<@Dreol> [Buda, Hungary, April 10th 1262, 11:00 PM] <@Dreol> [Welcome to the Wampyr Halloween Special! You have been in Jurgen's court for a little over a week, and things have been relatively uneventful, except, as mentioned earlier, the population of the city seems relatively scarce. Any questions to the reason for this are dismissed, followed by a quick subject change. Tonight; however, while the court was socializing in the great hall, Jurgen seemed particularly nervous. After about an hour Valerie, the Lasombra girl, swoops into court, her eyes wide and serious. She bows quickly. "Lord Jurgen, I am sorry to interrupt but we have had another... incident." Jurgen nods and motions for Valerie to follow him and they both disappear into the door at the back of the dias. This is followed by a great deal of low murmuring from those in attendance about what could be the "incident" she was referring to.] <@Dreol> [Begin!] 06* Eliana watches them leave curiously, then starts the time honored tradition of eavesdropping on any murmurers immediately nearby. 06* Anstace watches passively, and then listens passively. you can tell, her expression is very passive. 06* Moriel watches the two of them leave with some concern. He mms to himself and then joins Eliana in eavesdropping, drifting to the other side of the room to cover more eavesdropping ground. 06* Eliana turns to Rolf, who is still nearby. "Seems the incidents are not especially private." 06* Rolf growls and looks down at Eliana. "Yeah? Secret gatherings?" 06* Moriel wanders back over to the others to share findings once he has them. "Secret gatherings of what?" 06* Eliana shrugs with one shoulder at Moriel. "It seems people are disappearing. That would explain quite a bit." Yes. 06* Moriel 's eyes narrow. "Supposedly demons attacked and burned down a house at the edge of town." The disappearances started after that. <@Dreol> [Anstance is standing next to a Ventrue and a Cappadocian who are discussing the fact that a ghoul disappeared only last week.] 06* Anstace listens for a moment, then without really being invited asks, "they took a ghoul?" <@Dreol> [The Ventrue looks up slightly taken aback by Anstace's interruption and nods. "Yes. Whomever 'they' are. There have been no more evidence of demon attacks."] but you do not think it was part of the ongoing hostilities with the Tzimisce, is that correct? <@Dreol> [The cappadocian shakes his head. "I do not know. They do not usually kidnap our-" But he is interrupted because at that moment Jurgen appears again on the dias and speaks. "I am sorry for that interruption, but an urgent matter has presented itself. I would like to request that our guests from Mithras' court follow me." He motions back to the door he disappeared into earlier.] 06* Moriel looks up. After a brief pause, he heads towards Jurgen and the door. 06* Anstace turns to look at Jurgen and then back to her recently interrupted companions. "well... apparently our conversation is to be cut short. before i go, one last question, who lost the ghoul?" 06* Eliana mutters, "Why us?" But she stands and obeys. <@Dreol> [The Capadocian looks at the Ventrue who shrugs. "He was one of Lord Jurgen's."] <@Dreol> [Jurgen disappears again into the back room, presumably expecting you all to follow him.] 06* Anstace nods. "fascinating," she says flatly, turns and walks towards the door. 06* Rolf follows, sure! 06* Anstace catches up to the others and then says softly, though loud enough for them to hear, "apparently the last demon attack saw the disappearance of one of Jurgen's ghouls". if you've been working on memorizing your 'Faces of Anstace' flash cards, you might notice the slightest hint of a smile, but most people left those back in Carthage <@Dreol> [The back room is a simple meeting room. a few shelves on which are stored documents, weapons, nicknacks of various kinds, etc, and about a dozen chairs in a loose circle. On one of those chairs is seated Valerie, who is fidgeting nervously. Jurgen seats himself down in another and motions for you all to have a seat before beginning to speak. "You have no doubt heard about the disappearances..."] 01 Just now, yes. 06* Moriel nods to Anstace as he's walking through the door, and then nods at Jurgen after he's had a seat. He waits for the prince to continue. 06* Anstace takes a seat and just looks intently at Jurgen, waiting for him to continue. <@Dreol> [Jurgen nods. "It's a lie. There have been no disappearances... Well not since the house was burned down by the demons. But we have let the rumor circulate that they are disappearances, because our kind would be much more comfortable with that news than the truth."] 06* Moriel 's eyebrows flick upwards. "Which is?" 06* Eliana raises an eyebrow. "And you are entrusting outsiders with this information why?" <@Dreol> [Jurgen looks at Valerie and then back to Moriel, whom he answers first. "We are finding bodies. In the streets, in houses, in the woods outside. And they aren't like normal corpses. They have not been attacked, they do not look ill... They look like they just died in the middle of their daily lives. Like their souls were just taken from their bodies abruptly. Their faces are all the same... <@Dreol> a mix of terror and sadness... For some time we thought that whatever it was could only affect mortals, but then last week, my ghoul, Gregor was found just the same... and then tonight..." He looks to Valerie who clears her throat. "We found a kindred... A Ravnos. He was just passing through town and staying in an abandoned house. He checked in with us last week and informed us that he would <@Dreol> be in town for a fortnight. Tonight I found him on my patrol, in an alley, exactly the same as the others." Jurgen nods. "And as to your question, Ms. Cassale, you are not members of my court, and therefore I do not have to worry about the impact of your finding this out. And... I need your help."] What exactly do you want us to do? 06* Eliana makes a small 'hm' noise, but she seems to accept his reasoning as sound enough. 06* Anstace who has leaned forward throughout Jurgen's entire recounting of the disappearances, sits back and crosses her arms. <@Dreol> [Jurgen looks to Moriel. "You are tasked by Lord Mithras with helping to stop Moloch... I am unsure if this is tied to Moloch's ritual or not, though it seems that it may be, since it began with a demon attack. My primary concern right now is that whatever is doing this may attack us here, in my manor. I want you to be on the lookout for that. Only Valerie and myself know the truth, and we are <@Dreol> not enough to keep watch on the whole manor."] Neither are we, during the day. so you wish us to help keep watch? or investigate? or both? Or possibly even during the night; it's not a small place. <@Dreol> [Jurgen nods to Moriel. "It is true that we are still very few, but it is an improvement, and I cannot risk the panic that the truth would cause." He looks to Anstace. "We have very little to investigate. For now, I want you keeping watch fro any suspicious activity."] 01 What manner of demon was this? (for) <@Dreol> [Jurgen shakes his head. "We do not know. We did not see it. We only heard the information from the townfolk that there were demons attacking a house and setting it aflame and that they were carrying somebody off with them. The witnesses have been convinced that they were seeing things, of course, and that the house was a simple fire accidentally set by its residents."] <@Dreol> [Jurgen continues. "That said... it seems clear that there were several demonic entities. Not just one."] Did they describe them at all? and was the person reported being carried off later found to be one of the victims? <@Dreol> [Jurgen shrugs. "We don't know who was taken. The family living in that house included a human couple, they had a fifteen year-old son and a six year old daughter."] 06* Rolf growls a little. <@Dreol> [Jurgen adds. "But none of the residents of that house have been found to be a victim of the later attacks."] so it is possible that these are two unrelated events 06* Moriel frowns, apparently agreeing with Anstace. <@Dreol> [Jurgen nods. "Yes. That is possible. But the incidents began occuring a couple days after the fire."] 01 The correlation is significant, yes. well, if your enemies were to have heard of the attack, it would not be out of place for them to try to use that as a means to further incite fear. or is that not a tactic of this age? <@Dreol> [Jurgen nods to Anstace. "That is one of the many reasons why we are keeping this secret. Now, if you will excuse me now... I must return to the court before they get suspicious. Valerie, you should return to your room and rest. There is unlikely to be two attacks in one night."] 06* Eliana bows to the Prince and gets out of his way. <@Dreol> [He leaves, with Valerie behind him. She, however, turns swiftly to the left and heads downstairs.] 06* Eliana watches them leave, then says, "What I fail to understand is why these demons would carry someone away bodily if they could just as easily stolen his or her 'soul'." 06* Moriel nods, then sighs. "I suppose they could have multiple needs, or multiple weapons. I wish we had any idea what we were to be watching for." (retract that) 06* Moriel nods, frowning more. "If...their souls really are being taken, it can't possibly be a demon doing it." His voice is distant, as if he's thinking while he's talking. "Demons have to be given some sort of power over a soul before they can take it." 06* Moriel 's voice gets even quieter. "The only thing I can think of?if there were some sort of being connected to the underworld, perhaps it could do such a thing." 06* Eliana nods. "Likely two problems, if possibly connected." 06* Anstace looks at Eliana and nods. "indeed" 06* Moriel nods more firmly. 06* Rolf growls and shakes his head. "If their influence is this far out... will we even last the summer?" 01 All the more reason I'm glad Lord Jurgen made us aware of this issue, even if he feels the need to cripple his court. i guess that remains to be seen <@Dreol> [After the conversation dies down, you all return to court, which has no further interruptions. The next night, you all wake up in your rooms in the east wing of the manor. Anstace wakes up pretty naturally, but the rest of you are awoken abruptly by a sort of unexplainable urgent fear. Once you are all awake you can hear a muffled cry coming from somewhere and chaos outside your rooms.] 06* Moriel jolts upright. After a second or two to get more or less conscious, he grabs his sword and runs for the hall in his stocking feet. Fortunately, he was sleeping in his clothes. 06* Eliana blinks at the ceiling once before forcing herself out of her coffin and rushing into the hall. She's dressed in traveling clothes, sans cloak, though her feet and hands are bare. Her hair, naturally, is a tangled disaster. 06* Anstace flips her loose braid out of the way, forgoes getting dressed, grabs her spear and shield and runs naked out to investigate the chaos 06* Moriel stops himself before he runs into either of the others in the hall. Anstace's undress gives him an instant of pause, but in the next moment he seems to dismiss her completely from his focus, trying to home in on where the sound is coming from. <@Dreol> [When you all exit out into the hall you are met with a horrible image. The hall behind you is filled with fire, as if the whole manor is engulfed in flames. The windows break as demons leap into the manor from the outside, there are roughly half a dozen in this hall alone. There is an urgent scream coming from the west, away from the fire.] 06* Eliana 's eyes widen, and she glances around, taking stock of who's there. "ROLF!" she screams before running back into her room to grab her bag and SAVE HER BOOKS. <@Dreol> [Rolf wakes up then. After hearing Eliana call for him, and because of the aformentioned wonky feeling.] 06* Moriel whirls - the screaming, Eliana, Rolf's room. He bolts for Rolf's door and shoulders it open. 06* Rolf growls as he gets out of bed, still mostly dressed. Rolf. He squints as he comes out into Moriel, and then roars, "We are under assault!" 06* Eliana returns from her room right after Rolf appears and BOLTS down the hallway, bare feet slapping against the floor and satchel clutched to her chest. 06* Moriel yells, "You don't say!" He runs back out into the hallway and then sprints away from the flames, towards the screaming. <@Dreol> [Moriel, for the record, can hear what is being yelled. Someone in a panicked voice is yelling "ALIZ! ALIZ!"] <@Dreol> [Also... A weird piece of incidental weirdness... Anstace has clothes on. She definitely didn't put them on... But she has them on. They are weird clothes, though, They look like the dresses she has seen some of the Hungarian peasants wearing.] 06* Rolf charges for the demons, claws coming from his hands. There's rolfing to be done. 06* Moriel doesn't notice that Anstace's suddenly clothed. He's busy accelerating towards the screaming. 06* Anstace is running from the flames, because why wouldn't you? <@Dreol> [Rolf runs forward and rips right through one of the demons. It just crumples beneath him and explodes into fire. The yelling is now louder and you can all hear a woman's voice yelling "ALIZ! ALIZ! RUN!" coming from the west, where the entry hall is.] 06* Eliana keeps running! 06* Rolf blows up a demon, and apparently that's too much fire for him, so he glances around and then lopes away from the fire. 06* Anstace runs, not worrying that her peasant dress which she didn't put on might cause her to trip, because in her mind, she's still not dressed, regardless of what it might look like. <@Dreol> [Ian, for the record, had the room at the farthest west end of the hall and emerges, looks at the fire and swiftly runs west.] <@Dreol> [As you emerge from the hallway, you find yourselves in the entryway. The entire perimeter is covered in flame. The woman's voice is very loudly yelling "ALIZ! ALIZ!" And in front of the open door to the manor is a little girl. Probably six years old. Her hair is long and dark and she is in a raw cotton nightgown. She is holding onto a straw doll and looking down at the ground. She quietly <@Dreol> mutters... "Mommy...? Mommy...? Where are you, Mommy? I'm scared..." She seems unfazed by the events around her.] 06* Eliana bolts into the room and... stops. Abruptly. Then she glances at the flames and moves forward, staying clear of the fire. "" she asks the child in Italian. <@Dreol> [The child looks up and answers, again in whatever language the listener is most comfortable hearing. "Will you help me find my mommy?"] 06* Rolf stops running and squints his eyes a bit. Asking Eliana to help you find your mommy. Yeah, that will end well. <@Dreol> [The door behind her opens up and she walks out of it. "Please... help me find her. I'm scared. I don't know where she is..."] 06* Anstace looks at the child closely. "" she says in ancient greek. 06* Anstace moves the spear to her shield hand and extends her hand to the child. 06* Moriel eyes the kid. "I'm not sure that's wise," he murmurs to Anstace. <@Dreol> [The girl shakes her head to Anstace. "Help me... help me find her..." She is now outside the manor on the steps.] 06* Anstace looks at Moriel, and then to the girl. 06* Eliana gets the fuck out of the building, regardless. I highly doubt any Hungarian peasant child knows my native tongue. Or yours. 06* Anstace looks at her outstretched arm, which is clothed in Hungarian peasant clothes, which she didn't put on and doesn't own and certainly wasn't sleeping in. 06* Anstace pulls her arm back. "you may have a point. similarly, i did not dress when i left my room yet i am clothed. this is concerning." Quite. 06* Moriel looks at Eliana. "Do you have any idea what might be going on?" 06* Eliana says, dryly, "Magic." 06* Moriel snorts. "You don't say," he says again. 06* Rolf growls, "Magic later, movement now." <@Dreol> [The little girl swings her doll around and jumps off the steps. "I'm going to find my mommy and daddy... Please help me..."] 06* Eliana is moving, thank you. "" she says in Italian, perhaps to herself, perhaps to the others, perhaps to the child. 06* Moriel eyes the not-a-child some more. He seems to agree with Eliana, though, because he follows her. "Carefully." 06* Rolf heads out after the girl, red glowing eyes looking for a 'mommy and daddy'. Or something. He growls, to the others, "... so what is this." 01 I have no idea. 06* Eliana glances back at the building. Is it on fire? 06* Moriel shrugs. none of this makes sense. 06* Anstace checks to see if she is still clothed. <@Dreol> [Once everyone is outside, you find you are not actually outside at all... The manor behind you is gone. You are in something similar to the passageways in a catacomb. There are smooth rock walls, floors and ceilings, but there a small holes scattered throughout that you can peer out of. Above you is a reflection of the city of Buda, except there are no stars, no moon, no sun... nothing. The buildings all look like some warped image of themselves and people are wandering about like they are lost. A large hole is in the floor in front of you, beneath it you can see a blasted and barren wasteland where an enormous tempest is savaging the land. It is not like any tempest you have ever seen; however, it is a tempest of broken glass, magma, fire, nightmarish looking creatures that form out of some sort of material that is unknown to you and then change form again, and just plain dark, dangerous looking energy.] <@Dreol> [Anstace is still clothed.] 06* Eliana scowls. 06* Moriel tenses. "?we're in the Labyrinth. In the Underworld." 01 Ah, well. I suppose Rolf's prediction is coming true sooner than we thought. <@Dreol> [The girl is still there, though she is several yards ahead of you at the end of this hall.] 06* Eliana walks after the girl. <@Dreol> [She looks up at you and sighs. "I need to find my mommy and daddy. They were so scared."] 06* Anstace squirms in her peasant clothing, finding it more constricting than what she had planned to wear 06* Moriel snorts. "Let us see if we can change that." He looks ahead to the girl. "Should we continue following our guide, or?" And then Eliana starts towards her. That decides that. <@Dreol> [As Eliana walks around the hole in the ground a large chunk of stone falls, right where she was standing and falls down into the tempest below, where it is immediately destroyed upon hitting the storm.] 06* Eliana makes a note to be very careful, then. 06* Eliana hopefully gets to near the girl, and if she does, crouches so she's closer to eye level. "Do you know the way out of here, child?" she asks in French. 06* Moriel jumps and hisses, but follows Eliana warily. He glances back at Anstace's squirming. "Tear it off if it's bothering you. There is no court here." <@Dreol> [The girl sighs. "I... I am so scared... I need to find my mommy... None of the others could help... You need to help me... Please... help me find her."] 06* Moriel gives the child a sharp look. "The others?" <@Dreol> [She nods. "The others who followed me. They were going to help me, but they couldn't. They just got lost... up there... " She points up... "I can't find my mommy or daddy... I tried to run like they told me to... But the bad men got me... and when I found my way back home... my mommy and daddy were gone."] Separate but related. 01 Mmm. Well. 01 Show us the way up, child. 06* Anstace blinks at Moriel. "it is, as i understand it, not proper. and i should not want to make you avert your eyes again. what bothers me more is the fact that i didn't choose it, nor put it on, which means that someone else did. coupled with the fact that none of the events so far this night fit into a logical stream of events..." she trails off, clearly finding the need to state the obvious 06* Anstace unnecessary <@Dreol> [She shakes her head. "I don't know how to go up... Sometimes I find a way out... And I try to get someone to help me... and then they get lost up there. They just wander around lost... I don't think mommy is up there.... I think that maybe she's in here..." She nods then looks at Anstace and tilts her head. "That was my mommy's favorite dress... She was wearing it the last time I saw her... <@Dreol> I think it's pretty."] 01 Does the labyrinth change, then, if you can't remember your way around? 06* Anstace looks at the child and the dress. "i see" <@Dreol> [The girl nods. "This place changes, yes... I don't know where I am or why I am here... I just miss mommy... I've been looking for her for so long... You're going to help me, right?"] 01 For lack of anything better or worse to do, yes. You'd best stay close, because we can't recognize your mother if we meet her. 06* Moriel glances aside at Anstace. "I'll cope," he murmurs. 06* Anstace looks around at the labyrinth, not heeding Moriel's last comment. <@Dreol> [The girl nods. Her face does not change... But then a musical sounding voice echoes through the labyrinth... "Aliz... Aliz, where are you?" The girl's eyes snap open. "Mommy! She floats up for a moment and hovers off, before apparently remembering that she can't do that and starts to walk again, though she does walk through a stone. Or rather her foot hits a stone and explodes into a puff of air before returning to be her foot again. Then her eyes open wide. "NO! NONONONO!" She fades out for a moment and winces as if being tortured and you are all treated to a vision of her hanging over an abyss, clutching onto a broken ledge with one hand, below her is nothing by blackness and a dark, cold laugh can be heard before she fades back into view and vision dissipates leaving you back where you were... in the labyrinth.. Aliz shakes her head and begins walking again, as if nothing happened.] <@Dreol> [To be continued!] <@Dreol> [Session End]