((Hey everybody! Four points, though I don't think Kirby will get it in time to be posted by the deadline. Anh, such is the reality when someone is away from the internet and unable to write on a regular basis. Could any of us have imagined this roleplay being what it has been? Honestly, I didn't expect it to survive so long and so well. A two year roleplay. It will almost surely take the record for longest running RP, and hold onto it probably forever in each of our lives. Have any of you thought about that? This thing has been going for more than a year, soon to be a year and a half. Epic.
Now, as we approach the end, and wind down with our last few posts, I wanted to make sure all of us were on the same page before we committed to anything crazy. I want everybody to be moving in the same direction. So here is the idea: no matter what resources we amass, no matter how close we get and what damage we do, all our own individual efforts are going to fail by the December post (which there will be, probably another story post, though the jury's still out on that). Everything we do should FAIL by the end of that post. Every organization either slaughtered, dissolved, or no longer working for us. Every extra resource expended. Every trick gone, every ally dead or fled. Please let me handle the level of Otherworld presence 1n the world with my posts... but expect it to get much worse. Civilization as we know it will have completely collapsed by the end of the December post. This isn’t to say most people will be dead... but whatever’s still around will be nothing like the world that existed when we started. I will handle the invasion of the others, though feel free to include it in your posts when you see to the level that I have included it in mine. U would like all of our characters to end up in Jerusalem at the end of December, if not earlier, so the group can be together for the Endgame, which will take place over a google video chat including all of us sometime 1n January. Be prepared! It will be awesome!
Feel free to /suggest/ endgame solutions in your own plotlines. One I’ve been working with is that each race has a Speaker, who says the First Words, the first words ever spoken when modern civilization began. Other endgame suggestions have been made as well. I don’t expect we will know which of the suggestions will be employed until we actually sit down and play. Feel free to suggest any you want and develop them in your own stories as a few of you are already doing. Just make sure you remember that none of them are going to succeed before December, at the endgame.))
Hi everybody! Well everybody except Rlck. I've already said hello, and we’re soon to say goodbye all over again. But that’s beside the point. I’ll try to be to-the-point with my remarks today, because I know I sometimes have a tendency to ramble.
I hate to be the one to keep talking to you this way Austin, but somehow I keep finding myself to be the voice of caution in these things. I know you won't listen, but I feel compelled to say it anyway. So I will: no wholesome folk travel to Leng or dwell therein. It's a cold and desolate waste that borders on many lands, including the human Dreamlands. I have several acquaintances among my company that have traveled thereto, most notably a Dreamer of great renown named Randolph Carter. He tells me of the strange, hoofed people who dwell there, with horns on their heads and mouths too wide for their bodies, loping and chanting unholy prayers to the Thing that Lurks at the Threshold, the Crawling Chaos Nyarlathotep. That being himself dwells there in at least three of his avatars, one of which is quite amicable. The other is a nameless “High Priest Not to be Described", living alone in a desolate monastery on the height of the blasted table land, performing unholy rites to the outer ones, wearing a silken mask to protect the sanity of mortal seekers, and speaking with sign rather than voice. Of this you are not likely to be wholesomely received. Be wary in your travels also, tor Leng borders on the Dreamlands. Travel into the Dreamlands trom Leng will trap you there, permanently, as one of its ghostly residents. You must either go to the Dreamlands in sleep or be careful not to stray from Leng.
Carter tells me something else that may aid you in your search. In Leng there is a magnificent port city, built in the days when the feral folk of the place were mighty in understanding and power, possibly even wielding supernal magics. At this ruined city sit two massive winged lions wrought of stone, which eternally guard the gate to the Great Abyss. Travel there would be most dangerous — you can expect to encounter Nightgaunts guarding the way, and ghouls in great number. This may be what you wish, however. There is a being in the Great Abyss (which I suspect may actually be a part of the underworld, Carter couldn't tell me much about this sort of thing), a Hoary being named Nodens who is a longstanding rival of the Outer Ones and a longstanding friend of humanity. I know almost nothing about him apart from this, and that the Nightgaunts are loyal to him and no one else. He might be the one you seek. If he exists at all, he is likely the mightiest Deathlord on our planet. He is a being perhaps as great as Cthulhu itself, and quite cunning. He will know of you long before you arrive. Whether he cares to meet you, however... is another question. I cannot answer it. But I wish you luck in your quest. I never got around to visiting Leng while I was in the Dreamlands myself... I don’t ever intend to change that... Just be careful. The almost-men there are quite antagonistic to our cause, and to mages in particular. There is some buried half-memory that /we/, Awakened humanity, were once them. The Supernal does not choose them anymore, and for this cause they attack the Awakened on sight in all cases... at least according to my sources from the Dreamlands. Who knows, though.
Lizzie... I wish you weren't underground right now. As much as being together with Ricky and his girlfriend has been nice, he’s not nearly so pretty as you. Sorry Ricky! I hope you don't take offense to that. No, I suppose you don't understand people very well... Like this not really being sudden. When a boy and a girl have been friends as long as we have, what do you think would happen? Just because it hasn’t been expressed sexually before... (Sigh). I suppose it will also came as a shock to you that you don't have to be having sex with someone to be their boyfriend/girlfriend. It just means you're in an exclusive relationship with someone and there is at least some physical connection there. I don’t know why I’m saying any of this now when I could just tell you, though...
Back on subject. See, rambling! Lizzie, good luck with the devil, I think our previous adventures have proven if nothing else that I don’t understand the Underworld and have no business having anything to do with discussions about 1t. Remember when I broke the old laws 1n one of the most important dead domains there is? I do. That freakin’ sucked. No more, thanks. If I ever go back, I’m not going past any rivers next time. I'm sticking to the upper part with all the recently dead ghosts all clamoring you to help them with something. So freakin’ glad I don't have to deal with that stuff when I'm on the surface. That would be balls. No Death Arcanum study tor me. Actually I couldn’t study it very easy to begin with... but even if I could I wouldn't. I'11 leave death to the experts. If you can figure out a way to stop the Outsiders from coming back to life in our world, that would be just about wonderful. I would love you forever! Or... well I might do that anyway. Assuming any of us live through this whole mess.
Darrel, what you're going through simply baffles me. All I can tell from your entries is that your civil war isn't going as well as you thought. I can sorta understand how the tribal mechanics work... kinda like a wolf-pack, with the most dominant taking some roles, and some taking others, and such, but animal thinking I will never understand. Lots of physical things and lots of emotions. Really I’m just happy we're on the same side and that fire still burns werewolves when I have to fight them. Which thankfully isn't often. It seems everybody is so absorbed in the affairs of their own species that what the other species are doing doesn’t even seem to matter. I agree that ultimately we are all going to have to overcome our petty differences and unite. Not much luck we've had with that so far.
Well sorta. Ricky's been here for awhile! We've been working together for nearly a month now, before it came time for us to part ways. But I suppose I should explain what’s been going on. So the ferals arrived, just as Rick said they would. Can’t say I doubted, though I can’t say my men were too happy when thousands of part-animal people started showing up by aircraft and I ordered everyone to stand down. What a mess that might’ve been 1f the Arrow had been overzealous. Hey Rick, we're attacking you for some reason! No, I really don't know why.
Thank God that didn't happen. So he got here just as we were preparing to make our exit. Where to, you may ask? Well, since the whole world freakin’ knows, I don't really see any reason not to tell you: we were bound for the fertile coasts of California! So warm, so sunny, so tropical! And more importantly, the breadbasket of the freakin’ world. Well, maybe not bread, but... ricebasket? Fruits basket? No references there. Plenty to eat, that's the important thing. I now happen to have many men, and many mouths to be filled. Fortunately for us we’ve begun receiving shipments of food from the Dreamlands, which is quite easy considering the accelerated relationship of time with our world. Still, the soldiers came to our world with the desire to experience it, among many other things. So a source of "real" food for the men would be of enormous benefit to morale.
This was of course not the only reason for the move. San Diego, as it turns out, is host to the largest number of High Places of any city in the world. Why? I haven’t the foggiest. But after our assault on the Diamond Nation, our supplies of Supernal energy were severely depleted, and we needed time to recover. Besides... thanks to all the Supernal influence, and the correspondingly large population of mages, and probably lots of dumb luck, the city has been spared much of the evil of the Outside. It had a fairly large vampire population as well, but this we expected to be able to subdue with relative ease, or at least to placate enough they would leave us well enough alone. Well such was not to be it seems, and I am very thankful that Rick and his people were with us, even if they probably didn’t expect to be getting on a plane to one end of the world and then teleporting straight to another one with this army. But such is the strange world we live in. Far worse things have happened than wasted aircraft resources, as all of us know.
So we set up here no problem. Lots of "natural reservations" outside of the city we can use for our tent city. The locals had some mixed feelings about us being there - mostly because our portrayals in the media after the invasion of Shanghai have been mixed. Some portray us as heros, most just as revolutionaries or civil discontents. Naturally the reality of where the troops have come from goes entirely lost. The US Military Police (apparently the civilian police have been disbanded a long time ago, even in places that have seen relative peace like San Diego) didn’t know what to do about us. But the Union pulled some strings apparently, because for all their threats we never saw a single tank baring down on our camp, and our traffic into the city was unrestrained so long as we didn't travel in big groups.
It's so nice to be around a normal city. Freakin' cars and buses and traffic and smog. Humanity is so wonderful. Local mages joined up with us, and we started the practice of healing and planning, with me waiting for the Undying Ones to say the word about our next target. Well I still don't know about where I’ll be going next, but I sure know who the vampires targeted! Can anyone say us? Rick sure can, he was there. Wasn‘t it greeeeeaaat? Yeah it was.
So I didn't know this, but apparently there's this massive alliance of vampire Princes called the Immortal Kings. Princes, Kings... confusing, whatever. The most powerful vampire Princes in the United States and Europe. Well while not directly affiliated with the Yakuza vampires we totally trashed, they're apparently not too thrilled with us upsetting the balance of power and demonstrating quite clearly that we can be effective at combating them. So they sorta attacked our encampment with their private army... which they have, because vampires are evidently incredibly wealthy.
They aimed it to be a surprise attack, in the middle of the night when their abilities are most potent. But when you’re dealing with a large gathering of mages, at least one of us is bound to look into the future to check for this sort of thing with time magic. They employed some powerful supernatural aid of their own... we don’t really understand how it works to be honest... and we only had about four hours to prepare. Our spells should’ve detected them well before that, but somehow they slipped past our notice until then. Oh, and did I mention they paid off the entire 132nd Infantry (the unit stationed there as military police) to attack us at the exact same time?
Imagine sitting down for dinner and having somebody run in and tell you that we were going to be attacked by /two/ armies about four hours frcm then. Thank God they were fearful enough to pay those humans to join them... If they hadn’t, the magic they were using to keep themselves hidden would’ve allowed them to attack us totally unprepared, which might have meant I would’ve been killed and Ricky too and the whole world would he screwed. Obviously as you’re reading this now nothing like that happened.
Instead, we mobilized. Set up defenses with what little mana we had managed to harvest in the few days we had been in the city and prepared for the worst. We had Rick and his people here to bolster our defenses. I assigned them to the front line where the vampires would strike us. Splitting our human allies between each group, I would take the mages I had to contend with the 132nd and Rick’s people could deal with the undead. Of course that would mean no magical suns, but we didn’t have the mana to just throw spells around like that anymore. I don’t think there wasn't a soul among us who didn't have to scour their pattern somewhere to scrounge up a little to fight with, myself included.
No time to describe the battle in detail. Took too long already. Suffice it to say that we won, narrowly. Our human allies from the Dreamlands were decimated. An estimated 4,000 of them were slain, mostly by anti-personnel weapons employed by other humans. An additional 8,000 or so deserted back to the Dreamlands when the battle was over and done. Rick and I both lost some good people. The vampires were decimated, what few vampires there were, and their army slaughtered far worse than mine. The 132nd retreated when it was clear the two-pronged assault had become a unified front of resistance, and someone had finally figured out a spell that knocked out the guidance systems in their expensive air-to-ground rockets they’d be hammering us with.
Thankfully the city was too far away to be caught up in the crossfire. In their retreat, our people took the city, forcing them to retreat into the suburbs between here and Mexico with the few of the vampires that had survived. Our tent city has been built in the streets, in the fairgrounds, and the resources of the National Guard base are ours. I don't anticipate the US Military will attempt to bomb the city, since it’s still full of civilians. We have made sure to make it very clear we intend for life to go on as before. We will not impose on the people here or collect a cent more than the Military Police did. I don’t know what sort of retribution we can expect from the United States government, but I hear they’ve dispatched an ambassador to speak with me. I’m now officially guilty of capital crimes, yay! Treason, whooo! Only... they don't know what I look like or my real name, and I intend for it to stay that way. I love this country and what it stands for, I do! I just don’t enjoy the idea of being slaughtered by the army and a bunch of vampires. No thanks. Thankfully, I've picked up some life magic by now, and I do all of my public stuff in the guise of somebody else. I’m not sure what the people are saying about us in the rest of the world. Plenty of the people here are choosing to leave, but plenty more are choosing to stay and continue with life as usual. We had a big town hall meeting and presented the evidence of our innocence, and many of the people here accepted it... at least enough to stay here. I can't say there have been too many flocking to join the ranks...
Positive development! For Rick, anyway. So the battle left his troops in bad shape. I dunno how many were killed exactly but it was the demoralizing that was the worst. They’d never fought before, and most of them had never seen a proper battle. I think he lost more of his people to desertion than anything else. The ones that remain are battle hardened now and ready for anything. But there's more. In the attack, we captured many. I’m not much for interrogations. Captured US Military people we’re treating as ordinary prisoners of war, and they've been treated well. The vampires and their ilk... not so much. If they want war, then they can have a fucking war. I left the work to some of my less pleasant allies. I didn’t ask what they did, just what they learned.
One of the things we learned is that there is a powerful patron spirit of Nature, kinda like a... sub-aspect of Gaia herself. A tiny bit or ner essence, without the world-altering power. Her name is Earthvoice, and she is located in the physical world as we speak. She is of interest to us because she is one of the spirits responsible for the creation of Rick's species. One of how many we don’t know, but we know for sure that she wields the secret to creating more. There are many humans who would join our cause if they were but able to fight. Werewolves are hereditary, and to be a mage requires an enlightened ambition not common among people. This spirit almost certainly possesses the knowledge required to simply change someone into a Feral, permanently. If Rick could persuade her to share that information, we could see his species become the most numerous by far, as millions of people surge forward to join the ranks. While I’m hardly pleased with the idea of so many numans leaving the species... I can't deny the strategy of such a plan and in any case I couldn't persuade Rick not to go after that spirit. Good luck, Rick! Be careful! And that goes for everyone! Hopefully I haven't been nuked come next month. Would our spells warn us in time? I suppose there's only one way to find out...
