Darrerl's June 2013 Entry

(Barely just missed this one, but I got it. 4 exp. and yes, I know it was rather vague)

War is never pretty, nor is it organized. Atleast, that's how it is from our perspective. Us people do not possess the raw and incomprehensible intellects or thought patterns that govern the way spirits act and think. And likely it is for the best. Spirits never were human, they are parts of our world as much as our world is a part of them. Many were not based on living beings to begin with. And so unlike ghosts or phantoms, they see the world in very abstract terms. To them, the Civil War is nothing but another event that follows the patterns governed in the stars.

Though it pains me to mention this, I think this war has caused more harm than good. Right now, only half of the contenders who were selected are still remaining. This progress is not fast enough someone must do something that is without equal to prove in one fell swoop that I am the greatest among our kind.

That is why I am returning to Europe, to the Old World. In a month's time, you'll know of my deed when it is done. Just promise me you won't try to freak out about it. It's dangerous… probably not as dangerous as everything else I have done, but it is without question something that I could likely die from if I am not prepared. If I am to survive, my mind and their body have to be at their peak.

Earthvoice will have to wait for some other time Chris. I wish I could help, really I do, but I am busy. I don't know where she exactly fits into the whole cosmology of the Spirit Courts, but I know she is more powerful than any of us can hope to overcome. Getting power from spirits of her might is not easy and will cost dearly, but if we're going to survive this war, we'll need all the strong bodies we can get.

Rick, you're not exactly the sanest person yourself. I might be crazy, I might be mad, but I know what I do is necessary. And I'm happy for you. You're probably the only one like me, who knows that your other forms are not just disguises not just different shapes, but are an intrinsic part of our very beings. I wish you luck on fatherhood.

Rick's Entry for June 2013

(( 4pts for bla bla bla... you know every thing by now. I'm in a hurry here. ))

Hey everyone!

First, I take no offence to you not thinking I'm pretty, Chris. If anything, it's reassuring. You won't take Amelia and I away from each other... or... me away from her. You saw her go, she's certainly the Alpha around here. Sadly.

Anyyyyyway, I had a great time fighting along you. It was just like when you got me to play one of your airsoft sessions, which sucked by the way, sorry, except it ended up a lot more bloody and painful. You obviously had seen a lot more of that before we arrived and I had seen too little, because I can't say it left a nice taste in my mouth. In fact, one of the reasons I'm trying to find this spirit is because I won't have to deal with the violence anymore. I know, it's cowardly of me, because I will feel much safer when I will have more people like me around. Well... at least more than the 500 who are left. Or was that 300? I really need to do a head count. Just in case someone decided to have the bright idea to attack someone else without warming. Animal thing.

I won't go back to that battle, I've seen enough of that for a month or two, so I will say that it did felt good, while we weren't fighting for our lives, to be with Chris for a while. It made me realize that it doesn't matter if Darrel is a crazy dog, if I think Austin is doing weird things I don't understand at the other side of the world, that my ex-girlfriend is thinking of doing nasty thing with one of my best buds, or that Ramira is like... well, I haven't figured that out while I was around her. It finally hit me that after all this craziness, all the time travelling, all the time with Amelia... all of that is really nothing compared to the simple pleasure of all being together and having fun. I really miss you guys. Like, honest. If I could give away my super awesome kitty super powers of greatness just to have everyone together again, even just for a few hours... I would.

Sadly, that's not how things go. Lizzie gotta keep helping the ghosts, Chris gotta keep being a big damn hero and Ramira need to stay at his side for some reason, Austin and Darrel need to do things I fucking don't get in places because that's what they do and I... well, I have two things to do, one of which isn't appropriate to talk about here... so I will talk about the other one!

I did leave Chris a few days ago with what is left of my group and we're trying to track down this so-called Goddess of Nature. We're not really going fast right now, or being focused... at this point, with every passing week leading to more governments collapsing and shit going worse, maybe keeping a low profile while searching isn't such of a bad idea.

In other news, Amelia's pregnancy is going well. Poor her couldn't fight with the rest of us, so she came up with some battle plans of the sort with Chris. They really helped! Smart as a fox, that one! :P We spend hours sometime arguing the gender of the baby. I want a little boy, she wants a little girl. Yup, not really original of us, but it does help keeping our minds away from the... more unfun things around...

Anyway, I will leave it at that. I'm really tired, so I'm going to go sleep.

Christian's Entry for June 2013

((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...

Austin's Entry for May 2013

 (4 points)

I know most of you couldn’t care less but here’s my situation as of now. The connections I’ve tried to establish over the past year are starting to unravel, and forging new ones is proving to be a real uphill battle. At least there isn’t much in the way of actual fighting going on for the moment. Darrel’s people were able to swing northwest and repulse the Turkish invasion much to my relief. I was able to refly the Naxxanar once a few... technical issues had been dealt with, but I’ll get to that in a moment. For now an uneasy mutual defense pact against Turkey has been struck between the Iraqis and the new Islamist government I helped to establish in Syria. That’s about it as far as good news goes.

I’ve been dreading the day my partners would discover just who else I was in bed with no homo, and now it’s come at last. The Greeks want to have nothing to do with either the Muslims or the Jews, and they’re not too fond of Scientologists either. Michalakos is furious that I’m using his airplanes to deal with Israel and wants me to send them back along with the tiny ship he lent us. He accuses me of betraying his trust, deliberately sabotaging the campaign in turkey, and threatens to confiscate the vessel and and all cargo once it returns to the mediterranean. This wouldn’t be a problem if she wasn’t hauling my entire Arkham library AND the Fist of Zeus, something I pray the crew doesn’t find out. She’ll need a lot more protection for the final leg of the trip, but of course the Syrians and Israelis are as mistrustful of one another as they’ve ever been and they both refuse to work with Sea Org.

Israeli institutions themselves are polarized. The government has claimed they’re more than willing to accept my offer to protect Jerusalem, particularly after the deadly toppling of what was left of Solomon’s temple. But the Magi in Israel are as orthodox as the Pharisees themselves and forbid cooperation with the Exarchs. Out of everyone only the Scientologists seem to understand the concept of an alliance of opportunity and just how desperately one is needed. I have to say, I like ‘em. Chairman Mueller’s people are still wonderful. Polite. Punctual. Hygienic. Brutally and refreshingly honest. More than I can say for anyone else I have to put up with.

Around me they’re perfectly ready to come out as frauds and manipulators; none of their directing brains ever actually believed in the mythos of scientology. It was and remains a front for living comfortably at the expense of stupid, desperately bored and lonely upper-middle-class people. I can honestly respect an agenda like that.  I’d even go so far as to call it quite ethical, at least under the circumstances. We agree that fellow Cynics ought to look out for one another.  I’ve been calling in a lot of favors from them recently, and anyone else I can get in touch with. Let’s wait and see what it’s going to take to rescue us from THIS limbo.

Now to the fun bit. Like I said, I’ve been calling in favors from the Union, one of which was granted to by someone named Amon. Amon represents the ‘Ascending Ones’, vigilants in Egypt and Saudi-Arabia who I visited some months ago. Apparently he’s one of Darrel’s close associates. I didn’t know what to expect from the old man or what to ask of him, but he offered to show me through his stock of artifacts and answer any questions. We came upon an ornate iron breastplate frilled with gold feathers. Amon said it was one of the most ancient and mysterious relics he possessed and that it was called the Breastplate of the Alak’r Warrior after the heroic bedouin vigilant whose name was lost to time. The Warrior supposedly possessed the ability to transform into a mythical beast and rend his foes, and that power remained in his breastplate long after death. Harnessing that power was as simple as putting the armor on and working the slightest amount of will. The piece would change shape along with its wearer and continue to provide some protection. Removing it involved simply turning a catch on one of the buckles.

I asked if it worked, he said it did indeed. Need I say much more? Of course I asked about side-effects and complications and... apparently there weren’t ANY. It’s one of the most sophisticated enchantments ever wrought upon an inanimate object, and I really, really couldn’t bring myself to the look the poor guy in the face when I asked for it. He wasn’t expecting that. There was so much else in his collection that could and would confer weightier powers, but I wasn’t expecting to ever run across anything remotely like this. Amon was bound to an oath, and this was a prize too good for me to pass up, even if only for the chance to finally live out a childhood dream.

So that’s what I did, and all seemed well until I embarked with enthusiasm on that  joint venture to smash the Turkish reactionaries. Then immediately I was contacted by Amon, Darrel and some others who were afraid I might disrupt the balance of this land whilst they were trying to form their own consortiums. Amon promised he would take action if I didn’t withdraw Naxxanar south of the Turkish border, but I didn’t have a clue what was bothering them, let alone why they thought it was any of their business. Neither did it seem likely they could inconvenience me all that much so long as the Lords of the Sky were at my back.

But that’s what they did. Even though we all seem to be strangely guarded against sympathetic magic, somehow Amon was able to get to me via the same iron vestments he’d reluctantly given up a few weeks earlier. The curse made it so I couldn’t disengage the armor. Believe it or not I was actually trapped in the shape of a griffon for several days, which meant I could no longer pilot the Naxxanar. When a mage tried to interface with the stellascopic control column he started retching up blood, and then we all fell right out of the sky.

We’d have been stuck there a lot longer if Darrel hadn’t eventually turned up. Once it was safe I left for Amon’s Nile estate some two-thousand miles away, or I dunno it certainly felt like that flying the whole way by myself. Not that it wasn’t an incredibly mellowing experience.  You’ll recall I wasn’t in the same exultant mood as the month before. I was ready to discuss terms and forswear myself if necessary. It was late when I finally arrived, but the porter assured me I was expected and it would be no trouble to fetch his master. He directed me to wait in the expansive oasis in the courtyard,  home to a menagerie the likes of which hasn’t been seen in Egypt since the reign of the pharaoh. At that hour the air was full of the piping of what must have been thousands of frogs and bloated Nile toads. To think that not much more than a year ago I wouldn’t have found those cracked chimes the least bit frightening! It recalled to me many a chilling poetic verse from the Necronomicon. How does anyone sleep at night in a place like that? Amon took me inside without a word. Not much needed to be said. I think he understood better than I how I felt.

Anyway, yes, he lifted the curse then and there, though he suddenly seemed quite insistent that I should keep the armor, partly because he had no intention of having me escorted back to Syria. Evidently the griffon is an ancient commanding symbol in the Middle-East, demanding the respect of all who were symbol minded. Once I was human again we stepped outside thinking to cut across the garden to a far wing. We were both astonished to be greeted by a sudden, perfect silence. Though perhaps it was a coincidence after all, at my step the cracked jeering notes of the frogs and night insects all ceased. But whether this was of any significance isn’t important compared to what thoughts struck me. I remembered that dead Cthulhu and his hosts were and are entombed in R’lyeh for a reason. They lost. It was the people of Leng, our forefathers, who thwarted their malign desires unto death, even the designs of Elder Gods.

Even the puffed Shoggoths mourn the loss of our first parents, the Elder Things. Now they look to us their brethren with a glimmer of hope, and I know now exactly what I must do. While there is yet time I must return to Leng and plumb its depth more fully. I know I will be welcomed there.

It never occurred to me that Awakening would be such a long process. I’d thought it ended months ago, but it continues even now.

Rick's Entry for May 2013

(( 4 pt. 1 for time, 1 for mentioning others, one for local plot, one for main plot. Although technically, I think those last two are one and the same in this case. ))

Hello, everyone.

I'm going to be quite, quite quick this time. It's not that I don't want to talk to you guys, but I've read Chris's message not so long ago and apparently, no one told us about that before now. I guess I should have watched the news instead of... anyway... point is, time to go to Shanghai to help Chris and Rami over there. I wish we would meet in better times, but it's an emergency, I ha... we haven't gathered and prepared an army to stay quiet when things are getting hot. Nope, we're going there, as soon as in the next 10 minutes. If the plane is on time. Many have already left in the last few hours, planes after planes crammed full of people and material. I wish we had been more prepared, we aren't bringing our A-game, but it's better than nothing. I spent those last few hours trying to convince Amelia to stay behind for the safety of the baby, but she wouldn't listen. I can't say I'm exactly surprised, I mean, she has been pushing me around for a year now and things aren't getting any better with her body being messed around by influx of hormones of all kind. So, I guess I will have to just watch over her a little more.

As for you guys... keep up your good work Darrel and Austin. Christian and Ramira, we will see ourselves soon, so it can wait until that. And you Lizzy... hey, you should come over with your ghost mob group! Then we can have a double date with good ol' Chris and Amelia, it's gonna be awkwardly awesome! I still don't get what you see in him though, I mean, you should have fallen in love waaaaay earlier, you've known each other for longer than we do. Having it happen now is... random and weird to me. But then again, I can't say I've ever understood people. I prefer animals and it's reciprocal. Wild love! (Rimshot)

Oh, look like I gotta go! Amelia is waving at me. Darn, I wasn't doooooooone messing with the new couple of the month! Meh. Bye guys, let's see if we survive China!

(( PS: Kris, next month, Rick, Amelia and about... 2000 ferals of all species will have joined you guys. Feel free to have anything happen, you have free reign over everyone for that month. Lucky you! ))

Christian's Entry for May 2013

(( Five points. One for on time, one for subplot, one for others, one for progress. And a WORLD EVENT: Shanghai becomes a battleground as a war between competing factions of mages aided by other supernatural allies battle for control of the Earth.))

Onward Christian soldiers, marching on to war. With the cross of...

I swear the pun isn't intentional. Actually I didn't have much to do with the actual conquest side of things. That's not really my strong suit, let's be honest here. Remember when I tried to rebuild the Diamond Nation? I do! How’d that go? Oh, I‘ve had to start tearing it down? Yeah, that happened. Or it's happening right now. Work in progress, but much more progressed than it was back 1n the Dreamlands. There’s so much to talk about I don't even know where to begin! Let's start with the Diamond. I’m sorry you don't want me to succeed, Darrel. Please don't think I mean this new organization to rule the world and all who live upon it. The Diamond Nation was once the ruler of humanity. That doesn't include you or Rick or even Lizzie technically. Some mages think that it ruled the entire Earth way back when. I’m not so sure about that, just like I’m not sure about the history of the spirits and that whole thing shamans talk about sometimes. You’re right that we are going to need something new Darrel, since the world of the past is gone. No more secrecy and no more lies. I love the Union and everything it stands for... but before we can contribute like we need to, we need to be united. That’s why this has been my main priority since the very beginning.

I applaud every worthy effort that has been engauged by our various members. And if you look at the different individuals in our group, I see that every one of us has became a leader in our own right. Everyone has made an impact. Even you, Justin. Don't tell yourself that you're meant for the background. No wlllworker is made for that. You like I have tasted of Supernal fire — this fire is meant to change the world. It is humanity's birthright, but not all of us can channel it yet. Not everyone has tasted of this living water. As one of the few, we have a responsibility to be a beacon. Do not abandon your efforts. Do not abandon your city. I have faith in your ability. Besides... I think we’ll be needing that city to be intact.

The Undying Ones have dreamed again. They dreamed that our great council shall be built again atop your powerful Egyptian relic. Their ancient magic shall make of it a fortress that the Outsiders will cower to see. We shall weave anew the rends they tear in the tapestry. There are many; many more every day. There is work enough to do.

Along those lines, I fear I gave the wrong impression about my allies (mostly to Darrel). The Undying Ones are not truly immortal. They are not the invisible Masters with their world-shaping elder magics. Those I have not met since my days with the Order. They are ordinary mages of ordinary power, who have earned their name because they have become beings of soul, not body, and so are not affected by time. They are the Undying Ones because they come from hundreds of years of history. Thousands of years, really. The dreaming minds of the greatest men and women to live among the Awakened, and many who were not awakened 1n their life but had the secrets of the Dreamlands anyway. Here on Earth they are very mortal. So far as I know, none of them has ever been killed. If they did... I have good reason to suspect they would end up in the Underworld, almost without fail. They are basically the ghosts of dead mages more able to learn and to grow, and fully physical. Kill them, and they die like ghosts.

You might ask now I know that. Well, as you may've heard by now, there’s been a hit of a war lately. Sorry about causing so much death and strife, Lizzie! I hope you'll still love me. Alas, we’ve had no choice. The unity of the Orders I created has been working toward our destruction... all of ours... in the insane hope that the Outside might be placated somehow, as though it were an ordinary abyssal acamoth that could be paid off with a few souls and sent back to its gnawing unknown home. That would have been enough were they not trying to kill us as well. All legend and occult insight agrees we are surely the only way to bring an end to this. And can anyone fail to see why?

Look at the impact we have had! Rick and his uniting of the ferals, Darrel and his war for dominion of the Earth with the others of his kind. Lizzie and the Dim Suns. And Justin, you too. How could anyone not see the difference we're all making here! There is more to do; much more. This enemy was mighty. They have been too occupied with killing me, as a rival for power among our kind. With me dead, I have no doubt they would have turn on all of you next. Justin first, then the others. But that is not a concern anymore.

My foolish Diamond Nation is no more. I cannot share with you the joy I felt to see that city fall. The mightiest elder magics... among my kin and vampires both... was employed 1n protecting it from any threat. But they were totally unprepared for what happened. I would not be at all surprised if the population of mages in the world was significantly impacted by this invasion. Thousands, and more than a hundred thousand others among past dreamers who were not Awakened themselves but wielded our Enlightened weapons. Many vampires were slain by Supernal sunlight. I have never seen justice so liberally administered.

By all accounts the battle was a rout. It never helped that the Arrow has been loyal to me from the beginning, as well as the Mysterium. Seeing our army at their gates with the banner of the Undying Ones, most of the security force defected. The Arrow are an honorable lot. They would not turn and slaughter their charges... but left as a group all at once, nearly two hundred battlemages, to do honorable combat as they have been waiting to do for some time.

It did me no pleasure to see the Chancellor of the Veil and many of the Seers standing and fighting to the death when they discovered that the Undying Ones had created a dead zone in the city, preventing all supernal influence but our own. Not that such was easy. But I will spare you the detail of price. Right now we estimate the loss of life on both sides and civilian bystanders was nearly ten thousand. A great victory, won at incredible cost.

It's been a somber moment for Rami and I. The snake no longer has a head, but the war isn't won. Just because the heads of those orders that wished humanity harm (even if they didn't understand it) have been killed or imprisoned (so far as we know, nobody escaped who was in the city at the time)... this does not mean we have won the loyalty of the Veil or the Ladder, to say nothing of the Seers (their head surrendered, so we're not entirely hopeless there). As a matter of fact... plenty of the Ladder have since openly stated they intend to wage a war for revenge for the overthrow of their dominance. The Veil isn’t inclined to declare much of anything, but the Undying Ones warn me their heaviest hand remains unplayed.

But there is hope. The Arrow is ours again, honored and willing to serve. The Free Council and the Mysterium were with us before the war was even over. There is not much left to build our center here... so we shall move on. There are far too many men for this city to support. I cannot say where we are going next, except that it is important. I don't know how we will make the other Orders kneel. Perhaps we never will. But I am getting reports that significant numbers... those that have supported us from the beginning... are defecting to the Arrow and the Mysterium. The Free council doesn't need anyone else... it's been the largest of the orders ever since the world’s been falling apart anyway. All the newcomers. Can't say I’m upset about that either.

Be safe, everyone. This is a great time to be alive!

Oh, and congratulations Rick! To create life is a sacred responsibility. Now that you've done it, you have to stay true to that. Your child deserves a father who can raise them to be better than he was. This is your new responsibility... in addition to somehow helping us to save the world. Is the child of two ferals more likely to be teral too? I’ve never really understood how you left humanity to begin with. I know that you're not numan. You've got a dualistic spirit-soul nature like werewolves do, and don’t go to the Underworld like werewolves don't. At least usually. That's the trouble with stuff like this. There are always exceptions. But you get the point! Let us know when you know its sex. Keep your mate safe.

Lizzie, I expect you to stay safe too. For similar reasons I suppose. Though so far as I know there aren’t any babies on the horizon, are there? Is that even possible for Sin-Eaters? I get that you’re not entirely human, but it seems like you’re alive enough for that. From what I remember you are. No double-entendres there, I swear. I've missed you, Lizzie. Rami and I have got loads closer out here... being together in the Dreamlands for more than a year can do that... but it's nothing like... well, she does know my secret as I've said, but more to help us hide than anything else. On the plus side, she's learned some damn good Japanese because of it, so that's cool! Helps me a whole lot during those times, since my English hasn’t improved yet. It's sorta like a reset each time. which she finds endlessly hilarious.

Alas, I'm out of time. We've one more night here, then it’s time to mobilize. Dai, everybody!

-Christian

((Sorry you all probably got this way late, and chances are not even because of Kirby. When I get everyone's posts a day before the month ends, it's very hard to have a reply written in time for the next month.))

Lizzie's Entry for April 2013

((3 points: Late, but I talked about all the peoples, and advanced my plot, and got closer to killing the bad guys.))

Hey everyone!

I'm here in the Underworld, a place the locals call Dead Man's Hand. I know you might wonder why I sound so cheerful, Chris. You're the only one who really knows how bad it can get down here, and it's certainly no Dreamworld like you've been hanging out in. But it's just so nice to be away from that stupid office and actually doing things.

Anyways, this isn't that bad a place as far as dead domains are concerned. It's like... wild-west themed, and the people running the place used to be Sin-Eaters (though they think they still are). Anyways, that's not really what's important. The reason I'm down here is because we think we've finally gotten a lead of where to find the dominion that the old ones end up in between dying and pulling themselves out of our universe.

See, there's a ghost or something down here we're trying to negotiate with. No one's quite sure where he came from, but he's been here longer than anyone who lives here remembers. The locals call him El Diablo, and I have to admit the resemblance is uncanny, though it's just a mask. It hasn't been easy getting him to cooperate, especially since he and the "Sin-Eaters" here don't exactly get along. But... he's definitely hinted that he knows something. It's just a matter of convincing him it's in his best interest to help us. He's hinted some at the fact he could use something from us, but seems unwilling to say so. Turns out negotiating with the devil isn't entirely straightforward. But I have a couple of my best people on it, and I feel confident.

Now, Ricky, you hush, alright? I didn't go making fun of you when you started dating Amelia. And Chris and I aren't really dating... yet... We just spent a lot of time together in the Underworld, and in his apartment.  It was fun, though. Especially when we just spent the whole day after getting back from the Underworld staying in bed... I bet we'll sleep in even longer when this is all finally over, eh Chris?

Wait, fuck, I actually read these letters. Ricky, are you serious? A child, now? I mean, congrats and all, but... Shouldn't you have been using protection or something? I mean... You've only known each other for... almost a year...? That's less than you knew me! Not that... I wanted to get pregnant before even getting married, but... Nevermind. I'll just stick with congrats.

I'm not sure I completely understand what you're talking about, Austin. Weren't we all chosen for this? By... some group or another. I still don't understand the details beyond the legends my Krewe has shared about me. Being their speaker and such. There's implications that it's true of other races, as well, but... we're hardly a representative sample of the whole world. Perhaps there were others we could've met up with but fate didn't quite get there? I can't say understand that stuff as much as I like, but you've been studying that sort of magic more recently, haven't you, Austin? Surely you have some idea of what your place is.

And Darrel, sounds like you've got your hands full in much the same way I do, though we don't have anyone directly opposing us at the moment, so perhaps I'm a little better off for it. I wish you luck, though. You're a pretty good tactician from what I remember of the games we used to play, so I have no doubt you'll do well. Good luck all the same, though!

Well, seems it's time for me to go. The folks here have made us up some food. Where they got the supplies I have no idea, but it isn't half-bad for nearly-spoiled beans and undercooked "meat". Either way, I'll hopefully have more progress to share next time I get in touch with you all. Until then, take care!

-Lizzie T. O'Conner