The Eye of Anubis: Book Four

[yalenusveler]

"For what? Something you can't likely help? At least you're admitting you need assistance, and asking for it. We're a group of fairly intelligent and diversely talented folk. We'll think of something." Andre said, trying to put on a reassuring smile, but tonight, those were few and far between.

"You've more strength of character than I do..I'm sure you can resist long enough for us to find a way to deal with this unpleasant second self." He continued, for the most part trying to sound reassuring..but his inner monologue suggesting something else.

I would've said yes in a Heartbeat. Why don't devouring mother goddesses come to me and offer me vengeance?

Oh yeah. Agnostic. Damn.

[Nathan of the FoS]

"I think we should follow the trail as far as we can," Charles says, "and learn where Cavendish is hiding his pets. Then, or at the same time, alert the authorities." As he says this he bows politely to Judge al-Shirazi. "It may be that he has revealed himself, and we will be able to amass a significant force, strike hard and fast, and take him down. Certainly we do not want to be waiting for him to make his next move while we wait for the blow to fall."

As Kuzan reveals his weird secret--the force within him that is urging him to unleash destruction--Charles falls silent. We're...changing. All of us. Revealing sides of ourselves we didn't know we had, or wanted to keep secret...

Despite himself he shudders.

How much violence can we allow ourselves to do in a fight against evil?

It's not a question Charles feels he can answer--for himself, or for the Rajian.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"By tomorrow evening," Lia says quietly, retaining her grip on Kuzan's hand, "the bats of this city will bring me a report of what they have found. They will be trying to track the face-thief's screams and anything else that is ... odd. Even if we don't find anything now, we are still on the hunt.

Kuzan. When the next battle comes, why not stay behind me? I am not the fist of an angry goddess, but I can unleash destruction to sate most appetites -- so long as there is someone to keep me alive long enough to do so. Would that help?"

[Kaitou Kage]

Kuzan shook his head. "It would not help," he said softly to Lia, "He wants something that can only come from me. Only I can be the conduit between the gods and this world. Only I can call Her forth to exact Her vengeance."

He drew a shuddering breath. As long as the tulpa stayed in his head, maybe things would go all right. The priest rubbed his forehead absently.

"What I need is for you to help protect me from myself."

[Nathan of the FoS]

Charles misses this last exchange between Lia and Kuzan; he has returned to where he dropped his pack. He quickly gathers its contents from where they were strewn across the floor, taking care to put his other tanglefoot bag at the top and the healing potions just underneath that. One can never be too careful, after all.

Turning to Khalil and Otto, he says, "So. Shall we do some tracking?"

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"What I need is for you to help protect me from myself."

"What would you like me to do, Kuzan?" Lia asks. "Hypnotize you so you go unconscious when this tulpa tries to manifest itself? There may be scrolls with the relevant spell available at the market, but until I have some time to sit down and scribe a few things, it might well be a one time strategy. Or would you prefer one of us to hit you over the head or drug you if you start acting strangely?"

[Kaitou Kage]

"Just...don't let me fall into his trap" was all Kuzan could say.

He took another breath, feeling oddly relieved at the explanation, and also uncertain. How would the others treat him now? Would they see him as a monster who could and might unleash that demon within at any time? Would they be wary of him, eager to keep him calm so that Kali couldn't come out?

His eyes watered up again. He didn't want that. He wanted confidence and trust from these people -- these friends. He needed the acceptance that he'd found before the tulpa came along. He craved it as if it were food and water.

And now he'd gone and shown them the demon inside.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"I will not let you fall if I can help it, Kuzan," Lia says, squeezing the Rajian's hand for emphasis. "And if this tulpa gets out of you, well ..." Her tone of voice indicates a smile at this point; a dangerous one. "I'll make him wish he'd never crawled out of your subconscious, if I can." Again she squeezes Kuzan's hand, her nails again pricking his skin.

[NeoTiamat]

The Muzeavh, The Academic Quarter, Phiraz
May 24th, 761, 2:31 AM; Day 68 of the Menetnashte Expedition
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


"Come on, let's get everyone back to the Embassy and to bed... I'll break the news to the others, if you want." Prof. Carter clapped Kuzan on the shoulder, then gave him a hand-up. Rest wasn't much of an anodyne for grief, but it was the best he could think of. Except...

"Otto, you saw some tracks? Care to lead the way?" Work was a better anodyne yet, although there was a certain feeling that there might be more than they had bargained for if they actually succeeded.

The Muzeavh, The Academic Quarter, Phiraz
May 24th, 761, 2:44 AM; Day 68 of the Menetnashte Expedition
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Cavendish and his pets had made little to no effort to hide their trail, and as Otto and Khalil followed the scarred tiles and spatters of blood down the stairs, it became increasingly apparent why. The skeletal cavalcade had not left through the front door. Rather, they continued down into the basement, into the endless store rooms where the junk any museum invariably collected was stored.

Scaffolding for other fossils, huge crates, old displays, were stacked in the basement in a maze-like profusion, only a few lamps providing any illumination to the cavernous room, the shadows sprawled in every which way, and sometimes, you couldn't help but think that they moved when you weren't looking. Or maybe it was just your nerved-up imagination.

The tracks culminated in a section of broken wall, where something of immense physical strength had battered down the plaster. Behind it, a stretch of tunnel went down, fairly wide and long, but straight. Its sides were perfectly smooth, as though the walls had been melted or moulded into shape.

In the far distance, at the end of the tunnel, cold, black water stood, filling the tunnel. The tracks continued into the murky depths, and out beyond, presumably.

"The Defacer, I'm guessing? That's what you'd called the thing?" Carter commented as he touched the broken wall. The Judge stood silently behind the group, watching them with dark eyes.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"Would it kill crazed necromancers not to leave a bloody mess or a mess of blood wherever they go?" Lia asks, almost absent-mindedly. Grimmric comes fluttering from her hood and flies into the tunnel, hovering over the water, then comes back to her and retreats back into his hiding place.

"Unless any of you have gills you have been hiding so far," Lia notes soberly, "I do not think we will be able to follow Cavendish this way. It will become even more difficult if all of this water has been defiled by the face-thief's passage. Let us return to the embassy; I will give you all Grimmric's report and we can draft a message for Diamabel."

Lia has remained as close to Kuzan as possible since his breakdown ...

[yalenusveler]

"I don't think it was the defacer. It was the thing that Tomas fought in the Temple of Sparrows. Meaning that Cavendish has two of them." Andre said, his face souring. "So..I'm assuming we inform the prophet, then return to the Embassy?"

[The Whistler]

Otto is silent for a moment, looking *hard* at the flooded tunnel...then nods, and tucks the makeshift bomb away in a pouch on his belt. This, incidentally, calls to attention the fact that he has been *holding* the makeshift bomb in his off hand ever since rushing out from behind the skeleton.

"We have no choice but to return...a time away from this place would be...helpful."

[DocBeard]

Tomas continues being unnervingly silent. Perhaps he doesn't have anything to say in regards to wicked urges seeking to consume a person from within. Perhaps he assumes Kuzan knows how he'll react, if nessicary.

Three cuts, The treacherous part of Tomas's mind...well, one of them...that is to say, the treacherous part of any veteran warrior's mind, starts to think, Shoulder forward, faking right, and slash the left arm and shoulder, weakening his ability to quickly cast magic; duck down, and slice across the belly in order to accomplish two goals; to cause debilitating, distracting pain, and to ensure the target has wounds to succumb to if he suprises you. Finally, shove both elbows up to slap away the wild counterattack, and turn that movement into a slash across the throat. Stab once in the chest once downed for reassurance.

"You would rather." Tomas's voice sounds more like, you know, Andre's should be. Cold. Clinical. "He cover his tracks? Even if he is using the theatrics to lead us around by the nose, we have some idea of what direction he shall be coming from. We've faired the worst against Cavendish's agents when they've caught us by suprise, and without time to prepare."

"So, the question," Tomas continues, looking over to Andre, "If you are correct, that is, would be, what does the Defacer have to do with Cavendish? If he was controling it, the museum would have been the ideal place to attack."

[Nathan of the FoS]

"Would it kill crazed necromancers not to leave a bloody mess or a mess of blood wherever they go?" Lia asks, almost absent-mindedly.

"It may yet kill this one that he did leave such a trail," Charles notes, poking at the surface of the water with his rapier tip, as if considering just diving in and seeing what happens next. "Or with so much death going around they just fail to consider what might or might not kill them, or us, or anything."

Having demonstrated that his sense of humor has recovered from the scene in the Muzeavh at least enough to make egregiously awful puns, Charles falls silent.

"I suppose we had better go back," he says finally. "Er...Judge al-Shirazi, before we go, I'd like to have a word with you."

[yalenusveler]

"So, the question," Tomas continues, looking over to Andre, "If you are correct, that is, would be, what does the Defacer have to do with Cavendish? If he was controlling it, the museum would have been the ideal place to attack."

"The Defacer is because he's a sadist of the worst order, and having your soul imprisoned in an undead thing, unable to pass on, is a damn terrible fate. Never mind, a bunch of bodies found slain with their faces missing is just the sort of thing that would pique our curiosity." Andre said, as they headed away from the path of egress for Cavendish's little menagerie.

"Now, the other undead, what you fought at the Temple...quite simple. They can violate graves without leaving obvious signs. Making it easy for him to get a bunch of lesser undead without leaving obvious tracks. Never mind their potential lethality if they can get you sealed in a solid surface." Andre added, still trying to process if Kuzan was possessed or just mundane crazy.

"Ultimately, Cavendish is an evil bastard, he's all but made a game of this, and enjoying doing it. "