Christian's Entry for December 2012

((4 points, because it was done on time, but couldn’t be sent in time.))

Holy crap does life go on. I haven’t had such an action packed set of entries to look at since this whole thing got started. I’d say I was jealous, but after Lizzie and I in the Underworld, I will be content with a little relaxation for awhile. Not that we have been sitting here doing nothing, mind you. It’s been good to have someone familiar around, after this year away on a crazy vow with crazy rules. Not that it didn’t pay off in the end. I will spare myself for the end, as I usually do in these matters. Will be brief this month. I am about to leave on the most important mission of my life. I have tomorrow to prepare, then it’s off on my own again.

I am glad to hear that you have reconciled to the fact that we cannot negotiate with the Great Outside. As much as I wished the solution were that simple, I agree that we should do whatever it takes and not care if we need to push the outsiders aside to do it. Colonizing the outside seems a bit dangerous, though. I would be content if we could have our own world for ourselves. The universe is a big place. Their power, perhaps. And anything they’ve left behind... but I see no reason to go into the outside. Let me know if you have any success, but remember that our primary goal is the survival of our race and of Earth. Don’t make conquering the enemy more important than our own survival. Because it isn’t. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.

Come on Lizzie, I know what’s going on with you, but they don’t! At least I’m not worried about her the way I have been in the past. I know she’s not captured in some lab this time. Trust me, Lizzie’s doing great. Even if she’s a little too nosy for her own good. You promised you wouldn’t tell, Lizzie, so I don’t wanna see no entries about it.

Rick, I wish you well in Europe. If you can unite the ferals, then by all means try! I’ve been trying to unite the Mages for more than a year. We’re actually making some ground there lately, but it looked very discouraging months and months ago when I was under the vow living in a ruined building. Just don’t give up. I don’t know if you will be able to unite the werewolves, but... if you could figure out what creates a feral like you... think of all the nature enthusiasts that would flock to your cause! You could create your own army out of ordinary men and women! The earth would quake at the might of man! And beast. You shouldn’t be jealous of our trip, though... It was fun to be together, but the Underworld sucks big time. I don’t want to ever go back there. We have things so good up here and all those ghosts are just screwed. It’s a bad place. So far from the supernal there wasn’t a high place in sight. Yuck. I can’t bring anyone back from the dead, though. That’s not what I’m doing with Ramira.

This is for you too, Darrell. It is true that the Master can do this, but I don't have his mastery. What I wanted to do is a simpler business. Ramira did not die. She wasn't stabbed or shot or anything like that. She was TAKEN into the void. She was taken out of our universe. I want to prove that our magic is better than theirs by using it to pull her back at the moment she was taken. Because time doesn’t apply on the outside, not the way we understand it, we can pull her back in the moment she left, and it will be like she was never there... complicated quantum mechanics stuff, yadayada… that’s the magic I am looking for. Only the Master could bring back the dead, but I am hoping for his help. The magic of the oracles would be exactly what we need to push back the void. At least my contribution to it. We WILL need more. The world was not made by the oracles. Supernal magic was a part of it but it was not alone. We will need more. And I will not be the one to find it. There are more First Words than mine.

Darrell, good luck. Be safe. I know you’re a hard one to kill though, so I'm not too worried. I won't be able to bring people back from the dead all the time when I'm done, but I hope that I can bring back one. I will prove that it can be done and in so doing I will prove that we are better than they. They think our boundaries and our reality and our law makes us weak, but in reality it makes us strong. The outside is limitless, and so their accomplishments mean nothing. We have meaning. That is why they even bother to kill us. Because they went to take away the one thing they cannot ever understand.

So, I have discovered much of what we mages know to be wrong in this quest of mine in this quest for the Oracles. THEY do exist! But not in the form mages thought. The Oracles were Dragons. This is the name for them, not the race. This is the story I learned from the records I extracted from the Library, which I have spent the bulk of the month in translation. It has been an exhaustive effort, but I /have/ learned. So anyways... The Dragons were ordinary men and women, but they were masters of their craft. Mundane crafts. Mundane sciences, very primitive sciences. But this world is a reflection of the Supernal above us. In their perfect, supernal craftsmanship, these Dragons learned supernal truth. They were the first to awaken, and they led others to awakening in whom they saw the potential. They founded Atlantis, whatever it really was. The scroll does not talk much about what happened after that. But it talks about what they did. The Master of the Carpenter’s Order, the Oracle of the Aether... he made tools of remarkable quality. Somehow... he lived much sooner than I thought possible. All of the Oracles lived at different times... something about their calling brought them back to the... I don’t understand that part. But he made tools for the Greeks, some of the most advanced tools that the world had ever seen. Some of those survive today. I will not give details in case someone is reading this who shouldn’t be. But they exist, and I have done the research, and I know where to find what I am looking for. When I get it, I am going to call the Oracles to help us defend their world.

It can be done, my friends. It will be done. I will be the one to do it. Or I will die trying. Good luck to you all. Darrell... one last word of advice. The Outside cannot be controlled or handled forever. That powered armor suit thing... that thing that was inside it. My advice is to stay away. Whoever in the Union is making those needs to be stopped. It is clearly not human. Unless the shoggoths are working with us... and that’s a fair possibility... the idea of what might really be in that suit is horrifying to me. I wish I had the time to deal with it, but I can’t. Maybe someone else can.

Good luck to you all. Until we meet again.

Rick's Entry for November

(( 4 points. You know the deal. Time. Plot, Subplot. Others. ))

Hello, world!

We're arrived in Europe. We saw many new things, like ferals that could turn into nagas, and vampires... the latest, we had wished we hadn't seen. In fact, we're trying to keep a low profile and stay out of... certain places. We have been threatened and I'm pretty sure those weren't fake threats. Being told that our blood would be part of a grand family meeting was quite charming. Except not really. Other than that, Eastern Europe has a lot of nice things to see... but I have a feeling you guys don't really care about our tourism and the places we did stuff, so I will skip to the other good stuff.

Did you know that things here hide many secrets? Probably nothing like the things Lizzy and Christian found in the Library (which I hope I can see some day, because it does sound really cool), but we've found some interesting people. Vampires aren't the only ones around here, there are werewolves too. We may have had our feud in the past, but we both dislike vampires for different reasons, so we were able to use that to get into their inner circle. Told them about our cause, and they've started spreading the news on their conspiracy website. I think we may be assembling a little army of people willing to help us, but time will tell. After all, things on the net are fleeting, one second something is hot, the next, it's forgotten. Still, saving the world ought to create a few memes and spark some talk, shouldn't it?

That's it for us this month. I know I've been vague about my location, but I don't to say too much. Oh, by the way, we've found gramp in Toronto, got him out of there, he's fine. Amelia was definately happy about that. Anyway... Darrel, you really need to stop travelling places for no reason and get yourself almost killed. I mean, It's probably hypocritical of me to say this, but I think you're pushing it a liiiittle too far. It's not going to help if you're dead, unless Chris can actually bring people back from it. Why don't you come over here? I could give you indications about where we are if you want to come. Werewolves would probably be even more trusting if I had a werewolf here to help me.

Chris and Lizzy... well, glad to see you two are alive. I'm kind of jealous of your little trip, but I'm gonna keep quiet about it... I did say that Amelia kind of didn't like Lizzie, didn't I? Not hate, but... yeah... you two should get together to kills any doubt. :P

Time for me to go now. Be safe everyone, don't get killed too much! And if someone actually do revive Ramira, please tell me as soon as you can.

Austin's entry for the month of November (done)

((4 points, including 1 for world event. The Golden Dawn, a brutish, occult-rideen political party of the extreme right with offices all over Europe, sweeps to power in Greece admist terrible rioting. Part of their platform openly involves reigning in supernatural beings and powers, of which they accuse the rest of the world of being lax, cowardly and slow. The Party is at the forefront of the first real witch-hunts seen in Europe for almost a thousand years))

Where to begin? For once there's so much to talk about I don't know where to start. Hello, hello from northern Ireland, I suppose. Belfast, actually. I could try to deal with things in order, but uh... order of importance, specifically. First, on the subject of the The Enemy. I think I can say with confidence I've changed my tune. Over the last few months I've seen and experienced more than enough to believe in the final victory. It was ridiculous to assume we could ever talk things out. Rather I'm of the mind our fortunes might someday be wholly reversed. We could do so much more than save Ramira. Ultimately we could carve out whole swaths of territory for ourselves; we could expand and change at the Outsiders' expense. They have nothing to gain by extinguishing the flame of life, where as we have everything to gain if we could devour the void itself and make it our foundation.

Our progenitors the Great Old Ones came very close to realizing this goal before the Shaggoths turned on them, and the Shaggoths have come to regret that development. And even if we ought not to trust them we still have a unique edge this time around. It is certainly true that faith is our chiefest ally. Our quest is for the New Realm and the New Man, and we can find them only through faith. Faith in ourselves will carry us to ultimate victory.

Now uh... perhaps I should regale you with some of my recent exploits. Running damage control in Arkham has been costing me a fortune, but that's over with. I don't like the idea of handing it over to Sea Org but I'd rather not piss them off. We packed up everything we could and hauled it over to the oculory. Shop we've got set up now is a bit modest but we'll be making much better use of it, I promise you that. Cookies are even suggesting we could open up a proper underground resturaunt, bring in some extra money and let us keep tabs on all the 'sorts' passin' through Arhkam. Right now though we're just holding together. What's left of us.

It's funny how so many of us got the idea to head off to Europe at about the same time. Interesting. Tis' what you call a coincidence. Darrel will have left for England or Wales by now. I'd have been in Belfast over a month ago if I could help it. At the moment I'm getting about read to leave for my next stop. I may not have been here very long but I'm sure I left a good impression on the N-I-R-A. In their company, uh... well many false lives have been extinguished. Now I don't have the patience or the time for every little detail, and anyway the whole affair ought rightly to remain hush-hush lest I endanger you all, so instead here's a rundown of exactly the sort of thoughts I was thinking in the order I thought them while I was in mortal danger. You're all intelligent enough to piece things together on your own. Also it was my birthday last month, so consider this my birthday present from me, me, to you. You.

Ahem. Irish cops aren't allowed to carry any guns! They'd rather waste time in the wilderness following a poltergeist blood clot than solve any crimes! They also hang out at the docks welding shit together since they make pretty much no money. They trap their women in a storage hole to protect them from their trouser lust! So, we're gonna' want guns, of course, we're gonna' have to talk to the Cranberries for that. AND we're gonna' want drugs, we're gonna' also have to talk to the Cranberries for THAT. These bro-skates are gonna' have to get really fuckin' high to deal with United Irish isles. This place freakin' sucks and I'm going to have to inject a TON of [REDACTED]. Are they really gonna' try and pidgeon-dick me into one of THESE shity rolls? They even have trentals in this town. That's what they call them over here. Trentals.

Oh no, ghosts and badguys came! Ring the dinner bell, it's time for your shit! Look at these jokers, everyone stays just followin' each other around, it's 'cause Irish people STILL don't have their independence! Whatever, just dose up and forget about it, mate. And never shake that gory bridge at me. NEVER SHAKE! Irish people would interrupt the best gym job of their lives to go to church. Dammit it's so dark it's harder to tell what's going than a pregnancy test, which I could deal with if I wasn't gonna' be a DAD soon!

The stockings get hung by the chimney with kerosine, cause Irish people only like that shit when it burns! Dangit I told you idiots if you just stay together you're gonna' be a bunch of sitting dogs! You gotta' split up and go in the darkness so they approach you in a line single file. So you're dead, stupid, I know how to work every weapon that was ever born! Damn, Christmas Cracker, a white person's worst nightmare.

Suddenly from the menstrual miasma they strike! Do you even want to know what THAT is?

I think that about covers it, honestly. Part one of my little holiday is now successfully complete. Next stop will be to the south-west, followed by a trip to the Black Forest, then Lapland, and finally northern Russia. Seeing a pattern? I wish I'd thought of Europe months ago. Vampires. Werewolves. The Hosts of Heaven. My sort of crowd; exultant, ruthless and VIRILE! Actually if I can I'm going to try and make my way yo Greece. You have heard a thing or two about the Golden Dawn. Securing their good offices might allow us to finally ween ourselves off the puss-laden teet of Scientology. Naveou Europa! The Kingdom of Noise TREMBLES at our advance.


Happy hunting, gentlemen. Your affectionate comrade, A. A. Merit.

Christian's Entry for November 2012

((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

Rick's Entry for October 2012

First, you can stop looking for me guys, we're safe. Kind of. It's very long story, I will tell you some other time. What you need to know is that we got out of there... and that we aren't in the country anymore. Getting out of there had been the easiest part, leaving the country without being noticed, now that had been problematic. We were planning on going back to Austin, but we've heard about what happened in Toronto and Amelia insisted we went back there. In retrospect, it probably wasn't the sanest idea, but she seemed so troubled, I couldn't just leave her like that. We took the first plane to Montreal, then we trekked to Toronto over two days.

So, why all of this? If you listened to the news, as we did, you will know that the events in Rome had some repercussions, especially in large cities, where the underground communities are quite large. In Toronto, it's the Changing Breeds's turf. Foxes, Bears, Canines and Felines, as many groups who tried for long to claim hoods around here, and who struggle against the growing influence of Werewolves factions. Or they did. The leader of each faction met in a secret meeting they and came to an agreement, they would rid the city of the werewolves by uniting their force.

Last week, they've stuck. I've seen some of the sites where battles took place, it isn't pretty. Dozens of losses in each camp, the streets are tainted with blood, the forces of order are on high alert. Its being publicized as and intense gang fight and some call it terrorism, but we know better, don't we? The world is in chaos and everyone want their piece of the cake, including our species, apparently. I'm not going to lie, we're probably going to barely win, but we will be decimated. However, Amelia and I are not here to help the fight, I know better but to get involved in those petty fights. If we're here, it's to make sure Amelia's grandfather is fine. He's a feral too and she was afraid that he may have been a victim of this war. We didn't find him yet, which is kind of worrying, but at least, we're alive, so it's a good thing. I won't tell you guys exactly where we are hiding, but it's somewhere in the Toronto Metropolitan Area. Don't worry about us, this place is in no way related to the ferals or the werewolves. If it goes well, we will have her gramp found and somewhere safe soon, and we will go back to the States.

But... enough about us, I don't want to say anything that would betray us. Sorry for this... sudden news. Guess we never do things like anyone else. I've read some of the things you've written since last time we wrote to each other. I'm happy to hear that you made it out of that cave too, Austin and Darrel. Sorry for your losses, though. Seems like we never can have an encounter with those things that ends well for everyone. Hopefully, this whole thing will end soon. Having to hide, to fight, to explore... that has never been my thing, and it probably never will be. You can thanks Amelia for my latest adventures, seems she's always pushing me somewhere new. Speaking of that, she made a few searches on the Internet about those things you mentioned, Chris. It led to conspiracies and occult website, nothing of great interest. What I did notice though was that a lot of these websites are hosted in Europe. So, either there's a lot of crazy people there... or there are a lot of people there who could be our allies, or our enemies. We will keep an eye on that in the next few days. Who knows, maybe we will be on the other side of the ocean by next month. I'm going to wait for you guys' opinion on that, though. Travelling to look up for one's family member is one thing, travelling to follow an unlikely trail in an unknown country, that may be too much. I'm not /that/ crazy. Then again, some vacation in the middle of all this chaos would be welcomed. Can do some tourism while following hints, right?

Either way, I will go for now. Got lots of things ahead of us. Good luck meeting Lizzie and Chris, may you be safe too. I can't wait for the day we will all meet again.

- Rick

PS: Blood really smells... surprisingly not bad. I hope it's not a bad sign...

(( 5PTS: On time, my subplot, mentioning others, a bit of progress on the main plot, World Event. ))

World Event: Huge gang war have stirred up in Toronto, an upset never seen before. The city is considering sending the army in to help the police deal with the insurgency. Some flights have been cancelled, other major cities in Canada are tightening their securities as criminal and gang activities seems to be on an historical high. The situation is under control for now, but Canada isn't a recommended destination at the moment and people are afraid of seeing things get worse. After all, there's never smoke without a fire.

Austin's entry for the month of October

Hello? Amelia? You still there?

I hope you're receiving this. Please pay attention and sound off as quickly as you can. How are you and Ricky doing? I want you guys to know we're looking for you. Specifically, thanks to our wonderful mutual friend Chris we've got some really professional battlemages down there, best in the world. You should stay put and look after Ricky, keep him lying flat, keep his injuries elevated and all that.

Now don't panic or anything, but keep an eye out and be quiet. We don't need to hear you to find you but there's the chance something else might hear you. Anything else down there is going to be really sensitive to sound and movement. Shouldn't be anything too bad if you're still around the same level we last saw each other. Just tell me about where you are. Any little details could help.







And... now for something completely different, I suppose. Well, gentlemen, it's officially a disaster. I should never have gone poking around down there so carelessly. That thing, whatever it is, it's dead now but the whole place stinks abominably and it's only going to get worse until we can decide what to do with the corpse. Logosh is dead. So many comrades in arms dead. June is badly hurt and so now everyone is coming straight to me. I don't know what to do, anymore, June was always the brains, not me.

Ahh, listen I really don't feel well. I'm think I'm going to try and keep this brief. We're in such big trouble still. The whole place is crumbling, huge cracks and holes opening up everywhere. There's water from broken pipes absolutely everywhere and my library is simply ruined. Just imagine, all those priceless old volumes completely soaked. Meanwhile I... I saw things, and now I'm not well, but I still have to put up with Sea Org and kissy-poo's damn friends breathing down my neck. This whole place was dedicated to Yog-Sathoth the dreadlord. The crypts are the foundation for the whole city, they easily, absolutely predate the colonization. Shouldn't be a surprise, I guess.

My god you don't want to know what we saw down there. There were these tiny cephelapods with long, conical soft shells. They were everywhere, thousands of them, on the walls and the ceilings, anywhere that was damp enough. If you got a little too close the tip of the shell would produce this ghastly little needle that followed you around. Fuck, there were FORESTS of those little needles on all sides of us sometimes. Then every now and then we'd run into a nest of crab sort of things with tiny bodies and long legs, like daddy long-legs with big swollen green pincers. They came right at us too, very nasty. I think... there might have been shaggoths, but we didn't see any, just the caustic trails.

Oh gods, I'm sorry. I can't do this right now. I'm too busy. I'll fill you all in next month. You... that gun saved all our lives, Chris. Thank you.

Christian's Entry for October 2012

Holy crap, nothing brings home how much these letters suck as a situation like this. I want to help so much more! I want to teleport right over there now and end this thing with some real magic. Lightning is its weakness? Lightning is one of my greatest accomplishments! I could dispatch that thing in my sleep! But I'm here at a five star hotel while all of you are getting screwed. Alright. I really did not want to do this, but I'm going to. I've ordered the Atlantean Arrow's nearest detachment, located in Ipswich, to mobilize. There are fifty arrow in that detachment. Maybe not immortals, but it's all the service I can actually give right now! I wish I could come personally, but things have... escalated. If I leave now, the alliance would fall apart. Otherwise I would get on a redeye right now and head over. I'm glad that all of you are still alive, such as it is. I need to work on mastering space... then maybe I could heal Ricky right now without even being there. I can't do that, though. I know none of you are children out there - you can handle yourselves just fine. It just sucks when your friends need help and you can't do anything. In case the Arrow don't get there in time, the Zeus can only be fired by humans, though they need not have any magic. Other races like Ghouls will also be able to operate it, but someone like Ricky will not be able to fire it. It was designed as a weapon against the other races, after all. Also, it uses the mana inherent in one's own pattern to fire, so it causes painful burns that magic cannot heal. Just be wary when using it. The Arrow were a little /too/ eager to get rid of it when I asked they send it your way, so I suspect there may be more to it.

The Arrow have orders to leave at your request, though they will remain with you so long as you deem necessary to stabilize the situation. They would probably be able to close the portal Austin opened, though they might not. I guess you'll know soon enough. I'm sorry I could not do more. I hate having all these resources I can't do anything with!

Lizzie, I can't wait to see you again. We have lots to talk about. It sucks your investigations didn't turn up anything, but at least those cultists didn't wake up Cthulhu. If that happens, we're screwed. All of us. There won't be any time to run from the universe at that point, we're just screwed. Speaking of which... I feel bad talking philosophically while you all are in danger... but I suppose if you're reading this than you're okay, and there's no more reason to worry. So I'm going to write all this on the assumption that everyone makes it out okay. Because if you don‘t... then Austin's right. The Elements of Harmony won't work without all of us.

First Austin, I'm not sure that you understand what I'm saying when I say there can't be diplomacy with the old ones. They can talk well enough, if we discovered how they did. But like you said, they think so lowly of us that they wouldn't be willing to change their motives because of us. This earth is theirs in their mind, and us the accident thanks to the Elder Things and their experiments with genetics. But you know what... I don't care if we're an accident, even if all that stuff's true. There is a Supernal truth that is just as real. I know that faith isn't something any of you have anymore, but... There IS more to this reality! Even if in their version of the truth they're higher and better than us, and us the mold on their sandwich. And I'm going to prove it. Do you know how? Lizzie isn't going to like this. But I will explain. I will prove that the supernal reality is more real than the abyss.

I know there is only one way to prove it. That's exactly the way I'm going to do it, though. I am going to prove that the supernal isn't just equally valid in that the magic works, because that's a fact. We know the magic works. But think about this - if the Abyss can be rewritten with the magic of the Supernal, than why not rewrite /all/ of it? Outsiders, Cthulhu, the whole bit. We'll replace it. Here is how I will prove it.

Remember Rami? I do. She started all of this, after all. I think in learning the true nature of the abyss, I have discovered the way to bring her back. The First Words - the words of the Master. I know what they are! "Arise!" I don't care if she's been dragged out into who knows what god-forsaken corner of some higher dimension... the Master's words will bring her back. Lazarus, come forth! This is why I want to visit the Library, you see. The Master's magic died with him, all those years ago. But all dead thoughts are there, all dead knowledge. I'm going to find it, and bring her back! What then? Think on it, friends! Forget negotiating with the abyss! We'll write the Book of Night with Moon, and read it in the face of the monsters! Read them all out of existence! I'm done accepting defeat anymore. I'm done acknowledging that their way of reality is the truth. It isn't. I saw the awful truth outside the universe, but I also met an archmaster. I met the wings of the Aether. Enoch may be the wings, but I will be the fist. Together, we will end it! NO more accepting that they're greater and better and more powerful and all of that - they aren't! They’re different, not better! Our magic is better than theirs, because we've got one thing they don't - a soul. Darrel went talking about how magic works, how mages like me channel the Supernal. That's how we do it - our souls. The Deep Ones don't have them. Cthulhu doesn't either, I'm willing to bet. We're alien to them just as they are to us. That's why they hate us so much! We have a light they'll never understand! These random little mutations somehow ended up shaped to capture a spark of the supernal, a world they cannot ever touch.

I'm sorry for ranting. I think I'm done. I'm just frustrated right now. I don't blame you for not making it this month, Liz. I know you'd be here if you could. And when you get here, we shall take the knowledge we need, and bring Ramira back.

You could say this last month had a little good and a little bad news. Guess who showed up? One of the Ministers of the Seers of the Throne, that's who. He came to us, totally unannounced, along with this huge diplomatic detachment from their Order. Here I didn't even think they were real... He had some surprising news - on behalf of his order, the Exarchs, and everything else he represented... he was joining our alliance. "Earth's true kings" as he called them, had come out in support of our effort to maintain reality. They’re pretty much the most evil mages there are, I thought, but... not so, I suppose. They can't oppress our world if there's no world to oppress. You should have seen the uproar when he announced who he was. But I kept everything calm, and got all the nitty-gritty of the alliances ironed out. The Arrow was pissed, but... in the end, even they had to admit that it made sense.

Only problem, is the Seers aren't a unified organization, but a terrorist-like group of disparate cells. A large number of those cells have risen up in resistance, and are now actively fighting their other Seer cells wherever they are. They call themselves Purists, and claim that... get this... the Outsiders /are/ the Exarchs. So if you ever encounter any mages that want to kill you, that's probably who they are. I don't know if you've heard, but their little war has already decimated Rome, and it's spreading all across eastern Europe, where the Seers were apparently most concentrated. So that's just Geeeereat. There's now a Minister on the High Council. One Minister, one Adrinach, and one General. Oh, and me. Interesting company to keep. We've already had to deal with several attempts at bombing of the building since then... brainwashed humans both times - they're fine now so far as I know. I can't stress enough that these Purists are more dangerous than any cultists. The Seers are puppeteers, they work through others and use subtle magic. They are patient, and they have power ordinary mages lack. Keep your eyes out. But we gained some allies, too! Can't say I trust them /less/ than Scientology, I guess.

((Oh, so 5 points, because this entry has a WORLD EVENT! But End, the short stories would be for January's entry. They would not be letters, and the other characters would not see what was in them. You might include the usual letter in the story, if you want your character to write one, though no extra points if you do.))

World Event: Hundreds killed in Rome by "terrorist action" and "gang warfare". The city has been surrounded by Italy's armed services, who have as of yet not allowed anyone in or out. All flights canceled.