((Four points, as I meet all the requirements for such. I hope to have my short story into Kirby soon, the entry that’s due at the end of January. That means a little bit of a dip into the future with things, but that’s okay. It just means everybody is going to know what I’m gonna find in my December entry. And End, in no uncertain terms, you don't need to stress too much about the rules. We're dealing with threats at such a cosmic scale that the rules are largely irrelevant anyways. I've had a short back-and-forth RP going with Kirby for the last two months to figure out this entry, and not once did we even consult rules for it. Don't stress out. And yes, other races do have weaknesses. Cold Iron, Fire, Sunlight, Humans (Prometheans). Only mages and Sin-Eaters don’t. But enough about rules. Onto the story!))
Dear Everyone,
We only just got out. Tired, weak, drained. Barely alive I think. But we are alive, both of us. And we've done it! So no doubt you will remember that I talked about proving that the magic we have is greater than the Outsiders. Prove that cthulhu and the rest did not have true dominion over everything, even if that's the way it looks right now. The only way to prove that would be to use the magic of any of the races to try and the Outsiders directly. My small-scale test is going to be bringing back Ramira. In order to accomplish this, I wanted to find one of the Oracles, which is easier said than done. Mages have been trying to find the Oracles since Atlantis fell, without much success. Of course I came up with a different approach to solving the conundrum I hoped might be more effective.
The fact is, if the Oracles really existed, they were all ordinary people before they ascended and became the godlike beings they are (presumably) now. Instead of looking for them directly, I figured the easiest way to find them would be to track down someone made while they were still human, made by their own hands. A spell, or a tool, or a sandwich, it wouldn't matter. Find it, knowing what it was, and use it to target them with sympathetic magic. Simple, yes? Not at all. It requires the knowledge of who the Oracles were /before/ they became who they are. Obviously that knowledge has been dead for some time. As such, we had only one place to turn: The Athenaeum. I've been hoping to get together with Liz to travel down there, since I don’t know the first thing about the underworld. Well that happened. Not much to report before that. The mages here are mostly speculating and postulating, and dealing with relocating our number that had been living in Boston and Toronto. The possibility of partnerships with local military, and this insane suggestion of an alliance with the True Fae (not my idea) have been proposed. As it stands, we're still waiting on the Guardians of the Veil, along with the Mysterium. I think I know how I will win the support of the Guardians, actually. Their job already lines up with what we're trying to do, so all that I have to do is prove to them that I'm this guy called the... nevermind. I think this will play right into our hands, though. If I can bring Rami back from the dead, it would be all the proof they need, and we'll only be two orders short of a pentacle.
But nothing really happened in that space, just lots of talking. The Yakuza keep the streets clear here, for which we thank them. The Silver Ladder already has agreements in place with the vampires here. I just wish we could make those worldwide. But none of the other races seem to have such a unified structure. You couldn't unite them the same way... which is unfortunate.
So what happened? Well, not being judicious with the details, Lizzie knows what she's doing around the Underworld. Getting into the Library was much harder than I had thought. Here I thought that we could just ride a train or something (a dead train, spooky) straight in. But no. Apparently there are all these rules down there called the Old Laws that you can't break. Like, can't. I didn't even see the Others down there. When you do try to break them, there are these horrible monsters that try to kill you. We had to wander through several different little dead kingdoms, each one with their own rules. It's /insane/ down there. I suspect that the Underworld will probably be the last part of our world to fall. Maybe if we need to run we should follow the Sin Eaters. They'll probably live longer than any of the rest of us. Though they might not want to.
We made it there eventually, though. The Athenaeum was guarded by a pair of gigantic sphinxes... and no, that isn't a joke or an exaggeration. The supposedly mythical creature. Getting in was not easy - it was give them something new or die. I was glad I've been on a quest for knowledge for basically a year now, so I had something to share. Something true, and terrible. If only telling them made me forget.
When we got inside, things didn't get any easier. Turns out the information had been stolen by an ancient mage, who had been cursed and trapped as a result. We managed to track him down, and he agreed to show us what we needed so long as we would free him. This was... easier said than done, since the only way to do that was with magic, and one of the laws of the place was that magic cannot be used. He made us promise, though... and I thought we were dead. Or we might be. Honestly, I was surprised. Liz stuck with me. She could have left me to it... if she had, I'd be dead, but... once he had led us to the scroll we needed, I digitized it, and it was time to make good on the bargain. Which meant breaking the Old Laws. You should have felt the ground shake when that thing started coming. That poor mage’s body was still fading to his final reward when it came, knocking over shelves and screaming to get at us, hidden away as we were.
You would not believe the sort of damage that thing took and seemed not even to notice. It wasn’t as though we had much of our power left by the time we got there to start with. It was all we could do to run. Fly, actually, as that seemed more worthwhile than wasting energy on fruitless attacks. In the end, though, it was a ghost who saved us. I wish I could properly thank her... I will let Liz talk more about her, since she was her friend. She got us out. Helped us escape. I don't even know what sort of magic that was... but we weren't in the Underworld anymore. And we have what we need. The work of translation is going to begin soon, once Liz and I get a chance to rest. A long, well—deserved rest. I think I know why the Athenaeum hates mages now, though.
I wish all of you a safe month. I am glad that Zeus was able to kill that thing, whatever it was. The Arrow will help as long as they can, but they won’t be able to stay forever. Their unit will he needed somewhere else, perhaps they already have other orders. I’m sure they won’t abandon you, though. Once you get out, you are gonna need somewhere new. My suggestion would be somewhere new. Somewhere in the wilderness, without a rotten history of corruption and evil. As for Europe, Ricky, it is definitely worth exploring, but there are not many of your kind there. It may be dangerous for you. Europe is the old world and is ruled primarily by the old races. Vampires are in the distinct majority among all races there (except human) so watch out if you decide to travel there!
As for everyone else, I hope you’re safe. Be patient. I will soon have the solution to this predicament of ours. Let Cthulhu try and stop us!
-Christian
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