S01E01: Flames [Fropm Malfeas with Love]

xarvh

xarvh

Malevolent Entertainer
Flames.


They spread rapidly through the town, consuming the thick hay roofs, eating the millet in the fields, filling the streets with smoke.


The heavy body of a demon ape crashes to the ground, corrupting the earth with copious noxious blood.


Above, the blood drips from the jade edge of a sword.


Behind the sword, a woman trembles and struggles to keep her footing.


The left hand, soaked in blood, clenches to keep the bowels inside.


It's just a moment.


from behind, two huge hands slam the Dragon Blood on the ground, and seize her head to crush it on the ground.


She struggles, but her skull will soon snap.

This is a farm town in a generic place in the East.


The town has been overwhelmed by Blood Apes, a type of lowly demon, stupid and brutal:
blood_ape.jpg



All the survivors ran away already.


Assume you are strong enough to handle the Blood Apes without need to roll anything, just describe.


Assume there are all the Blood Apes and all scene props that you might need.


Leave something for your buddies.


It's just you, the demons and the Dragon Blood.


Make your entrance, and make it memorable.
 
Tyler stops for a second only to light a cigarette.


He's been watching the whole scene, curious to see if the Dragon Blood was able to manage it.


Clearly, she wasn't.


Driving up in front of the demon, without haste, he climbs off the bike without ever losing the smile.


As he watches the woman crushed to the ground, his fists begin to glow with golden light ...


"Hey monkey, I'm still trying to figure out what's more disgusting: your face or your smell. Though she is a Dragon Blood, no woman deserves a similar treatment!"


Even before his cigarette has touched the ground, his fists, as lethal as bats, slaughtered the demon skull.


Not a splash of blood touches him.


Look for a second the woman in the eye, then turns to go back to his vehicle.


"Remember Imperial: today the outlaw has had mercy"


While the other demons approach, a single thought passes through his mind:


"shit, I do not have enough cigarettes"
 
Suddenly the building across the space implodes with the sound of snapping timber and the howls of burning apes. A small dusty woman springs out of a combat roll brandishing sais just as a few more timbers fall sending up a gout of sparks over the pyramid shaped ruin of the building.


"Preaching already, Tyler?" Kana grins and readies her weapons taking up a position next to Tyler and not so much next to the dragon blooded.
 
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A chittering, scrambling shape bursts into the town's little square, a blood ape hard on its furry white heels. Just as the demon emerges from the mouth of the rutted street, it stops, shrieking in pain. The monkey it was chasing stops too. The demon whips around, revealing the hilt of a knife buried among the spines on the back of its head; then it screams and charges back the way it came. Clawed feet and leathery hands kick up dust. Gilded Jackal looks for another knife. Can't find one.


I have to stop doing things like this.


He dives to one side, rolling in the dust, coming to his feet as the erymanthus thunders past. The demon slides to a halt, turns. Its piggy eyes, the colour of dried blood, narrow angrily. Gilded Jackal frantically pats his pockets. His hand finds something, draws it out. A jade obol.


Better than nothing. Not a tenth as good as a knife, but better than nothing.


The blood ape roars. It beats its breast with clawed fists, then drops to the ground to charge again. Jackal steadies his trembling hand, draws it back... and throws. The erymanthus doesn't stop, just crashes towards him, closer and closer, the stink of blood overwhelming him. It plunges down on him, mouth gaping, teeth glinting in the firelight.


The head of the creature hits the ground just inches from Jackal's feet. One eye socket gapes bloodily, and Jackal bends down to retrieve his coin with shaking fingers. He wipes the gore from it with a corner of his coat's silk-trimmed hem. The demon-blood clings for a moment, then slips off. As he goes to stand beside his new allies, Jackal tosses the coin with a flick of his thumb, and catches it. He grins.


"Who says you can't solve everything with money?"
 
Kana sighs and shakes her head with a smile, "Need new knives again Jackal? Are you sure you aren't a shark?"
 
"I usually get them back eventually," Jackal says, with a rueful smile. He snaps his fingers, and Little Master starts extracting bloodied knives from the corpse of the blood ape and throwing them to him. He catches them one by one, cleans them, and stashes them in his pockets. Catching sight of the wounded Dragon-Blooded, Jackal raises an eyebrow. "Your work?" he asks Tyler. "I know it's not yours, Kana - she's not on fire."
 
"Not my fault...you won't believe me, but actually this time I was trying to help...and no, I'm not drunk."


Tyler looks at the remaining Demons, now running in their direction, attracted by the smell of blood.


"Ok guys...let's get this done before lunch, and try to have some fun. It might take a while to decide what to do with our new wounded friend...mmmh, Jackal , I suggest you do the talking later....you seem more "appropriate"! ...I feel more comfortable in dealing with these stupid monkeys....It kinda remind me of my family reunions"


Tyler gives a pat on Jackal's shoulder....he would have never understood his way of dressing but, what the hell, he liked the guy!


Grinning, Tyler makes an half bow in the direction of Kana : "Ladies first...set their ass on fire!!!"
 
You look around at what remains of the swarm of demons that attacked you and your Circle.


The woman died as you fought the second wave of demons.


What were her last words?


"You must warn Romeo"... or somethin'.


Romeo...


Voices spread quickly throughout the whole East, and likely beyond.


The damn Solar got his shiny hands on the Eye of Autochthon and hid it somewhere.


The Eye... The most powerful artifact that legends have ever told of.


Worlds were created and destroyed because of it... Its power even beyond those of the Primordials.


What couldn't YOU do with it?


What could be done with it, should it fall in the wrong hands?


It was easy and unsurprising to find others, others like you after Romeo and the Eye.


You started to work together as if it was the obvious thing to do, as if you had been together since long, long before you even met...


But where the hell is Romeo?


And most importantly, where did he hide the Eye of Authochthon?

Stunt 2 for Tyler and Jackal, for general awesomeness. ^_^


We kept the fight against the second wave of demons out of scene.


You are missing Hand and possibly another member of the Circle (depending on the recruitment push) which will join later.


You have been meeting shitloads of minor demons of all kinds for the past two weeks, it goes without saying that it's utterly unnatural, they seem to be in a frenzy.


Something powerful is behind them.


I will let you banter a while and try to find clues about how to move next.


If you are lost, Things Will Happen to help you out.
 
The village seems almost quiet, as if nothing had happened that day.


The arm of a giant demon is roasting on the flames of the campfire.


"Mmmmmmh...Delicious" Tyler gives another bite with an incredibly satisfied exspression : "Guys, you HAVE to try this".


A few yards away, the jade sword marks the place where they have buried the body of the Dragon Blood. They decided to bury her with her armor, but kept her backpack to see if they could find something useful.


"We should begin to rearrange our ideas, and make a list of all that we know so far of Romeo : last place he was seen, last people who has seen him...also, this Dragon Blood seemed to know him....time to do a little research among her stuff!"
 
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Tyler


In the backpack you find, among the usual travel stuff, a roll of letters and a small idol.


The idol is carved in white alabaster, a four armed figure holding a cornucopia, a shield, a spear and some sort of plant.


All the letters are cheesy love letters from Romeo.

You don't know much about Romeo, but rumors had him in the area.


He knows he has half Creation after him, and acts accordingly.


This is the best hook you got in months.
 
"Interesting..." Jackal picks up the idol, turns it over in his hands, inspecting it as he might a trinket or ornament that he was thinking of buying. "Why would a Dragon-Blooded woman be carrying an idol of the Unconquered Sun?"
 
Kana gives Tyler a disgusted look that very clearly coveys that isn't going to happen.


"Probably for the same reason she was here and has those letters... Romeo." Kana looks over at the grave, "What do they say?"


Curious about the idol she wanders over to look over a shoulder at it. Sol had been an... interesting topic of discussion with her mentor. For all of the good things said was a corresponding quip about his absence, indifference, and obsession. Not having been granted a glorious vision or mission like Tyler she found herself a healthy skeptic of his sermons. But whatever the reason this figure represented something powerful enough to break through the realm dogma. Or maybe it was just some trinket said snarky Kana in the back of her mind.

perception+occult


[dice]1199[/dice]
 
"Ok guys, I'm gonna show you an amazing thing about me : I can read"


Tyler clears his throat and begins to read the contents of the letters.


"Help me understand if we can find something usefull in here, like places or people we could know"
 
Each letter is ridiculously cheesy and frustratingly long, only here and there interspersed with more down to Creation prose.


"Your eyes in my eyes in a lake of desire"


"When I think about you my sword yearns of the greatest duel, the highest call"


"I feel your five Elements in my heart"


"The passion we feel is unique as the blossom of the lotus flower"


"I want to spend Eternity licking your toenails"

Tyler, roll Conviction if you want to force yourself to continue reading.
A line, however, stands out:


"If you really can't stand it, I'll have the same guy carve something with your precious Dragons as soon as we meet."

@Kana: the amulet is entirely mundane.


Idolatry is against Immaculate doctrine.


Romeo is probably teasing her.
 
Tyler suddenly stops reading, raises his eyes from the letters in the direction of Jackal.


"Hey Jackie-Boy, see if that thing has a signature or something of its crafter...it could help us out"
 
Jackal examines the ivory statuette more closely, inspecting the base in particular for any maker's mark that he might recognise.

Jackal inspects the idol - even if he doesn't recognise a specific mark, he might recognise the style of any markings as relating to a particular city or area. I'm going to roll (Perception + Bureaucracy + Commerce speciality) - let me know if you think that's the wrong combination.


[dice]1292[/dice]
 
The idol is really nothing special, but the purple veins in the alabaster, especially prized by artisans and Gods alike, is unique of Calavento, an area just a few miles from here...
 
Town of Ardana, Calavento Province, few hours later.


Ardana has been destroyed.


Not unlike the town you left behind, there is something vicious and savage in the way the people and things have been mangled.


Blood Apes. Many and loose.


The city is surrounded by green hills and luscious forest, and half of the shop of the main street deal with alabaster one way or the other.


While the death toll is high, a few survivors can be seen wandering in the open, while many more are peering through the blinds of their houses and the three new intruders.
 
Looking at the devastation demons left behind, Tyler can not help but feel pity for the survivors ... but he knows that if they do not find Romeo as soon as possible, Ardana will be the first of many cities to fall.


Trying to talk to the people locked up in their houses would only cause to scare them more, so he decides to hang on to one of the few certainties of his life :


"Guys, in good or bad times (in this case in a storm of shit), there is only one thing that people will always need : a drink. And nothing loosens tongues like alcohol.


I'm heading for the bar, see if I can find someone willing to talk. I bet that the ones who aren't closed in their houses are there, trying to forget what happened".
 
Kana, looking a bit ridiculous with Romeo's girlfriend's armor and sword decides otherwise. "I'm no fan of taverns. I'll leave you to it and see if I can't find the shop we are looking for."


Well, that was one thing she wanted to do. The other was find some beast of burden and maybe see about making all this jade a bit less conspicuous.
 
"There may be a Guild representative in town," Jackal says thoughtfully. "Provided they haven't fled or been killed by ravening blood apes, they might be able to point me to the creator of our little ivory Sun. I shall seek them out, if I can, and rejoin you later."
 
The three of you can barely take a step in three opposite directions, when suddenly a huge column of golden light erupts not far outside the town.


Feminine golden silhouettes rise like flame tongues from the base of the pillar, moaning and caressing, twisting into sensual curves and quickly fading back in the totemic anima display.


The whole town basks in the light of the Chosen of the Sun.

That's a Solar anima display at 16+ motes.


Nothing that each of you can't do.
 
"I guess that drink will have to wait"


As the arm of Tyler begins to shine, a smile widens more and more on his face.


Where a moment before there was only dry ground, a Swift Rider, black as night with finishes in Orichalcum, waits for his master, the engine already running.


The forearm of Tyler, first totally covered in tattoos, is now immaculate as the day he was born.


"Let's go! I have room for one, the other will have to run ..."


Tyler holds out his hand to invite his passenger to take place.
 
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