whirlpool in the pictographs, is The Devourer who destroyed the civilization's entire agriculture by literally eating all of their farmland. The second is The Fog, shown as the three lines above. It is...for lack of a better term, an Apex Predator that feeds off of people's fear and exhaustion and likes to toy with them like a cat. Whenever it sets its eye on something, it is relentless.

The third is the one I fear most, given the picture of a dark man. I have seen similar things even now, Shades and Wraiths, but this...this would be the grandfather of them all, capable of eating not just the memories of people, but every scrap of intelligence and thought they have, leaving them as mere husks of their former selves. Thankfully this is all mere legend so I will never meet the Mind-Eater in person.

Finally, the last entity...they never gave a name. The symbol is simply a hollow man with lightning bolts around his head. There are only a handful of references even in these tombs, referring to it as the greatest evil in the world, but it seems that even they couldn't describe what it was. It could be The Nameless One or perhaps should just be called The Hollow Man.

As I have said though, these things are mere legend. Nothing survives this long. I'm certain that the Mage-Kings were wiped out by natural phenomena instead. It wouldn't be the first time such has happened. Even so, this has provided me with a solid proposal to provide to the Grant Board for an expedition.

[Morty]

[Mountain Base - Courtyard/Outside]

Wenomir points his sword at the mist and begins barking orders.

"Spako! Patricia! Fire any spells that might affect fog at it! Or anything that works against demons! Force them to materialize if you can!"

[Deathkeeper]

Courtyard

"Yessir!" the kobold calls back, immediately drawing his sword and waving it about and summoning up a strong gust of wind blowing away from the courtyard, maybe halting the advance of the supernatural fog.

[The Bushranger]

[Ocean Base - Kitchen]

Rho nods appreciatively. Oh, please do. I'm sure the merger with Watch changed many things since I was last here.

"Less than you'd think," Erin says, deciding not to admit that she hasn't paid much attention to organisational politics. "But I just need to finish watering the plants, once I get done we'll get started."




[Mountain Base - Courtyard]

"I'm better at melee!" Patty snaps, waving her soulblade idly - even as with her other hand she sends an experimental blast of telekinetic force at the enroaching Fog.

[Arkhosia]

Courtyard

Sophia draws her rifle, aiming and steadying the rifle easily. She won't transform until she can assess how advantageous it would be.

[FireFox]

[Library]

Spyridon studies the legible passage very closely. He takes notes of the demons' alleged powers and natures, but his main interest is on the mentioned Mage-Kings. He looks for more information on them, thinking that a more clear picture of the threat they all faced could be best obtained by talking to the dead spirits of Ancient Alzor. Locations of burial sites is his next priority then, but he'll have to wait for Mitch to recover enough to confirm if the initial tomb really was a tomb after all.


[Kitchen]

Take your time. The Aspect hops up onto a counter to sit and watch the curvacious ghost.

[Ashen Lilies]

[Mountain Base - Courtyard]

An observer. Kr sits cross-legged in the air a fair distance above the courtyard, watching the fog and the efforts of the other Vigilants to thwart it. She's not wearing her usual red coat - sadly it most likely has been nommed by nightterror. Her current replacement is a shorter and far less badass grey jacket, supplement by a sorta okay red scarf.

For the moment she doesn't seem to have any intention of helping, satisfied with watching how Wenomir and the other members handle themselves.

[Zefir]

Mountain Base - Infirmary

Mia watches the ongoing in the Courtyard from a window of the infirmary. Things don't really look good as the fog attemps to pass the wall, Mia thinks and heads away from the window for a moment, taking a look at the only patient in the infirmary. MDM makes som steam noise, obviously asking Mia if he should get a weapon for Mia to defend the infirmary.
Mia nods and MDM leaves the informary. He should return soon, hopefully befor anything happens.

[Aric Kale]

Ocean Base - Main Room?

Marcus is here, and if any members are around, he'll ask them where he can find Samantha Goswell.

[FireFox]

[Ocean Base - Range]

Samantha Goswell can be located in the base's Killing House, running through entry and room-clearing drills with all of the weapons she usually carries on missions.


[Elsewhere]

Other characters may be available, if interaction is desired.

[Aric Kale]

Ocean Base - Range

Marcus enters the Killing Room and waits silently, admiring the efficiency with which the drills are performed.

Once they're done, he steps up, slamming an arm to his chest.
Samantha Goswell, I'm Marcus Regulus the Runist, recently promoted Staff Officer.

[UncleWolf]

Library

This library doesn't seem to have anything other than a few brief references to such a civilization, but other libraries such as the ones in Riverside or Inside might have more solid information.

Courtyard

The gust of wind from Spako does hold part of the fog at bay, but there's so much of it that unless he can keep it going in all directions, it'll eventually wash over him and everyone else, regardless of the blasts within it. Once the people are touched by the fog, they'll find all sound muffled, as if it were underwater, and the swirling mass cuts off vision further than just a couple feet. A sense of dread is palpable in the fog and the desire to flee in terror will begin to creep into the minds of Vigil's defenders. It is a supernatural terror, so it can be resisted, but it is also quite subtle at first so it may go unnoticed for now.

So far, there's no sign of anything other than themselves within it.

Mountain Base - Infirmary

Mitch gives a light groan from the bed and shifts positions slightly, rolling a bit onto his side so he can attempt to sleep off his wounds and pain. For now, nothing disturbs the infirmary though the fog begins to seep up to the window.

[FireFox]

Ocean Base - Range

Sam is very, very good at what she does. This almost never gets touched on these days, so let me take the time to expound on what it looks like when you take a woman with superhuman agility and reflexes and put her in the Special Air Service for three decades. Thirty years (which is only half of her life despite looking like her direct age) of counter-terrorism training means that she has literally perfected these drills. She enters buildings and moves through rooms at top speed regardless of their configuration, always with complete economy of motion. Firing over three million (!!!) rounds of ammunition in her life of practice has made her equally precise with her weapons. She can put a burst of bullets in the same hole, anywhere she wants it. Those two talents combined means that she clears rooms at a dead sprint, even burdened with a plate carrier and other tactical gear, shooting every hostile in the head before they can begin to track her with their own firearms. In Samantha Goswell's homeworld, summer blockbuster action movies were made about her missions and exploits and featured over the top combat scenes, unrealistic gunplay, and gratuitous CQB violence... and all of those films were toned down and boring compared to her actual, classified, deeds. She is so badass that six years of seeing relatively little action in the Nexus as well as dying a handful of times has not noticeably dulled her edge. You would be very hard pressed to find a better operator among active PCs.

Hullo, sir. Sam reflexively comes to attention and salutes her superior. What can I do for you?

[Darkcomet]

[Mountain Base - probably some other time or something]

You know, I think I understand now, states a mass-broadcasted telepathic voice, almost conversationally, but as it continues it grows ever-angrier until all feigned calm is gone.

No one actually cares, do they? No one actually cares about the state of the Nexus. Oh, they'll give it lip service, and they'll certainly take part in any active events that happen to be in their way, but no one cares to stop them if they don't look like imminent disasters.

It doesn't matter what crime one commits, or how many betrayals one makes, or how many times a 'defeated' enemy no one cared to finish off comes back for more. Attempted omnicide, backstabbing, bio-terror attacks, brainwashing, none of them matter unless you're right there when it's happening, and anything after the fact just isn't worth dealing with.

I can leave. I can cut funding. I can blatantly feed others intelligence that could get one of your leaders killed.

And yet, what have you done?

Nothing. Nobody's come to try and drag me back, no one's tried to retaliate, no one's even made a simple public denouncement of any of my actions.

And I've finally figured it out! It's because NO ONE CARES!

A Watchtower member went rogue and commited bio-terrorism against Riverside, including my people, with AMEN, and nobody wanted to punish her because NO ONE CARED! I plotted a nanite weapon attack, and none of you so much as chastised me despite it all, because you DIDN'T CARE! Magtok betrayed me and tried to kill my people with brainwashed puppets, and I had to threaten him behind all of your backs to so much as free them, because NONE OF YOU CARED!

None of you do anything more than give lip service to the causes you claim to serve, only acting when a problem blows up right in your faces. You'll excuse anything so long as it lets you maintain your own power, or gather more, to an organization that refuses to take any decisive action without being forcibly dragged into it kicking and screaming by a leader acting on his own.

But that's all just the whys, so I'm sure you'll all ignore it, just as you have for a long time. My point here is that I had a shutoff switch on the Watchtower airship's power systems, considering, you know, I'm the one who fixed that thing up, and then converted it to EI power tech when I needed the power source it originally used. It has now been activated, and the ship's power systems will no longer function.

Because that's my work, and I don't care to let you use my work anymore, if you hadn't guessed by now.

Well.

That sure is a thing.

[Aric Kale]

Ocean Base - Range

Awe-inspiring, to be sure.

Wenomir suggested that I meet you. He said you were a veteran of the place, and as a fellow Staff Officer, I would like to know about the grounds and what they hold.
The man speaks with a well concealed Scottish brogue, but his orange hair and green eyes give away his heritage anyways. He's a bit of a mix, since he's technically a Roman citizen, and he has rediscovered his Runist abilities upon entering the Nexus.

Marcus is experienced in combat, but nothing too modern, so it will be interesting to see how well he fares.

[Morty]

[Courtyard]

Wenomir's response to the encroaching fog and the likewise encroaching sense of dread is to make wide, quick sweeps around him with his sword. It's largely an empty gesture of someone who is conditioned to respond to threats this way, but the sword bears rather strong anti-magic runes, so it's not impossible it might actually harm whatever being that takes the form of the fog.

[Deathkeeper]

Courtyard

Spako scowls. Damn it all. He reaches into his pack and pulls out a stick about a foot long. Throwing it to the ground, it bursts into light not entirely unlike a flare. In fact, it basically is a flare.
It won't make seeing any easier, but it'll act as a beacon so that he doesn't have to worry quite as much of losing his way if he takes two steps away from the building.

[happyturtle]

Mountain Base - sometime or other

A swan flies out of a purple portal somewhere in the airspace outside the dimensional lock and begins circling as she listens to the broadcast.

She sniffs. She usually knows where he is by scent, but it's been a while since she's tracked him that way. It may not work anymore. And he's become so much more powerful than she thinks he'll be when she's older.

But maybe she'll be able to sit down and just have a talk with him, one on one.

It's been so very very long, DeeCee.

[Ashen Lilies]

[Mountain Base - Airship Gantry]

Maintenance time! It seems that one of the airships is having some power issues, and Kr is here to fix the problem! She didn't seem to bring any tools with her though, so I don't know how she's intending to fix any of the problems.

Identifying the problem seems to be easy enough, though, as Kr quickly opens up the panel covering the now inert power core. Let's do some repairs!

Kr places both hands on the power core, tearing it directly out of the housing. The power core isn't the only thing that comes out, though, as Kr seems to have forgotten to disconnect the damn thing first, and it begins to pull out all the wires and such it's connected to, one of the wires snags, and Kr stops pulling for a second. She adjusts her grip, and starts to pull again, taking a step towards the door to the airship. The wires come with her, shearing through the snag, and the rest of the metal in the way. She takes another step, and several more wires start to rip through the ship around her, no longer being pulled through the hole in the power housing, but straight through the structure of the ship, the guts of the ship ripping through the skeleton as Kr walks out the door, bringing the whole internal workings of the airship with her.

The guns - those high-powered chain disruptor cannons DC developed to take advantage of his power device - are the last to go, wrenched out of their housings and ripping through the tattered remains of the ship as Kr pulls the whole structure free and dumps it on the hanger floor in front of her. She studies her handiwork. Kr beckons a random base servant over. "Cordon this off, if you would. The airship is currently under renovation." The airship hull creaks, groaning under its own weight as the torn supports struggle to carry their own weight. "I don't want anyone trying to take off in it, thinking it's still functional." There's a shuddering crash as the entire thing implodes, metal screeching on metal as the gutted airship collapses inwards, coming to rest in a jagged pile of metal and plastic, covered by the fabric tent of the once-gas-filled flight envelope.
"I'm going to go return these defective parts."

Kr walks off, tucking the power core under her arm, the entire wiring and innards of the ship, guns and all, rattling heavily as it gets dragged behind her.

Um... all fixed now?

[The Bushranger]

[Kitchen]

Take your time. The Aspect hops up onto a counter to sit and watch the curvacious ghost.

Erin hums to herself as she works, swaying gently to the soft, pleasant tune as one plant after another is watered. It isn't long, however, before she's done, and she puts away the Endless Watering Can and garden gloves. "There. Now, then, where were we?"

===

Courtyard

The gust of wind from Spako does hold part of the fog at bay, but there's so much of it that unless he can keep it going in all directions, it'll eventually wash over him and everyone else, regardless of the blasts within it. Once the people are touched by the fog, they'll find all sound muffled, as if it were underwater, and the swirling mass cuts off vision further than just a couple feet. A sense of dread is palpable in the fog and the desire to flee in terror will begin to creep into the minds of Vigil's defenders. It is a supernatural terror, so it can be resisted, but it is also quite subtle at first so it may go unnoticed for now.

So far, there's no sign of anything other than themselves within it.

Patty frowns as the Fog sweeps in.

She has to wonder if there's nanomachines (son) inside it.

As it is, she concentrates, then sends a telekinetic blast out from her! It's omnidirectional, and strong enough that while it wouldn't bowl anybody over, it should disrupt the fog before it dissipates after a short distance from its source.