Christian's Entry for October 2013

I have it. A spell. It might not be much, but it's something. Too tired to write long, but I want to write.

All Hallows Eve is a very important day for the creatures of earth, the ones that aren't human. Very difficult here leading up to it. More and more Ousiders. People have started turning a blind eye. Monster, don't look at it. Just keep going. They kill the ones who notice them. Well not in my town!

Rare, true. But when they come, they come with so much power there's little we could do. Until now. Hallows Eve, lots of death here. Lots of monsters. There was nothing for it but to try. Thought I might die fighting. So many. Then I did it. The Master's magic, and mine. Together, it made a spell. A rote; the first I've ever invented. It's a grounding rod of sorts. Strengthens the fabric of local reality, and thus banishes anything from outside. At least... I think it does. Not sure how well it would work against the really big, god-like ones. Probably not at all. But their foot-soldiers just got much easier.

Only downside is the energy cost. It's /technically/ beyond the perview of the Master level, and as such requires unique quintesense each time, much rarer than manna. But it also can apply on a much wider scale. My city doesn't have anymore outsiders. None. It's amazing how much nicer people are now.

Rick, I echo Darrel's words. Be careful what a change like that can do to the mind. I've been an animal several times now and each time was more difficult than the time before. Making a batch of insane ferals won't help with anything.

Darrel, I don't even know how to process what you're telling us. It's hard to imagine that you're up on the moon when I look at it. There are werewolves on the moon. That's the silliest thing that has ever happeed in the history of ever.

Finally some freakin' good news.

Lizzie! Oh thank God you're still alive! Lizzie... this is Christian! I can't tell how much you've lost, but... we were close. Best friends, even! More. Even that ghost of yours eventually accepted me... though that was probably just because I stopped being so old-fashioned. Whatever... don't die again! I'm not sure what's happened to you, but don't die again! We've talked about this before; you helped me understand. The more times you die, the more your ghost takes over. It sounds like you died again... If you die much more, she'll be able to take you whenever she wants. I don't want that, Lizzie. I don't want to lose you.

There is magic that can help. When this is all over, my Master can help you. Or even better, we can help you by helping your ghost. What you've done for so many others, you can do for her. Just don't die anymore. I don't know about any underground oceans... but I'm amazed that thing is getting a message through from the underworld as it is, so I suppose I'm in no place to judge. For all I know, it could be dilating time somehow...

Please, don't die. I don't know how I would face reality without you. I wonder if Undine remembers more of who you are than you do. She might be able to help.

-Christian

My entry thing for September. Er... I'm Lizzie... Lizzie's entry... Oh, and 2013, I think. Yeah. September 2013. Lizzie's Entry for September 2013. How do I get rid of what I wrote before? Ah, fuck it.

Hello? Is this thing working? Okay, if you can hear me, I've read some of your past messages. I can't say I fully understand, neither of us do, but... Okay, let me start from the beginning. My name's Lizzie, and Undine... Or, the other me is named Undine. Anyways, I'm the Speaker for the Dead. I'm the representative of the Underworld against the outsiders. Based on what I've read, you all seem to have similar roles for other things, but I haven't gone back that far. The Admiral only just fished this weird device out of the Sea earlier.

Oh, I should explain who that is! See, I'm a crew-member on his ship. I have been for... a few months now. He rescued me from almost drowning. I don't remember a lot of what happened... When I woke up, all I really knew was that I was that Speaker for the Dead I mentioned. But he's been helping me remember who I am in exchange for working on his ship. I don't really mind, especially since he said he would help me against the old ones when the time came. I don't know how he intends to get this ship to the surface, though.

I'm sorry! I'm rambling, aren't I. I know humans tend to ignore ghosts, but I hope you won't do that to me just because I'm talking too much. But... When the Admiral showed me this thing, I just knew it was mine somehow, even though I don't know any of you. Maybe it's part of my destiny? But... since we all seemed to be fighting the same fight, I thought I'd send you all a message. Oh! And, I should let you know that things aren't right down here. Admiral says that something's happened to the Leviathan. That's the protector of the sea here. He thinks something got it from below. If something could take out a creature that powerful... what's down there?

Again, sorry if I wasn't supposed to use this thing. But I feel like I needed to. I don't know why... Maybe something in these archives will help me. I'll be reading those whenever I get a spare moment, which isn't often with the Admiral. I'm honestly surprised he's let me go this long. I should probably go before he changes his mind about giving this to me. Bye! Oh, Undine says bye, too!

Rick's Entry for September 2013

(( On time, plot, subplot, mentioning others (kinda). ))

Hello everyone!

I should probably have listened to you guy's warnings about Gaia. In hindsight, asking for the help of an omnipotent spirit wasn't all that smart of an idea. On the other paw... it worked!


...kinda. Well, at least, it worked better than Darrel and his lizards. Things. Whatever. Finding her was hell in the first place, and it was more like, she found us. We were minding our own business, taking a break from looking for her because, you know, the night is for sleeping, not hunting spirits, and then BAM! A wild Gaia appears!

She wasn't at all like I expected her to be. Maybe I watched too many horror movies, but I was thinking more like, you know, see-through human like figure. With flowers and stuff. Nope. She was more like an animal, with all sort of parts from various things, like... a chimera? Yup, a chimera with a face. With 3 eyes. Or maybe it was two. I'm tired, leave me alone!

I wish she hadn't gone on a very boring lecture about animal spirit blablabla something something. It would have saved me a few hours and a few headaches. Nonetheless, she agreed to help, if only because the world was kind of screwed without people alive on it. I suppose it would have left a lot of ghosts for an equally dead Lizzie to clean up after, but that wasn't the point here. Or maybe it was. I wanna sleep.

Oh screw this.... zzzzzzz...



Amelia here.

Ricky fell asleep while working on this. Poor thing. I told him to take a break, but he never listens. We found Gaia, and she accepted to provide us with the power to create many ferals as an emergency measure. It wasn't without a few strings attached, but we will sort out the details later. For now, we will try to find as many 'compatible' humans as we can. I understand the risks involved in this, mostly regarding the loss of humanity after the transformation. I'm not sure Ricky does. At times, it feels like it's all a game to him. Maybe it's his way of coping with the burden. I know I would give a lot to just be able to forget it myself and take care of my baby better. I'm afraid I could lose it...

PS: I don't pretend to completely understand what you guys are doing out there, but good luck and stay safe. I think Ricky would have said that.

Christian's Entry for September 2013

((5 points. Not sure If I've done a current event in awhile. I'm not sure how many there have been, but none of us should have more than 4 of them. No more than four bonus points per person from them. You can do more events, just can't get any points for 'em.))

Christian's Entry for September

It's good to hear from some of you again. The silence on some fronts is more than a little frightening, but I suppose there's nothing for it but to hope. there's enough darkness in the world without inventing my own dark reasons for why people haven't spoken up. With any luck they're just as invented as everything else that's going on.

It's hard to believe that you could have spoken with Luna and lived, Darrel. That's the stuff of legend. If we survive all this, they're going to have to write a book about us. It will be a long book. An interesting book too, probably. Probably not safe for young audiences. But I'll just be happy that there are young audiences for it not to be safe for.

Rick, be careful. The spirits are Darrel's thing, so watch out. Gaia might be your mother, but she's a vindictive creature. She's been very wrongfully used in the last century and not happy about it. More to the point, she's power in a way that none of us can really fathom. Your pride will get you nowhere if you're dead.

As far as my own front is concerned, it seems like the vampires have given up trying to find me. Without sympathetic magic, it's very hard to track somebody down who doesn't want to be found. it doesn't take much Life to look like somebody else, and I've been all sorts of somebody elses over the last month just getting by.

This new government here in the US is interesting. All these self-contained city states claiming to the the united states. A much lower population makes easier feeding, but it's amazing to me they can keep all those farms running. The US was the breadbasket of the world. I wonder what other countries are doing now that we're only barely feeding ourselves.

I guess having so many people killed by outsiders probably helps.

I hear rumors about something in the pacific. Some sort of new island. I don't like the sound of it. Too many old legends in the ocean. Too many hoary things down there.

I've got together with a Cabal here, helping out the locals. I would love to do more, but I just don't know how to contribute right now. The Master's magic keeps me safe, but not much else. I can't use it to cal for aid anymore. If only I knew how to turn it against our enemies. Trample out the grapes of wrath and all that stuff in the song.

If only life was a song.

-Christian

World Event: Strange new island in the pacific interupts one of the few still-functioning shipping lanes between the US and China. Nothing that has ventured within 50 miles of it, air or sea, has been seen again.

Rick's Entry for August 2013

(( 4pts, for barely on time, global plot, personnal plot, mention of other. ))

Hello ev... well, Christian

To be fair, not a bunch of time has passed since the last time I wrote, so it's not that strange to see a lack of activity on those magical communication lines. It would have been awesome to get awesome news from you Christian, especially after your unusual silence, but... glad to see you're alive, at least. I will bring some positive in this otherwise gloom and dark world we're in. We have found Gaia, or rather, we have found where exactly she is. We are trying to find someone who can help me negotiate with her, because we all know I'm not quite the most subtle in term of what I say when I talk in public. I don't want to miss this opportunity, enope. We're having too much to lose in this fight to take things lightly.

In other news, Amelia is feeling the baby move inside of her. It brought warmth to my heart to know that a new life is growing inside of her. Hopefully there's still going to be a world for he or she to be born in. We tried to list names for the baby during the short moments we have for ourselves. I think by next month we should have trimmed it down enough for it to be known.

And... that's all I had to say. I hope you can get out of your sticky situation, Chris! I'm sure you can! You may talk crazy, but you're not one to fall on the battlefield so easily. I believe in you!

-Rick

Christian's Entry for August 2013

Christian's Entry for August

((Four points! Unlike last month. >.> ))

Thank God this thing still works. I can't tell you how much of a relief it is to be out in the real world again. To still be /alive/ for that matter. I'll keep this quick. I know I tend to talk a lot, but I won't do that this time. No time. Even without a head a snake can still be a dangerous thing.

So without going into too much detail, negotiations didn't go well, and we couldn't hold the city. Their terms were pretty stupid. Me and the other leaders surrender ourselves for trial and everyone else can go free. It's hard for me to understand boldness like that. As though defending ourselves from unprovoked attack qualifies as treason. Whatever. There's a problem relying entirely on troops from the Dreamlands for your army. If your enemy realizes that is what you're doing, they have a tendency to take advantage of it. I always knew we weren't the only people with magic in the world, but I never could've imagined they would find a way to reverse the spell I used to return to the physical world. The result of the collapsed Wending instantly banished all of our extra-dimensional support. No longer did we have an army. Our heavy artillery was gone, along with our foot-soldiers. All we had left were the human mages and a handful of human allies.

Not off to a good start. Rather than attempting to fight hopeless odds, we ran like a bunch of cowards. It's very difficult to contain a whole bunch of mages who don't want to be somewhere, so we scattered to the winds more or less the instant they pulled the trigger on whatever spell they used. The best part of this whole thing is that most of the mages got away. Very few of our number were actually captured. Ramira and I got separated. No idea what happened to her. I think she ended up with one of the groups that was fleeing through the Hedge into Moscow, but I can't say for sure.

I wasn't so lucky. Every countermeasure I've used to protect my identity has failed, because our attackers knew who I was. They knew what group I was traveling with, and they ambushed us in the Shadow. I don't mean the US Army. I mean the Vampires, the ones that spurred the attack from the beginning.

Several allies dead. I'm captured, taken back to a headquarters of some kind. Vampires can be surprisingly cordial. This is why I wasn't able to update all of you about anything.

But I'm out now. Maybe I'll talk more about it later. For now that's all that's important. I can't seem to get to the dreamlands anymore. I think whatever spell we were hit with that returned our allies also shorted out everyone else's ability to go there. I'm not sure if the damage is permanent, but it means that in the meantime I won't be getting an army that way again.

So that's it. No more diamond nation, no more dreamlands. The end is near. I'm starting to like the sound of Austin's flight from the universe more and more. I can't help but feel our cause is more and more hopeless every day. If the Elder Things couldn't even handle a few shoggoths, what hope do any of us have?

-Christian

Rick's Entry for July 2013

(( 4pts. Loss my first point for being late, but lookit, World Event to make it up! ))

Hello.

I have a good news and a bad news. The good news is that I'm still alive! The bad news is that most of the crew is dead. We lost great people, I never get used to it. It wasn't even our fault this time. What happens when you mix a shaky Europeean Union with supernatural creatures? If your answer is civil war, you win a cookie! I thought we were better than that, as a species, but I suppose it was half to be expected. The entire world is falling apart and reverting to what I would call a savage trench war. Of course, I shouldn't be talking, I'm the one who lost his humanity to the 'dark side' of the wild and trying to create an army of ferals with the help of Gaia, but at least I'm doing it for a good reason! I want to unite people, not break them apart!

Unfortunately, people here didn't think the same and we were attacked by a group of rebels of some sort. I don't know what exactly, I don't speak German. I do speak the way of battle, and since they weren't letting us pass peacefully, we forced our way through. It wasn't pretty, I can tell you that. I will spare you the details, as bloodily interesting as they are. Amelia and I made it without too much pain, I suppose that's what is important.

We're getting closer to our destination, so there's that. It's really hard to find the time to write to you guys, and I can see I'm not the only one. It's worrying, to be honest. Not a month has gone without Christian and his insane mage rambling. That's not a good sign. I really, really hope you're alright out there. At least I know Austin and Darrel are fine, kind of, so that's one less thing to worry about. Or two, depends how you see it. That's all the time I had, gotta go. We're not safe here.

-Rick

(( World Event: The Europeean Union has declared martial law all over the continent in an attempt to bring some stability to a falling social structure. It didn't really work. ))