Low Places

[Avenger Assembled]

Meanwhile....

The next day was much of a sameness with Belphegor, with the exception of his ladies eventually falling away from him to attend to other things. It was after lunch by the time he left the company of the ladies, both the first and second crew. He had special company now, though, Rochambeau having been joined by a slightly battered woman carrying a massive magical staff. Sister Sixtus, as she was introduced to Belphegor, didn't seem interested in his reindeer games. Indeed, she didn't even seem to pay much attention to her putative cult leader, paying closer attention to the magnificent golden staff that she seemed quite enraptured by. With a suspicious glance Sixtus' way, Rochambeau invited Belphegor to join them for the finest liquor from their wine cellar.

"Tonight, just after sundown, we will perform the ritual," said Rochambeau proudly, "we shall perform the sacrifice of Orloff and summon unto us the Red King." He was called away briefly at that juncture, temporarily leaving Belphegor alone with Sixtus in what had been the dining room of the big house. Faintly charred by soot and with an odd look in her eye, Sixtus looked from the staff to Belphegor. "I have been places tonight. And seen things. Have you seen the fourth level of the Hungry Dead? The staff has taken me there, and I have spoken to the Death Lords."

[Cyroa]

He nodded to Hellbound as the man entered and then to Knight. "I know most but not all of you. I'm called Dark Star due to beling a humanoid embodiment of the previously theoretic dark star. I have some strong control over gravity, radiation in addition to moving between the stars at incredible speeds. If you are injured, I can alter the radiation wavelength and provide healing as well." He paused for a moment. "I don't have much of a 'day job' anymore. I just got back to Earth a little while ago after a long absence."

[Hellbound]

"Sweet." Muttered Hellbound. "That means I get to be first to admit to actually hurting people. I don't really do the whole 'healing' thing, unless a guy's injuries involve the lack of broken bones. In that case I'm doctor-freaking-killdare.

"I fight. That's pretty much it. 'Not much of a long-type thinker and most of my strategies involve me being the first to put a boot to the head of evil. It's what I do, it's what I'm good at an' it's why I'm here. I don't really mess around with day jobs or secret identities. Both would just slow me down, ya' know?"

[Dr Archeville]

Meanwhile....

Rochambeau... was called away briefly at that juncture, temporarily leaving Belphegor alone with Sixtus in what had been the dining room of the big house. Faintly charred by soot and with an odd look in her eye, Sixtus looked from the staff to Belphegor. "I have been places tonight. And seen things. Have you seen the fourth level of the Hungry Dead? The staff has taken me there, and I have spoken to the Death Lords."

Hunh... okay, keep it cool, you're probably going to be meeting with a lot of crazy people.

"Ah, you're quite fortunate," he said between tastes of brandy, "I've not had the pleasure of speaking with them. Whom was it you spoke to? Böcklin? Bruegel? Caravaggio? Taram?"

He hoped he sounded convincing. The names he gave were all false -- in that, as far as he knew, they weren't actually the names of Death Lords -- though he hoped they sounded authentic. Arnold Böcklin was a symbolist Swiss painter from the later half of the 19th century best known for Die Toteninsel (Isle of the Dead). Pieter Bruegel the Elder was a Netherlandish Renaissance painter and printmaker known for his landscapes and peasant scenes, though two well-known ones were Dulle Griet (depicting a peasant woman leading an army of women to pillage Hell) and The Triumph of Death (a panoramic landscape of death). Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta and Sicily between 1593 and 1610, considered the first great representative of the Baroque school of painting, who focused on Saintly figures in assorted states of death/martyrdom. Taram was Marat backwards, as in The Death of Marat, a 1793 painting in the Neoclassic style by Jacques-Louis David, one of the most famous images of the French Revolution.

[N/A]

"Short version. Tracking a cult. Have stolen variety of holy and unholy magical items. Believe they have plans to resurrect at least one dead entity. Very powerful. Risk is significant. Need to know if you are all willing to risk it."

"I'll see this through to the end - the cult's, or my own."

But if you know where such an object is that would help, I can just zip over and back with it. Assuming it's not more than a couple dozen lightyears from here, it shouldn't take me more than a few minutes."

"We appreciate the sentiment, but unfortunately, our intelligence is minimal regarding the specific nature of the threat we face. The ringleader of this cult has proved supernaturally aware of, and resistant to, my attempts at scrying or telepathy. And his pawns have only the most superficial information, mostly in the form of his empty promises to remake the world to their liking."

"Risk, smhisk, I was starting to get worried all the fun had been kicked out of this town."

"On the contrary. If the adrenaline rush of pugilation is what you seek, you're in luck. There will be violence to spare, of that I have no doubt."

[N/A]

"Made introductions?"

"You, DarkStar, and I have of course been with this investigation since the beginning. Hellbound, I remember from the incident on the cruise ship a few days ago. This is the first time I've crossed paths with Mr. Knight or 'Red' here." She nodded to each person as she mentioned their name.

"For those of you who don't know, I am The Scarab. If that name doesn't ring any bells, I'm not surprised. I...left before any of you were probably born, and have only returned recently. Ask your parents later - they'll remember me. Or just rent a Freedom Friends DVD, and try to remember that 90% of it is made up."

"As for what I bring to the table, suffice it to say that I can exert my will upon the world around me; both the physical world, and the mental."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Good. Have a team. Have pinpointed the demon and cult to this block. Suggest we fight them now at our earliest opportunity. Avenger stood up, all muscular energy and action, rolling his shoulders and flexing his gloved hands. "Wesley. Heard of your abilities. Can you scan? Also, Scarab. If they have not screened against it."

[N/A]

"Can you scan? Also, Scarab. If they have not screened against it."

"Which, after they caught me scrying last time, they very well may have. But even then, the hole in my mental map will alert us to their location indirectly."

The Scarab hovered a few feet up and sat lotus-style in mid-air. Her body glowed with a golden aura for a moment, then a translucent duplicate of her stepped out of her body and flew away. Then another, and another, until, three or four at a time, several dozen ghostly apparitions left her body, each flying in a slightly different direction, then fading from view once they got a few yards away.

"I see you when you're sleeping...I know when you're awake..."

[Hellbound]

"Dude, how is that not creepy?" Hellbound muttered to himself as Scarab did her thing.

She'd mentioned being able to exert her will upon the world, but that didn't spell half of what she could do. He remembered the telekinetic powers she'd exhibited back on the cruise ship as well as Dark Star's own contributions. Between the just the two of them they might just be able to juggle the bad guys to death.

What he wasn't aware of, though, was that she apparently kept the city under mental observation. Hopefully she kept her attention out of bedrooms and focused on crime. Hellbound wasn't big on the whole 'big sister is watching you' action.

Though he had to admit it gave them a huge advantage in finding the forces of evil...

[Cyroa]

Dark Star just nodded at Scarab's words. He knew what Moira preferred as her super name but it wasn't his place to speak for her. Instead he floated nearby and let his own senses extend outward. Scarab had asked for others to guard over her when she did this kind of thing last time. So he assumed that role for now. He'd watch for any trouble while the rest planned or discuessed. If there was anything to find, it wouldn't be long.

[Avenger Assembled]

In the fancy streets of North Bay, Scarab saw a dark star. Not her friend, but a malevolently glowing form of necromantic energy that shone to her mind's eye to a near-blinding black light. Focusing her perceptions, she saw a woman's form standing in the middle of a misty field of psychic energy. The energy that cut through the obscuring field came from a mystic artifact, a staff glowing with obscene supernatural power, and was shaped to match the form of its wielder. Scarab was easily able to recognize the outline of Sister Sixtus.

[Avenger Assembled]

Sixtus gave Belphegor a look that was hard to read. There was decidedly something odd about the cultist, a look in her eyes and in the way she carried herself, a fragile mortal on the edge of something new. "I didn't meet them. But the ones I met showed me things." She blinked, hard. "There is death beyond death. Things that lie beyond the edge of entropy." Her fingers tightened around the staff in her hand. "You enjoy the pleasures of the flesh. Why?"

A few moments after Belphegor replied, Rochambeau stepped into the dining room. Dressed now in magnificent black robes emblazoned with two blood-red hands on his massive sleeves, the cult leader was a figure of great dignity and arcane power. "We're ready for the ceremony. Will you join us, Bride and Groom?"

[Dr Archeville]

"I didn't meet them. But the ones I met showed me things." She blinked, hard. "There is death beyond death. Things that lie beyond the edge of entropy." Her fingers tightened around the staff in her hand. "You enjoy the pleasures of the flesh. Why?"

Hot damn, it worked!

"Why? You may as well ask a painter why he paints, or a sculptor why he sculpts." He took another swallow of brandy, "because I can, and because it's fun. And because Lust can be an incredibly useful manner in which to condemn others. Also, as I'm sure you could appreciate, it's lead to more than a few deaths -- the Trojan War, which ran on for nine years, was started by Lust for one woman."

"We're ready for the ceremony. Will you join us, Bride and Groom?"

'Bride and Groom'? What?! Okay, okay, keep it cool, it's likely a metaphor for... something. Probably having us fill some archetypal role for the ceremony, a Bride and Groom to become Mother and Father to the thing which is summoned.

Belphegor slammed down the rest of the brandy, then rose. "But of course. My Lady?," he said, offering a hand to Sister Sixtus.

[Moira Morley]

"My name is Divine," Moira said. She straighted up and stopped leaning on O'Ren. "My skills as a fighter are adequate; Hellbound has taught me some moves," she said, winking at him. "But my real forte is social interaction. I'm a talker and a listener. There's not much I don't know about anybody."

[Ecalsneerg]

Rolled 26 for Gather Info in chat.

There'd been a message on the streets, looking to summon local super-heroes here for something. It's not often a group of heroes assemble, usually for something big. Arrowhawk had came to North Bay to investigate.

After some fruitless crawling over roof-tops, he'd found them. Nice area, nice house. They stick out a bit. It was a fairly disparate group, in a fairly ostentatious house. There was the attractive woman from that theft half a year ago. M? He could also see the new Scarab. There were a couple of men in txrenchcoats, one much larger than the other. The latter he thought he recognised. Hell-something. Dark Star was fairly recognisable, being the most public hero there. There was also a dark-clad man, fitting descriptions of a fairly brutal new hero he'd heard about from Lenny. Uniting factor? None seemed to be long-term veterans. None were completely new, but none had been going for more than a few years at most. Better go over and offer a hand, then.

Firing his grapple line, Arrowhawk swung over the street and landed on the windowsill. He raised his hands in a gesture of peace. "Somebody want to open the window for me?"

DC 30 Stealth using skill mastery. With range increments, consider me invisible.

[Avenger Assembled]

Avenger opened the window, gazing up at Arrowhawk with flat, implacable eyes behind his mask. I have no idea who this is. Crap. He cocked his head, looking back at the others. "Did one of you drop the note? Though Avenger didn't sound at all pleased about that, he looked up at Arrowhawk anyway. "Can't complain. Be hypocritical. Come in."

[N/A]

As Avenger extended his less-than-enthusiastic invitation to the new arrival, The Scarab came out of her trance. She dropped down out of her sitting position and, for the first time since she arrived, her feet hit the ground. She shook her head briefly, then looked up at no one in particular from her crouch. "I found them. They're just up the street, less than a block away from us." She stood up and pointed in the direction of the cult safehouse. "The party's already started, but we'll be only fashionably late. And it looks like our old 'friend' Sister Sixtus is one of the guests of honor. She's looking quite healthy for someone who had an entire roof dropped on her less than a week ago."

[Moira Morley]

Moira looked over to Arrowhawk with a semblance of knowing him. When she last saw him she thought she was just a human with massive amounts of strength, not a child of the god of War and the goddess of beauty. She greeted him with a meek wave as she mouthed a "Hi!"

[Hellbound]

It sounded to Hellbound like most of the groundwork had been laid already. He had no idea who this 'Sister Sixus' character was, but that didn't really matter to him. She was a bad guy, or so he'd been lead to believe, and needed to be put down.

"So what are we up against and what's the plan?" He asked the room. "Are we gonna just kick the door in and start tossing bodies, or will there be actual tactics?"

If Scarab had managed to find the foes, then she should have information on how many they'd be facing and how they were armed. Right now she was the only one with any sort of inside information that he knew of, so it was up to her to let the rest of the party know what's going on.

[Cyroa]

Dark Star didn't even bother looking surprised at the sudden appearance another cape. People seemed to vanish and appear all the time; he was just getting used to it he supposed. "Note? I got the call direct from Scarab." He just shrugged his shoulders.

"Sixtus was...dangerous. Very. Or at least that staff she held was. With it she managed to injure and hold off Scarab, Avenger and I for a short time; until I dropped the roof of building on her and grashed her down into the sewers. Even then she still escaped. I suppose the direct assault would work but seems rather...wasteful given the stealthiness of some of us. Two pronged attack might be better. But if it's already started, then we have no time to waste." He floated off the ground and let his senses extend outward, readying himself for the final assault.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Magical abilities. Dangerous. Necromancy. Take staff from her, if you can." Avenger gave Arrowhawk that flat, expectant look. "They vouch. You come with. Dark Star." He turned and gazed immovably on the space hero. "Suggest you fly us. Am familiar with building. Take to the roof. Must prevent their ritual from succeeding." He opened the window that Arrowhawk had come from again, body tense as a vibrating string.

[Ecalsneerg]

Arrowhawk nodded curtly at Moira, then listened to the rest of the group, especially Avenger. He's either rude, or too asthmatic to speak properly... "What would happen if we fail to stop this ritual? I'm assuming by your tone it's nasty."

"Now, this would be ideal if the ritual was in a building, as some could attack from the front and the rest drop in from the roof."

[N/A]

"Great. Every court needs a jester, I suppose."

"The cult is holed up in their safe house. Which happens to be a regular house, albiet a large and ostentatious one, in keeping with the caliber of this neighborhood. They are in possession of a number of mystic artifacts from Fletcher Beaumont's personal collection, including but not limited to the sacrificial dagger Wilhelm Kantor used to transform Johann Meinhoff into Die Nacht-Krieger. You may remember him as the Nazi assassin who single-handedly slaughtered the Allies of Freedom in the closing days of the Second World War."

"They are attempting to use these artifacts to summon an entity they refer to as 'The Red King,' who promises to reshuffle this deck we call a world and build a new house of cards, with them on top. Their leader has demonstrated some magickal aptitude, in that he was able to both detect my scrying, and ward against it. This time, no one seemed to notice. But the entire building was drenched in a necromantic aura, so they're obviously busy."

"Any other questions?"

[Hellbound]

He remembered the archer from their work on the cruise ship, and just in case Moira's word wasn't enough for the group he'd be willing to vouch for him as well. In fact, the only one who seemed to be missing from that adventure was Sammy and his pet dinosaur.

"I think I got it. We go in fast and hard. Stopping the ritual is more important than putting anyone into the hospital. Worry about this Red King jackass first and foremost. Keeping him from showing up is more important than the lives of anyone in this room... yadda yadda... so let's go break some crap. I'm ready."

[Cyroa]

Dark Star nodded as Avenger's and then Scarab's words. "Can do. Everyone gather close together. Scarab? Some specific directions and I can have us there before they can even blink. Would you like me to 'bring the roof down' on them as well as soon as we get there? If you want that big and shocking as well, I might need Scarab to hold the lot of you aloft for the second it takes." He shrugged his shoulders.

Once it was settled, he simple nodded. "Everyone set?" As soon as everyone was ready and DS knew exactly where to go, there would be a brief moment of acceleration and they would be be there.