Leonid Slovokin, Alicia Kalachnikova, Elizabeth Poliakova
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The truck arrived to its final destination: a minuscule rural hamlet at the foot of the Ural mountains. The sun was setting and with no military base in sight, the explorers set out to explore the village. Alicia looked at her feathery companion, it was circling something in the distance.
Leonid and Elizabeth suggested starting with the largest house. It turned out to contain nothing suspicious: no mutants, no dead bodies, no hostile targets. Only fishing and hunting supplies as well as a few jars of homemade pickled vegetables. Leonid noted the house must have been occupied by someone from the army due to a certain meticulousness to how everything was organised. Overall the houses seemed to be ordinary Russian dachas.
Suddenly Alicia felt distress and hopelessness. Looking outside, she saw her psychic bird companion plummet towards the ground. She rushed in the direction, followed by Leonid and Elizabeth. After a few minutes of running through the forest, the trees parted to reveal a fence and a guard-post. No soldiers were in sight, only two military trucks parked in front of a huge gate cut into the mountainside. Someone had blown a hole through the gate.
Alicia tried to levitate in order to find where her companion fell. As she examined the rocky cliff, she felt a sharp pain in the chest. Looking down she noticed a syringe sticking out, suddenly felt faint and fell down, losing focus on her power. The elderly Elizabeth caught her, not without a few broken bones. Leonid retrieved the syringe and performed a quick analysis. The toxin in question was a paralyzing compound that seemed to be made to work only on people with psionic powers. Some lingering effects were expected. As no further danger was forthcoming, the group waited until Alicia woke up.
Despite the hole in the gate, Leonid decided to try the access card Savlovyeff had provided. It worked and the gate sank into the ground. The road continued through a large vehicle tunnel and ended with a parking space, half-full of cars, both military and civilians. A few steps led to a secure door. Leonid noticed a mobile lifting crane above the parking space, probably used for heavy deliveries. Savlovyeff’s access card worked and the group began exploring, taking random twists and turns through the base’s corridors. Said corridors seemed to only have emergency lighting and a distinct lack of dead bodies.
The group came upon the barracks. A large number of bunk beds and metallic lockers greeted them with heavy silence. Elizabeth broke open a locker and Leonid began exploring its contents, though was disappointed in finding only some clothes and a couple of holiday photographs. Alicia, who was standing watch, shouted a warning before ducking into cover. Gunfire erupted everywhere as an ambush was sprung.
Looking around the group realized the barracks’ exits were blocked by military people who were more interested in shooting than talking. In fact their high level of coordination and lack of visible communication was unsettling. Elizabeth shrugged and charged, blowing off some heads with her shotgun. Alicia, on the other hand, was hard-pressed. She attempted to use her powers and found herself growing sick. Apparently the toxin was still active. Enemy soldiers pressed their advantage, inflicting heavy wounds. Elizabeth continued cleaning exits one after another. When only one soldier was left standing, she grabbed the man, plugged Blokhin’s Lamp, shoved the light in the soldier’s face, and started asking questions.
The soldier moved his lips as if to answer, but no sound came from them. Leonid took care of Alicia’s wounds and took a look at the dead soldiers. Elizabeth had been thorough, most of them had their heads missing. The few that had been killed by Leonid and Alicia had a strange fleshy outgrowth at the back of their necks which probably pushed on their vocal chords, preventing them from emitting sounds. The outgrowth seemed to be made of brain matter. While Elizabeth continued interrogating the soldier fruitlessly, Alicia noticed more of them silently moving into position.
The group quickly moved through the base, looking for anything of interest. Suddenly they found themselves at a crossroads, with soldiers coming from every direction. Elizabeth spotted a ventilation shaft and the group hid inside as puzzled soldiers passed by. Once they were gone, the group continued and arrived at one end of a long room full of vats. Most of the vats were broken except three that had something growing inside. A squad of soldiers was patrolling and a man in a lab-coat worked on a console in front of a vat. A secure door stood at the other end of the room.
Leonid ran into the room and shut down the light, giving his group a significant advantage as everyone had ways to see in the dark. Elizabeth killed half of the soldiers but found the other half was too far for her shotgun. Alicia kept trying to use her psionic powers despite the toxin’s pain, to no avail. Elizabeth switched to her backup rifle and began taking successful potshots at enemy soldiers’ heads. Leonid captured the scientist for interrogation, unfortunately he also had the brain mutation and was unable to talk.
Once the enemies had been dealt with, Leonid explored the consoles and the vats until he accidentally pressed a button which released a strange fluid in the vats, which melted down whatever was being grown inside. Alicia signalled enemies coming up from behind and Leonid tried the security badge on the other door. When the door failed to be unlocked, he took out his break-in tools and bypassed the security.
After a long hallway, the group came upon a circular room with multiple exits. In the middle of the room sat a huge accumulation of flesh with cables running into it from the walls. Soldiers were hiding behind makeshift barricades, waiting for the Moscow Survivors. As the group discussed potential avenues of attack, a shriek was heard. Alicia recognized it as being from her companion. The soldiers inside looked up and around in surprise. Red dots from laser sights appeared on them, and, after a few silenced shots, all of them were dead.
A voice from the upper sides of the room cursed in Russian. The Moscow Survivors looked inside the room and noticed a circular balcony at the top. Shapes moved around. The same voice requested the newcomers to identify themselves. Leonid and Elizabeth returned the question. “I recognize that voice. Is that Slovokin? How have you been?”
Leonid recognized the owner of the voice. It was his former university teacher, a brilliant man named Golovsky whom he had lost contact with after dropping out. Golovsky was now a professor; he had wanted to make Leonid his assistant. “Sadly the secret service was calling the shots. They decided you were too brilliant but not loyal enough. When they said you had to go, I did my job.” Leonid shouted back angrily, finally understanding why he failed university, about how Golovsky had ruined his life, the many years spent healing stupid animals for even stupider owners. Elizabeth remarked there were more mute soldiers coming up from behind and Alicia decided to start shooting after noticing a cage upstairs, holding her flying companion.
Alicia and Elizabeth took up positions and began shooting at the special forces soldiers accompanying Golovsky. The one next to the man requested authorization to kill the intruders, which only resulted in the exasperated Professor crushing his lit cigarette against her skin. Golovsky made Leonid an offer: the secret service was calling the shots no longer. Golovsky could make Leonid his assistant, give back his life. All he needed to do was deliver Alicia to him, so they could study her powers together. Leonid did not hesitate and rushed towards a wall terminal, quickly hacked it and found that he now controlled a significant part of the base’s systems. The mass of flesh in the room was a huge brain that was in control of the whole facility. Leonid toyed with the cables supplying it with nutrients and coaxed it into helping the Survivors “or else”.
Golovsky was disappointed and ordered his soldiers to kill the old lady and capture the other two. Alicia immediately found herself with two syringes poking out of her body and her vision slowly blurring. She attempted to set fire to the main brain, which proved to be a bad idea as she nearly collapsed to the drug. Elizabeth tried to shoot the cage to free Alicia’s psionic swan, but it proved too difficult with the pressure from the special forces soldiers above and switched to killing them instead. Leonid decided to limit the brain’s controls over the base. As a result, Alicia heard something falling down in the room’s access corridors: the mute soldiers were now unconscious. Leonid cursed under his breath.
The soldiers focused on Elizabeth, but a single old lady powered by God turned out to be too tough. Looking around at the faces she noticed a familiar one. Andrey, a boy who used to play with her son back when the two were kids and lived in the same neighborhood. She berated him for choosing to side with butchers who shot old ladies, and told him to do the right thing for once, like letting the bird go free. The young man hesitated, looked from face to face, noticed how many faces lay wounded or dead on the floor around him, and opened the cage.
Golovsky, who was carefully aiming at Elizabeth, looked at the now empty cage. His gaze then went to Leonid, clearly in control of the brain. “I guess I’d better leave now before losing more” he said as he ordered his surviving soldiers to retreat. As they left he told Leonid the offer would remain standing for a while, in case he wanted to do something great with his life.
Silence returned. Golovsky’s squad was gone and the base’s mute mutant soldiers were shut down. Leonid examined the brain, and the group suggested it would be best to destroy it as it might try to spread its influence beyond the base. Leonid agreed and pushed a button. The brain melted. Leonid examined the resulting substance and realized what had melted the brain were nano-machines, which he had unwittingly reprogrammed to destroy the mutant. The soldiers were now in a vegetative state, clearly alive but not very sentient. The group put them out of their misery.
An investigation around the base revealed some high-tech weapons that would go to Savlovyeff. Documents spread around revealed some of the base’s history. Apparently it used to be under Golovsky’s control who had been experimenting with psionics and creating custom-children with such powers for many years before the Tharkoldu invasion. When the demons came, the base suddenly changed. Some of the soldiers began having an odd outgrowth of brain and eventually took over. The group took anything Savlovyeff would find of value and left.
Leonid and Elizabeth suggested starting with the largest house. It turned out to contain nothing suspicious: no mutants, no dead bodies, no hostile targets. Only fishing and hunting supplies as well as a few jars of homemade pickled vegetables. Leonid noted the house must have been occupied by someone from the army due to a certain meticulousness to how everything was organised. Overall the houses seemed to be ordinary Russian dachas.
Suddenly Alicia felt distress and hopelessness. Looking outside, she saw her psychic bird companion plummet towards the ground. She rushed in the direction, followed by Leonid and Elizabeth. After a few minutes of running through the forest, the trees parted to reveal a fence and a guard-post. No soldiers were in sight, only two military trucks parked in front of a huge gate cut into the mountainside. Someone had blown a hole through the gate.
Alicia tried to levitate in order to find where her companion fell. As she examined the rocky cliff, she felt a sharp pain in the chest. Looking down she noticed a syringe sticking out, suddenly felt faint and fell down, losing focus on her power. The elderly Elizabeth caught her, not without a few broken bones. Leonid retrieved the syringe and performed a quick analysis. The toxin in question was a paralyzing compound that seemed to be made to work only on people with psionic powers. Some lingering effects were expected. As no further danger was forthcoming, the group waited until Alicia woke up.
Despite the hole in the gate, Leonid decided to try the access card Savlovyeff had provided. It worked and the gate sank into the ground. The road continued through a large vehicle tunnel and ended with a parking space, half-full of cars, both military and civilians. A few steps led to a secure door. Leonid noticed a mobile lifting crane above the parking space, probably used for heavy deliveries. Savlovyeff’s access card worked and the group began exploring, taking random twists and turns through the base’s corridors. Said corridors seemed to only have emergency lighting and a distinct lack of dead bodies.
The group came upon the barracks. A large number of bunk beds and metallic lockers greeted them with heavy silence. Elizabeth broke open a locker and Leonid began exploring its contents, though was disappointed in finding only some clothes and a couple of holiday photographs. Alicia, who was standing watch, shouted a warning before ducking into cover. Gunfire erupted everywhere as an ambush was sprung.
Looking around the group realized the barracks’ exits were blocked by military people who were more interested in shooting than talking. In fact their high level of coordination and lack of visible communication was unsettling. Elizabeth shrugged and charged, blowing off some heads with her shotgun. Alicia, on the other hand, was hard-pressed. She attempted to use her powers and found herself growing sick. Apparently the toxin was still active. Enemy soldiers pressed their advantage, inflicting heavy wounds. Elizabeth continued cleaning exits one after another. When only one soldier was left standing, she grabbed the man, plugged Blokhin’s Lamp, shoved the light in the soldier’s face, and started asking questions.
The soldier moved his lips as if to answer, but no sound came from them. Leonid took care of Alicia’s wounds and took a look at the dead soldiers. Elizabeth had been thorough, most of them had their heads missing. The few that had been killed by Leonid and Alicia had a strange fleshy outgrowth at the back of their necks which probably pushed on their vocal chords, preventing them from emitting sounds. The outgrowth seemed to be made of brain matter. While Elizabeth continued interrogating the soldier fruitlessly, Alicia noticed more of them silently moving into position.
The group quickly moved through the base, looking for anything of interest. Suddenly they found themselves at a crossroads, with soldiers coming from every direction. Elizabeth spotted a ventilation shaft and the group hid inside as puzzled soldiers passed by. Once they were gone, the group continued and arrived at one end of a long room full of vats. Most of the vats were broken except three that had something growing inside. A squad of soldiers was patrolling and a man in a lab-coat worked on a console in front of a vat. A secure door stood at the other end of the room.
Leonid ran into the room and shut down the light, giving his group a significant advantage as everyone had ways to see in the dark. Elizabeth killed half of the soldiers but found the other half was too far for her shotgun. Alicia kept trying to use her psionic powers despite the toxin’s pain, to no avail. Elizabeth switched to her backup rifle and began taking successful potshots at enemy soldiers’ heads. Leonid captured the scientist for interrogation, unfortunately he also had the brain mutation and was unable to talk.
Once the enemies had been dealt with, Leonid explored the consoles and the vats until he accidentally pressed a button which released a strange fluid in the vats, which melted down whatever was being grown inside. Alicia signalled enemies coming up from behind and Leonid tried the security badge on the other door. When the door failed to be unlocked, he took out his break-in tools and bypassed the security.
After a long hallway, the group came upon a circular room with multiple exits. In the middle of the room sat a huge accumulation of flesh with cables running into it from the walls. Soldiers were hiding behind makeshift barricades, waiting for the Moscow Survivors. As the group discussed potential avenues of attack, a shriek was heard. Alicia recognized it as being from her companion. The soldiers inside looked up and around in surprise. Red dots from laser sights appeared on them, and, after a few silenced shots, all of them were dead.
A voice from the upper sides of the room cursed in Russian. The Moscow Survivors looked inside the room and noticed a circular balcony at the top. Shapes moved around. The same voice requested the newcomers to identify themselves. Leonid and Elizabeth returned the question. “I recognize that voice. Is that Slovokin? How have you been?”
Leonid recognized the owner of the voice. It was his former university teacher, a brilliant man named Golovsky whom he had lost contact with after dropping out. Golovsky was now a professor; he had wanted to make Leonid his assistant. “Sadly the secret service was calling the shots. They decided you were too brilliant but not loyal enough. When they said you had to go, I did my job.” Leonid shouted back angrily, finally understanding why he failed university, about how Golovsky had ruined his life, the many years spent healing stupid animals for even stupider owners. Elizabeth remarked there were more mute soldiers coming up from behind and Alicia decided to start shooting after noticing a cage upstairs, holding her flying companion.
Alicia and Elizabeth took up positions and began shooting at the special forces soldiers accompanying Golovsky. The one next to the man requested authorization to kill the intruders, which only resulted in the exasperated Professor crushing his lit cigarette against her skin. Golovsky made Leonid an offer: the secret service was calling the shots no longer. Golovsky could make Leonid his assistant, give back his life. All he needed to do was deliver Alicia to him, so they could study her powers together. Leonid did not hesitate and rushed towards a wall terminal, quickly hacked it and found that he now controlled a significant part of the base’s systems. The mass of flesh in the room was a huge brain that was in control of the whole facility. Leonid toyed with the cables supplying it with nutrients and coaxed it into helping the Survivors “or else”.
Golovsky was disappointed and ordered his soldiers to kill the old lady and capture the other two. Alicia immediately found herself with two syringes poking out of her body and her vision slowly blurring. She attempted to set fire to the main brain, which proved to be a bad idea as she nearly collapsed to the drug. Elizabeth tried to shoot the cage to free Alicia’s psionic swan, but it proved too difficult with the pressure from the special forces soldiers above and switched to killing them instead. Leonid decided to limit the brain’s controls over the base. As a result, Alicia heard something falling down in the room’s access corridors: the mute soldiers were now unconscious. Leonid cursed under his breath.
The soldiers focused on Elizabeth, but a single old lady powered by God turned out to be too tough. Looking around at the faces she noticed a familiar one. Andrey, a boy who used to play with her son back when the two were kids and lived in the same neighborhood. She berated him for choosing to side with butchers who shot old ladies, and told him to do the right thing for once, like letting the bird go free. The young man hesitated, looked from face to face, noticed how many faces lay wounded or dead on the floor around him, and opened the cage.
Golovsky, who was carefully aiming at Elizabeth, looked at the now empty cage. His gaze then went to Leonid, clearly in control of the brain. “I guess I’d better leave now before losing more” he said as he ordered his surviving soldiers to retreat. As they left he told Leonid the offer would remain standing for a while, in case he wanted to do something great with his life.
Silence returned. Golovsky’s squad was gone and the base’s mute mutant soldiers were shut down. Leonid examined the brain, and the group suggested it would be best to destroy it as it might try to spread its influence beyond the base. Leonid agreed and pushed a button. The brain melted. Leonid examined the resulting substance and realized what had melted the brain were nano-machines, which he had unwittingly reprogrammed to destroy the mutant. The soldiers were now in a vegetative state, clearly alive but not very sentient. The group put them out of their misery.
An investigation around the base revealed some high-tech weapons that would go to Savlovyeff. Documents spread around revealed some of the base’s history. Apparently it used to be under Golovsky’s control who had been experimenting with psionics and creating custom-children with such powers for many years before the Tharkoldu invasion. When the demons came, the base suddenly changed. Some of the soldiers began having an odd outgrowth of brain and eventually took over. The group took anything Savlovyeff would find of value and left.
Toulouse, Cyberpapacy, Day 18
Damien Monnet, Aurore
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The afternoon was coming to an end. Damien and Isaac observed the Airbus aircraft factory they were targeting. Aurore was at the Couvent, providing GodNet support and preparing her evening lecture material. Due to Damien breaking Isaac out of jail the previous night, a Church Police contingent was deployed around the convent. Sadly this put a damper on Marcel’s plans and he had asked Aurore to provide a diversion for the evening, after all the increased security was their fault. The plan was fairly simple: Isaac had worked at the Airbus factory before trying to join the Church Police and knew the layout. He would plug one of Aurore’s remote access points into the assembly terminal and after a virus upload, the various vehicles would go crazy requiring the short-staffed Church Police to focus all of their efforts at the factory. Initially Isaac wanted to go alone as he still knew people inside, however Damien reminded him he was a wanted jail-breaker now. Damien came along to support and protect the newest member of their cell.
The initial stages of the operation went well. Damien picked the electronic lock and snuck around the facility with Isaac in tow until they found the right computer. Unfortunately while Isaac was busy wiring the access point, a Church Police patrolman stopped by. At first he mistook Isaac’s dangling feet for the usual technical guy, but came back after checking and noticed Damien. Then all hell broke loose. Aurore guided Isaac with the wiring and quickly uploaded the virus. Getting out in time for the evening lecture proved to be a challenge as the two resistance members were pursued by angry Church Police officers, haywire combat drones and panicking employees. Damien did his best to protect Isaac, who turned out to be not as good at running away as expected. A walkway collapsed under their weight. Damien barely had the time to push Isaac away and nearly landed in a crucible full of molten metal. Sadly the crucible overturned and Damien still received some major burns. Just as they neared the exit, a mad drone shot Isaac through the chest. Damien abandoned the plan, hijacked a car and drove to the only doctor he knew who didn’t ask questions. On the way he received money from Aurore to pay for his services.
Back at the Couvent, everything went as expected. The Church Police left, after informing the Abbess who was quite irritated at the outcome (a fact Aurore considered a nice bonus - the matron was really getting on her nerves). Aurore received a message of thanks from Marcel, who she assumed had managed to leave the place permanently. Sadly the strategy for the evening lecture required Damien’s unique interpersonal skills but he would sadly not arrive in time. Aurore headed for the lecture room with knots in her stomach: she needed to convince their chosen novice to be a snitch for them, and she needed to do it discreetly.
She started by giving the special class novices more work and called them one by one for a personal discussion about their views on the Church Police. Lucile Boudon’s turn eventually came. Aurore never had a heart-to-heart talk with her before and was surprised to discover someone with very interesting views on life, community and family. Someone she could respect, or perhaps even love. Aurore did not want to create too many issues for Lucile and decided to be vague. She informed her chosen informant the final exam involved a loss of self and told Lucile to follow her advice, so that they may remain in contact afterwards. Lucile agreed, not knowing she would now be informing the Resistance.
Damien returned to the Couvent in the evening, covered in bandages. Isaac would live, but for now he needed to recover from his near-fatal injury.
The initial stages of the operation went well. Damien picked the electronic lock and snuck around the facility with Isaac in tow until they found the right computer. Unfortunately while Isaac was busy wiring the access point, a Church Police patrolman stopped by. At first he mistook Isaac’s dangling feet for the usual technical guy, but came back after checking and noticed Damien. Then all hell broke loose. Aurore guided Isaac with the wiring and quickly uploaded the virus. Getting out in time for the evening lecture proved to be a challenge as the two resistance members were pursued by angry Church Police officers, haywire combat drones and panicking employees. Damien did his best to protect Isaac, who turned out to be not as good at running away as expected. A walkway collapsed under their weight. Damien barely had the time to push Isaac away and nearly landed in a crucible full of molten metal. Sadly the crucible overturned and Damien still received some major burns. Just as they neared the exit, a mad drone shot Isaac through the chest. Damien abandoned the plan, hijacked a car and drove to the only doctor he knew who didn’t ask questions. On the way he received money from Aurore to pay for his services.
Back at the Couvent, everything went as expected. The Church Police left, after informing the Abbess who was quite irritated at the outcome (a fact Aurore considered a nice bonus - the matron was really getting on her nerves). Aurore received a message of thanks from Marcel, who she assumed had managed to leave the place permanently. Sadly the strategy for the evening lecture required Damien’s unique interpersonal skills but he would sadly not arrive in time. Aurore headed for the lecture room with knots in her stomach: she needed to convince their chosen novice to be a snitch for them, and she needed to do it discreetly.
She started by giving the special class novices more work and called them one by one for a personal discussion about their views on the Church Police. Lucile Boudon’s turn eventually came. Aurore never had a heart-to-heart talk with her before and was surprised to discover someone with very interesting views on life, community and family. Someone she could respect, or perhaps even love. Aurore did not want to create too many issues for Lucile and decided to be vague. She informed her chosen informant the final exam involved a loss of self and told Lucile to follow her advice, so that they may remain in contact afterwards. Lucile agreed, not knowing she would now be informing the Resistance.
Damien returned to the Couvent in the evening, covered in bandages. Isaac would live, but for now he needed to recover from his near-fatal injury.
Toulouse, Cyberpapacy, Day 19
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Aurore was woken up by her cyberdeck’s alarms going off. Someone was running a backtrace on her, trying to locate and identify her. She hurriedly typed some commands and realized network security was on high alert with guardian angels sniffing everywhere around the Couvent’s GodNet system. The quickly located the one that was trying to track her and threw it a bone towards the Church Police headquarters in order to ensure proper “cooperation” between Church services.
Damien was also very surprised in his morning rituals: all of the other monks were loaded for heretic. Some were deploying energy drones, others had put on heavy armor under their robes and carried rifles. Inquiring about the situation he was told this was special preparations for the final exam, which was scheduled to happen today. Aurore and Damien met up and prepared their own “counter-argument”.
Just as Lucile was entering the secure exam room, Aurore and Damien snuck in through a window. Damien diverted attention while Aurore crept towards the brainwashing machine and reprogrammed it with a few choice visuals of her own. She also replaced the neural jack that Lucile was going to receive. Just as they prepared to leave, one of the monks asked the Abbess if he could watch the video feed as he was very interested in mental training. The Abbess agreed and Aurore scrambled back to the machine to run the original videos to the monk’s device. Once that was done, the two headed out. Lucile came out of the machine, and followed Aurore’s dictated responses to avoid arousing the Abbess’ suspicions.
The pair returned to their rooms. The main part of the mission was done and now they could spend a couple of days relaxing until “Brother Matthias” and “Mother Sarah” were sent back to Avignon. Damien’s definition of relaxation involved nonchalantly walking around the Couvent and pocketing anything that looked like it was made of silver or gold. This included the Abbess’ personal collection of ancient golden coins, as well as a plasma cannon left unattended in the armory. Damien and Aurore were sure to be the best-funded Resistance cell in the country.
Damien was also very surprised in his morning rituals: all of the other monks were loaded for heretic. Some were deploying energy drones, others had put on heavy armor under their robes and carried rifles. Inquiring about the situation he was told this was special preparations for the final exam, which was scheduled to happen today. Aurore and Damien met up and prepared their own “counter-argument”.
Just as Lucile was entering the secure exam room, Aurore and Damien snuck in through a window. Damien diverted attention while Aurore crept towards the brainwashing machine and reprogrammed it with a few choice visuals of her own. She also replaced the neural jack that Lucile was going to receive. Just as they prepared to leave, one of the monks asked the Abbess if he could watch the video feed as he was very interested in mental training. The Abbess agreed and Aurore scrambled back to the machine to run the original videos to the monk’s device. Once that was done, the two headed out. Lucile came out of the machine, and followed Aurore’s dictated responses to avoid arousing the Abbess’ suspicions.
The pair returned to their rooms. The main part of the mission was done and now they could spend a couple of days relaxing until “Brother Matthias” and “Mother Sarah” were sent back to Avignon. Damien’s definition of relaxation involved nonchalantly walking around the Couvent and pocketing anything that looked like it was made of silver or gold. This included the Abbess’ personal collection of ancient golden coins, as well as a plasma cannon left unattended in the armory. Damien and Aurore were sure to be the best-funded Resistance cell in the country.
Between Jaipur and New Delhi, Orrorsh, Night 18
Tobias Lynch, Chakrawarti Ranganekary, Samarj Chopade
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Tobias examined the body of the dead Frenchman. His face was contorted in pain, yet there were no obvious signs of wounds, with the exception of a small hole in the back. Only a few drops of blood surrounded it, making it unlikely to be a bullet or stab. Tobias observed the Frenchman’s eyes and noticed strange lights blinking in them. The captain in charge of the train’s contingent of soldiers arrived and asked everyone to get out of the compartment. Samarj GLORIOUSLYused her newly-developed Jedi mind tricks to stay and search the place; her trouble was rewarded when she found a strange seam on the bench’s leather. Opening it she retrieved a small, extremely advanced electronic device.
Outside the compartment, the captain announced the death of Monsieur Pichard, probably killed by a strange beast of the night, and doubled the number of guards before going back to his duty. Chakrawarti was astonished at his lack of interest, but quickly understood he had seen too much death to care about one more passenger, no matter their importance.
The travelers had embarked aboard the New Delhi Flyer only a few hours before. The train carried mostly freight and soldiers, only a single passenger carriage had been included in the layout. During dinner they were approached by a friendly-looking priest who engaged Tobias in conversation about the homeland, until it turned out he had mistaken the Englishman for something called a Victorian. The priest, Amadeus Priestly, embarrassed by his mistake, switched to comparing Tobias’ United Kingdom with his own Victorian Empire. Chakrawarti was shocked at the priest’s views on sinners and went to drink heavily.
Samarj took the opportunity to search the thoughts of a shifty woman who kept fingering her gun. Lakshmi Panja, as it turned out she was called, was a gun-for-hire. Secretly she was carrying a letter to New Delhi from a secret society using a king cobra’s head and its tail weaving the infinity sign as an emblem. Intrigued, Samarj slightly changed the woman’s memories and waited until the letter was delivered to her instead. Bored from dinner and annoyed at the priest, she decided to go to sleep but was intercepted by a drink from a police officer. Officer Parek and two of his men were transporting a dangerous serial killer from Mumbai to an asylum in New Delhi. They wanted an expert to interrogate her, for apparently her speech was able to turn people against each other.
Chakrawarti went to have a drink at the bar as well, and decided to share it with a scruffy-looking man of uncertain wealth but of certain French accent who was also trying to forget something. Marius Pichard was a tourist who had recently lost his family to a coven of vampires and was going to New Delhi to contact his embassy and get away from this horrible place. He seemed to know a lot about the horrors stalking the night and how difficult it was to give them “true death”.
Sleep after dinner had started quietly. Soldiers lit lanterns on the outside of the train and kept watch during the night. Some time past midnight Samarj had woken up and noticed the train was not moving. Looking outside she saw one of the lanterns was out. It was the one covering Pichard’s window… leading to the discovery of the body. Before going back to sleep Samarj noticed a letter had been slipped under her door, a letter bearing the seal of the king cobra. Its contents proved to be extremely interesting. Apparently people referred to only by their initials were discussing numbered experiment subjects. Samarj’s blood froze when she understood one of the subjects was herself.
The train guards brought Pichard’s body outside, piled up some wood, and began to burn the body. Tobias noticed a strange glint of light and took a closer look. The Frenchman’s eye turned out to be burning more slowly, and seemed to not be entirely organic. His arm was also extremely suspicious. As the skin peeled away to the heat, it revealed metal instead of flesh and bone.
Outside the compartment, the captain announced the death of Monsieur Pichard, probably killed by a strange beast of the night, and doubled the number of guards before going back to his duty. Chakrawarti was astonished at his lack of interest, but quickly understood he had seen too much death to care about one more passenger, no matter their importance.
The travelers had embarked aboard the New Delhi Flyer only a few hours before. The train carried mostly freight and soldiers, only a single passenger carriage had been included in the layout. During dinner they were approached by a friendly-looking priest who engaged Tobias in conversation about the homeland, until it turned out he had mistaken the Englishman for something called a Victorian. The priest, Amadeus Priestly, embarrassed by his mistake, switched to comparing Tobias’ United Kingdom with his own Victorian Empire. Chakrawarti was shocked at the priest’s views on sinners and went to drink heavily.
Samarj took the opportunity to search the thoughts of a shifty woman who kept fingering her gun. Lakshmi Panja, as it turned out she was called, was a gun-for-hire. Secretly she was carrying a letter to New Delhi from a secret society using a king cobra’s head and its tail weaving the infinity sign as an emblem. Intrigued, Samarj slightly changed the woman’s memories and waited until the letter was delivered to her instead. Bored from dinner and annoyed at the priest, she decided to go to sleep but was intercepted by a drink from a police officer. Officer Parek and two of his men were transporting a dangerous serial killer from Mumbai to an asylum in New Delhi. They wanted an expert to interrogate her, for apparently her speech was able to turn people against each other.
Chakrawarti went to have a drink at the bar as well, and decided to share it with a scruffy-looking man of uncertain wealth but of certain French accent who was also trying to forget something. Marius Pichard was a tourist who had recently lost his family to a coven of vampires and was going to New Delhi to contact his embassy and get away from this horrible place. He seemed to know a lot about the horrors stalking the night and how difficult it was to give them “true death”.
Sleep after dinner had started quietly. Soldiers lit lanterns on the outside of the train and kept watch during the night. Some time past midnight Samarj had woken up and noticed the train was not moving. Looking outside she saw one of the lanterns was out. It was the one covering Pichard’s window… leading to the discovery of the body. Before going back to sleep Samarj noticed a letter had been slipped under her door, a letter bearing the seal of the king cobra. Its contents proved to be extremely interesting. Apparently people referred to only by their initials were discussing numbered experiment subjects. Samarj’s blood froze when she understood one of the subjects was herself.
The train guards brought Pichard’s body outside, piled up some wood, and began to burn the body. Tobias noticed a strange glint of light and took a closer look. The Frenchman’s eye turned out to be burning more slowly, and seemed to not be entirely organic. His arm was also extremely suspicious. As the skin peeled away to the heat, it revealed metal instead of flesh and bone.
Between Jaipur and New Delhi, Orrorsh, Day 19
► Show Spoiler
Morning arrived and the train was still. The travelers decided to check on the reason for the halt. In front of the train a giant metallic ball had crushed the tracks and a train engineer was trying to work out how to move it. Tobias examined the giant ball and noticed the Pakistani flag on one of its sides. Less visible, was also a circle of black and yellow triangles that reminded Samarj of Einstein-based explosive devices. The travelers realized they had found one of the Pakistani nuclear missiles. Chakrawarti explained it would be best not to move it and helped the engineer design tracks around it, then went away for breakfast.
As the train needed to be emptied to go on the temporary tracks, personnel decided to move breakfast outside and all the passengers joined in. Introductions were made.
Padmini Dhibar, a well-dressed woman who had also embarked in Jaipur, introduced herself as a commercial agent for the East India Company. She was returning home after a failed deal and seemed to be looking for excuses to get angry at people for no reason. Chakrawarti immediately found her suspicious: the East India Company had been disbanded over two centuries before.
Amadeus Priestly was an itinerant priest from another world who had come to save this world from the horrors that awaited everyone. He had also embarked in Jaipur after a long journey on foot from Kolkatta. He was touring the country to help people and find locations in need of a larger expedition. Samarj did not like the man, for someone who wanted to help people he spoke of punishing sinners a bit too much.
A taciturn uniformed army captain, Dheeraj Patvardhan performed the barest minimum when it came to social niceties before returning to drinking this early in the morning.
Most of the conversation was being done by Saanvi Radhawa, a journalist from New Delhi who, when not asking questions, was furiously taking notes. Most of her questions were aimed at Tobias about the dead body of poor Marius Pichard, but occasional mentions of “The Electrician” and her murders also found some answers from Officer Parek.
Officer Ayush Parek was on-board since Mumbai. He and two of his colleagues were escorting a serial killer nicknamed The Electrician because of her tendency to plug cables into people’s brains while they were alive. The woman in question was being held nearby, wearing a straitjacket and mouth gag, apparently because of her strange ability to get people to agree with her. In fact most of her victims were thought to have been willing participants. Tobias glanced at the serial killer and immediately felt a certain amount of attraction for a sick mind, alien in thoughts and actions. Clearly she did not deserve the treatment that was waiting for her. She had to be freed before Arya Munshi, the expert in New Delhi, could get ahold of her.
Lakshmi Panja had embarked in Suram. She was a mercenary looking for something more exciting and better-paid than simply shooting down gospog in remote villages.
Samarj noticed one of the passengers was not at the table: a shy-looking young Indian woman who was hiding behind a palm tree. A waiter occasionally brought her a sandwich or a drink while she kept staring at the other passengers. Samarj went to chat with her only to discover she was mute. Samarj felt frustrated. She woke up earlier feeling under the weather, only to discover her mind-reading powers were gone. Tobias had examined her and determined it was probably a toxin that interacted with her powers in a strange way, and she would feel better eventually. In any case, the young Indian woman proved to be a skilled artist as she tried to explain to Samarj there was a monster hiding inside every guest. Or at least that was what Samarj understood.
Eventually the train was done circling around the nuclear obstacle and everyone boarded again. Tobias prepared a cure for Samarj, but as a result the latter was feeling worse and Tobias decided to examine her again. He went pale as he concluded she had the bubonic plague and sealed her compartment. This was noticed by the train guards and soon after the train stopped again. Quarantine laws demanded they stay away from settlements for a few weeks. The train went from panic to uproar while Samarj claimed a medical error and demanded an independent expertise. While the train was lacking in the medical department, Priestly decided to help along with his prayers. His relationship with sin and punishment sent shivers down Chakrawarti’s spine, but eventually the situation was resolved.
Noon arrived, the train resumed its course, and Chakrawarti invited the very suspicious and aggressive “East India Company” agent. The conversation was brief and unproductive. Dhibar clearly told Chakrawarti she had nothing do to with the murder and did not care if he believed her or not. Attempts at cooperation did not end well either, she was simply too suspicious of everyone. She let it slip however that everyone aboard was hiding something, and that included the three archaeologists.
Tobias in the meantime went to have a drink with Officer Parek at the bar. Just as Tobias approached he noticed the police officer slipping something from his pocket and into every plate awaiting to be delivered. Deciding for the direct approach, he immediately confronted him about the drug he was slipping into the dishes. Parek attempted to deflect the conversation until Samarj approached and Tobias mentioned her being poisoned. Parek pulled out his weapon, ordered them to lay down theirs in the name of the law, and shot at Samarj without waiting for an answer.
Suddenly the whole restaurant carriage was in darkness. People ducked for the floor and overturned tables. Samarj, despite not being able to see anything, grabbed a tray and managed to knock Parek’s gun away. Parek shouted for help and one of his subordinates arrived, carrying a lantern, and shot at Samarj and Tobias. Tobias tried to calm Parek and reassure him that they were no danger, but the police officer kept insisting the two tried to shoot him with their weapons and refused to surrender. His subordinate, however, became hesitant as neither Tobias nor Samarj held any weapons and were in fact trying to avoid violence. Parek cursed and grabbed his subordinate's weapon and shot at Samarj again, hitting only a whiskey bottle. Tobias, Samarj and the second police officer piled up on Parek and managed to restrain him.
Light returned, just as the train left the tunnel had entered, and guards arrived and took Parek away but not before Tobias had secretly searched his pockets. He found traces of a white powder and a letter. A later analysis of the white powder showed it was a drug designed to act only on people with psychic powers and would wear-off in a few hours. The letter was much more interesting. It contained instructions for Parek from a certain Z about a certain serial killer who needed to be delivered to New Delhi. However, instead of taking her to the asylum, Parek was to bring her to a certain address. Even more interestingly, the bottom of the letter was stamped with a seal resembling a king cobra with its tail weaving the infinity sign. When this was revealed to Samarj, she was left with no doubt that these people were the same who had used her in the past for their experiments.
More pressing matters required attention however: Chakrawarti went to talk to the mercenary, Lakshmi Panja, and found her door locked. He directed his inquiries towards the train guards, who indicated they remembered her going towards the dining coach. Chakrawarti diverted the guards’ attention while Tobias picked the compartments lock. Searching quickly, he found a notepad with a torn page. Using and old trick, he found that the page missing page had a simple message: “I know who you are, meet me in the cattle carriage at 2:30pm”. The group went to the location and found her. Dead.
Her face was contorted in pain, but unlike the Frenchman she had reached towards her gun. She did not have the time to fire it, unfortunately. She also had a similar hole in her lower back. Tobias took the time to examine it more closely, and discovered Panja was missing all of her spinal fluid. The crime scene revealed no further clues and the group informed the officer in charge of the guards. The death was announced to the other passengers, with no further reactions. Everyone wanted to get to New Delhi as soon as possible.
Tobias decided to continue his kleptomaniac streak with Dhibar’s compartment. Her luggage had a few interesting items. One was a pistol clip for a semiautomatic pistol. The modernity of the weapon did not suit her Orrorshan attire. At the same time, a false bottom revealed a dozen passports from many provinces around India, as well as a few neighboring countries. All of them had the same face: Dhibar’s, however the names were different every time. When told about it, Chakrawarti concluded to her being a secret agent or spy. One who had missed out on learning history, otherwise she would not have made such an obvious mistake.
Samarj felt her powers returning and, having some suspicions about the journalist, decided to target her first. One question was quickly answered: Saanvi had killed someone, with her bare hands no less. In a chaotic environment that did not look like the train, she killed a woman. Tobias checked her compartment next and found that her passport looked fake. At the same time, her notebooks presented some inconsistencies from the moment she had been in a city called Vadodara. Before she was very meticulous in her studies of the situation around the country, how people fought hard against gospog. Afterwards her notes were not only more erratic, her handwriting had also changed completely.
Samarj then went to have a “talk” with the artist, whose name she gathered to be Hansra. She was locked up in her compartment and when Samarj knocked, she merely moved a curtain aside. Chakrawarti engaged her in conversation while Samarj scanned her thoughts. This tactic did not fully work, as half-way during the conversation Hansra closed her curtain again. For some reason she was afraid of Chakrawarti. However, that had been enough for Samarj to quickly check if she had killed anyone. She had, but her thoughts were strange, unclear, frightening. Samarj saw her coming up behind someone’s back, and stab that person with something in the lower back area. The environment around the event was so horrific that Samarj could not feel but shout in terror to everyone’s surprise in the train. Chakrawarti quickly reassured everyone that everything was alright and the trio discussed the situation in depth.
As they had too many suspects, the group decided to offload some work and informed the captain in charge of train security that they had some evidence that the artist, Hansra, had stabbed someone to death. The captain was unwilling to arrest her as it was outside his scope, but for everyone’s safety he put an additional four soldiers outside the artist’s compartment and would warn the New Delhi police. Chakrawarti also attempted to get the two police officers from Mumbai to investigate the two murders, but they insisted they had no authority in Rajasthan and adamantly refused to do anything that did not involve the orders they already had.
As the train needed to be emptied to go on the temporary tracks, personnel decided to move breakfast outside and all the passengers joined in. Introductions were made.
Padmini Dhibar, a well-dressed woman who had also embarked in Jaipur, introduced herself as a commercial agent for the East India Company. She was returning home after a failed deal and seemed to be looking for excuses to get angry at people for no reason. Chakrawarti immediately found her suspicious: the East India Company had been disbanded over two centuries before.
Amadeus Priestly was an itinerant priest from another world who had come to save this world from the horrors that awaited everyone. He had also embarked in Jaipur after a long journey on foot from Kolkatta. He was touring the country to help people and find locations in need of a larger expedition. Samarj did not like the man, for someone who wanted to help people he spoke of punishing sinners a bit too much.
A taciturn uniformed army captain, Dheeraj Patvardhan performed the barest minimum when it came to social niceties before returning to drinking this early in the morning.
Most of the conversation was being done by Saanvi Radhawa, a journalist from New Delhi who, when not asking questions, was furiously taking notes. Most of her questions were aimed at Tobias about the dead body of poor Marius Pichard, but occasional mentions of “The Electrician” and her murders also found some answers from Officer Parek.
Officer Ayush Parek was on-board since Mumbai. He and two of his colleagues were escorting a serial killer nicknamed The Electrician because of her tendency to plug cables into people’s brains while they were alive. The woman in question was being held nearby, wearing a straitjacket and mouth gag, apparently because of her strange ability to get people to agree with her. In fact most of her victims were thought to have been willing participants. Tobias glanced at the serial killer and immediately felt a certain amount of attraction for a sick mind, alien in thoughts and actions. Clearly she did not deserve the treatment that was waiting for her. She had to be freed before Arya Munshi, the expert in New Delhi, could get ahold of her.
Lakshmi Panja had embarked in Suram. She was a mercenary looking for something more exciting and better-paid than simply shooting down gospog in remote villages.
Samarj noticed one of the passengers was not at the table: a shy-looking young Indian woman who was hiding behind a palm tree. A waiter occasionally brought her a sandwich or a drink while she kept staring at the other passengers. Samarj went to chat with her only to discover she was mute. Samarj felt frustrated. She woke up earlier feeling under the weather, only to discover her mind-reading powers were gone. Tobias had examined her and determined it was probably a toxin that interacted with her powers in a strange way, and she would feel better eventually. In any case, the young Indian woman proved to be a skilled artist as she tried to explain to Samarj there was a monster hiding inside every guest. Or at least that was what Samarj understood.
Eventually the train was done circling around the nuclear obstacle and everyone boarded again. Tobias prepared a cure for Samarj, but as a result the latter was feeling worse and Tobias decided to examine her again. He went pale as he concluded she had the bubonic plague and sealed her compartment. This was noticed by the train guards and soon after the train stopped again. Quarantine laws demanded they stay away from settlements for a few weeks. The train went from panic to uproar while Samarj claimed a medical error and demanded an independent expertise. While the train was lacking in the medical department, Priestly decided to help along with his prayers. His relationship with sin and punishment sent shivers down Chakrawarti’s spine, but eventually the situation was resolved.
Noon arrived, the train resumed its course, and Chakrawarti invited the very suspicious and aggressive “East India Company” agent. The conversation was brief and unproductive. Dhibar clearly told Chakrawarti she had nothing do to with the murder and did not care if he believed her or not. Attempts at cooperation did not end well either, she was simply too suspicious of everyone. She let it slip however that everyone aboard was hiding something, and that included the three archaeologists.
Tobias in the meantime went to have a drink with Officer Parek at the bar. Just as Tobias approached he noticed the police officer slipping something from his pocket and into every plate awaiting to be delivered. Deciding for the direct approach, he immediately confronted him about the drug he was slipping into the dishes. Parek attempted to deflect the conversation until Samarj approached and Tobias mentioned her being poisoned. Parek pulled out his weapon, ordered them to lay down theirs in the name of the law, and shot at Samarj without waiting for an answer.
Suddenly the whole restaurant carriage was in darkness. People ducked for the floor and overturned tables. Samarj, despite not being able to see anything, grabbed a tray and managed to knock Parek’s gun away. Parek shouted for help and one of his subordinates arrived, carrying a lantern, and shot at Samarj and Tobias. Tobias tried to calm Parek and reassure him that they were no danger, but the police officer kept insisting the two tried to shoot him with their weapons and refused to surrender. His subordinate, however, became hesitant as neither Tobias nor Samarj held any weapons and were in fact trying to avoid violence. Parek cursed and grabbed his subordinate's weapon and shot at Samarj again, hitting only a whiskey bottle. Tobias, Samarj and the second police officer piled up on Parek and managed to restrain him.
Light returned, just as the train left the tunnel had entered, and guards arrived and took Parek away but not before Tobias had secretly searched his pockets. He found traces of a white powder and a letter. A later analysis of the white powder showed it was a drug designed to act only on people with psychic powers and would wear-off in a few hours. The letter was much more interesting. It contained instructions for Parek from a certain Z about a certain serial killer who needed to be delivered to New Delhi. However, instead of taking her to the asylum, Parek was to bring her to a certain address. Even more interestingly, the bottom of the letter was stamped with a seal resembling a king cobra with its tail weaving the infinity sign. When this was revealed to Samarj, she was left with no doubt that these people were the same who had used her in the past for their experiments.
More pressing matters required attention however: Chakrawarti went to talk to the mercenary, Lakshmi Panja, and found her door locked. He directed his inquiries towards the train guards, who indicated they remembered her going towards the dining coach. Chakrawarti diverted the guards’ attention while Tobias picked the compartments lock. Searching quickly, he found a notepad with a torn page. Using and old trick, he found that the page missing page had a simple message: “I know who you are, meet me in the cattle carriage at 2:30pm”. The group went to the location and found her. Dead.
Her face was contorted in pain, but unlike the Frenchman she had reached towards her gun. She did not have the time to fire it, unfortunately. She also had a similar hole in her lower back. Tobias took the time to examine it more closely, and discovered Panja was missing all of her spinal fluid. The crime scene revealed no further clues and the group informed the officer in charge of the guards. The death was announced to the other passengers, with no further reactions. Everyone wanted to get to New Delhi as soon as possible.
Tobias decided to continue his kleptomaniac streak with Dhibar’s compartment. Her luggage had a few interesting items. One was a pistol clip for a semiautomatic pistol. The modernity of the weapon did not suit her Orrorshan attire. At the same time, a false bottom revealed a dozen passports from many provinces around India, as well as a few neighboring countries. All of them had the same face: Dhibar’s, however the names were different every time. When told about it, Chakrawarti concluded to her being a secret agent or spy. One who had missed out on learning history, otherwise she would not have made such an obvious mistake.
Samarj felt her powers returning and, having some suspicions about the journalist, decided to target her first. One question was quickly answered: Saanvi had killed someone, with her bare hands no less. In a chaotic environment that did not look like the train, she killed a woman. Tobias checked her compartment next and found that her passport looked fake. At the same time, her notebooks presented some inconsistencies from the moment she had been in a city called Vadodara. Before she was very meticulous in her studies of the situation around the country, how people fought hard against gospog. Afterwards her notes were not only more erratic, her handwriting had also changed completely.
Samarj then went to have a “talk” with the artist, whose name she gathered to be Hansra. She was locked up in her compartment and when Samarj knocked, she merely moved a curtain aside. Chakrawarti engaged her in conversation while Samarj scanned her thoughts. This tactic did not fully work, as half-way during the conversation Hansra closed her curtain again. For some reason she was afraid of Chakrawarti. However, that had been enough for Samarj to quickly check if she had killed anyone. She had, but her thoughts were strange, unclear, frightening. Samarj saw her coming up behind someone’s back, and stab that person with something in the lower back area. The environment around the event was so horrific that Samarj could not feel but shout in terror to everyone’s surprise in the train. Chakrawarti quickly reassured everyone that everything was alright and the trio discussed the situation in depth.
As they had too many suspects, the group decided to offload some work and informed the captain in charge of train security that they had some evidence that the artist, Hansra, had stabbed someone to death. The captain was unwilling to arrest her as it was outside his scope, but for everyone’s safety he put an additional four soldiers outside the artist’s compartment and would warn the New Delhi police. Chakrawarti also attempted to get the two police officers from Mumbai to investigate the two murders, but they insisted they had no authority in Rajasthan and adamantly refused to do anything that did not involve the orders they already had.
Between Jaipur and New Delhi, Orrorsh, Night 19
► Show Spoiler
Samarj was soundly asleep in her and Kanti’s compartment. Tobias and Chakrawarti kept watching the train’s interior and exterior for anything suspicious. They had slept through the whole afternoon and evening and were ready to react. The train was staffed with soldiers and lit with exterior lanterns. From time to time, soldiers took shots at gospog creeping outside or trying to catch the moving train.
Chakrawarti noticed Priestly leave his cabin and head towards the diner coach. Eventually he grew bored and decided to head there as well for a couple of drinks. The only people inside were soldiers at the windows. Even the bartender was missing. He suddenly recalled not seeing Dhibar come back from dinner and immediately called the others. Samarj took some time to wake up and Tobias stayed behind to wait for her while Chakrawarti went ahead. On the way he interrogated soldiers and learned that nobody had seen Priestly enter the dining coach moments before.
Realizing this, Chakrawarti climbed to the train’s roof, followed by Tobias and Samarj shortly after. They saw in the distance two shapes that seemed to be talking. Suddenly a couple of short flashes appeared closed to one of the dark shapes, which fell to the ground while the other grew larger… much larger. Noise from the train and the soldiers guarding it prevented everyone from hearing anything.
Chakraarti ran forward, took cover in-between two carriages and shot at the larger shape. Tobias prepared his spells while Samarj took careful aim and shot as well. Bullets seemed to bounce off the large shape, which charged at the group. Chakrawarti barely managed to avoid the large claw that ripped through his shirt. Underneath him, soldiers were sent flying outside the train.
The three archaeologists were finally able to make out the traits of the looming shape. Long, spidery legs supported a large scorpion's abdomen and tail ending with a long needle. A very long neck extended where the scorpion’s head should have been. The neck ended with a human-like head, with Priestly’s grotesque face distorted in a snarl.
Samarj shot at the priest, but its carapace proved to be tougher than expected. Tobias began to prepare another spell, but the train suddenly shook, he lost his footing and barely managed to catch the ledge of the train’s roof. Priestly took a closer look at Samarj and exclaimed: “You! You have been hunting me for long enough. Tonight I shall end you in the name of the Lord.” Priestly surged forward, nearly crushing Chakrawarti and pierced Samarj in the back with his needle. She felt faint as if losing control of her legs, but managed to pull the needle out in time before losing too much spinal fluid. She was still bleeding profusely and began to think she would not survive the night.
Tobias pulled himself up and shouted “The hunter you are looking for is not Samarj, it is the electrician in the compartment below.” Tobias’ diversion was enough to make Priestly consider the situation and extend his long neck to the windows, eliciting a number of terrified shouts. Samarj and Chakrawarti attempted to end it, but Chakrawarti had left his big gun in his luggage, and Samarj’s bullets did very little to pierce Priestly’s tough shell. The creature, recovering from its distraction, snarled at them “Even if you manage to wound me you shall never slay me for the Lord grants me immortality.”.
Samarj moved away from Priestly and taunted him into focusing on her. Tobias finally managed to use his most powerful ritual to rend his foe’s possible futures. Chakrawarti took careful aim and shot his last bullet through Priestly’s gut. The face turned into a mocking smile “Do you think that would be enough? Do you think this is how I can be killed? Do you-” suddenly the smile contorted with rage as the wound began smoking: “Was that a bullet blessed by a heretical god…”. Then Priestly died, spraying everyone with a large amount of spinal fluid. It had in fact been Chakrawarti last blessed bullet from Shuaib el Hamidi’s parting gift.
The other shadowy figure walked up and revealed herself to be Dhibar. She invited the others for a chat around a large bottle of anything strong. She confirmed Chakrawarti’s earlier suspicion: she was indeed an agent of the Intelligence Bureau. She had lost contact with her superiors weeks before and was trying to get in contact by going directly to New Delhi. On the way she had found those strange Victorians and every single time they turned out to be monsters or cultists. She did not know anything about what was happening but was grateful for the help: Priestly turned out to be a tougher bite than she could chew.
She also pulled out a small stack of papers: letters she had found in Priestly’s luggage. They pointed to a dark conspiracy going on in New Delhi, about some event that would come soon. The group also shared their suspicions about the journalist and the artist, who, despite not being Victorians, had killed at least one person each. Due to Chakrawarti’s earlier actions the artist was likely to end up in a cell for a short while and Dhibar agreed to look into the journalist. The group would investigate Priestly’s correspondence in-between handling their own business in New Delhi.
Chakrawarti noticed Priestly leave his cabin and head towards the diner coach. Eventually he grew bored and decided to head there as well for a couple of drinks. The only people inside were soldiers at the windows. Even the bartender was missing. He suddenly recalled not seeing Dhibar come back from dinner and immediately called the others. Samarj took some time to wake up and Tobias stayed behind to wait for her while Chakrawarti went ahead. On the way he interrogated soldiers and learned that nobody had seen Priestly enter the dining coach moments before.
Realizing this, Chakrawarti climbed to the train’s roof, followed by Tobias and Samarj shortly after. They saw in the distance two shapes that seemed to be talking. Suddenly a couple of short flashes appeared closed to one of the dark shapes, which fell to the ground while the other grew larger… much larger. Noise from the train and the soldiers guarding it prevented everyone from hearing anything.
Chakraarti ran forward, took cover in-between two carriages and shot at the larger shape. Tobias prepared his spells while Samarj took careful aim and shot as well. Bullets seemed to bounce off the large shape, which charged at the group. Chakrawarti barely managed to avoid the large claw that ripped through his shirt. Underneath him, soldiers were sent flying outside the train.
The three archaeologists were finally able to make out the traits of the looming shape. Long, spidery legs supported a large scorpion's abdomen and tail ending with a long needle. A very long neck extended where the scorpion’s head should have been. The neck ended with a human-like head, with Priestly’s grotesque face distorted in a snarl.
Samarj shot at the priest, but its carapace proved to be tougher than expected. Tobias began to prepare another spell, but the train suddenly shook, he lost his footing and barely managed to catch the ledge of the train’s roof. Priestly took a closer look at Samarj and exclaimed: “You! You have been hunting me for long enough. Tonight I shall end you in the name of the Lord.” Priestly surged forward, nearly crushing Chakrawarti and pierced Samarj in the back with his needle. She felt faint as if losing control of her legs, but managed to pull the needle out in time before losing too much spinal fluid. She was still bleeding profusely and began to think she would not survive the night.
Tobias pulled himself up and shouted “The hunter you are looking for is not Samarj, it is the electrician in the compartment below.” Tobias’ diversion was enough to make Priestly consider the situation and extend his long neck to the windows, eliciting a number of terrified shouts. Samarj and Chakrawarti attempted to end it, but Chakrawarti had left his big gun in his luggage, and Samarj’s bullets did very little to pierce Priestly’s tough shell. The creature, recovering from its distraction, snarled at them “Even if you manage to wound me you shall never slay me for the Lord grants me immortality.”.
Samarj moved away from Priestly and taunted him into focusing on her. Tobias finally managed to use his most powerful ritual to rend his foe’s possible futures. Chakrawarti took careful aim and shot his last bullet through Priestly’s gut. The face turned into a mocking smile “Do you think that would be enough? Do you think this is how I can be killed? Do you-” suddenly the smile contorted with rage as the wound began smoking: “Was that a bullet blessed by a heretical god…”. Then Priestly died, spraying everyone with a large amount of spinal fluid. It had in fact been Chakrawarti last blessed bullet from Shuaib el Hamidi’s parting gift.
The other shadowy figure walked up and revealed herself to be Dhibar. She invited the others for a chat around a large bottle of anything strong. She confirmed Chakrawarti’s earlier suspicion: she was indeed an agent of the Intelligence Bureau. She had lost contact with her superiors weeks before and was trying to get in contact by going directly to New Delhi. On the way she had found those strange Victorians and every single time they turned out to be monsters or cultists. She did not know anything about what was happening but was grateful for the help: Priestly turned out to be a tougher bite than she could chew.
She also pulled out a small stack of papers: letters she had found in Priestly’s luggage. They pointed to a dark conspiracy going on in New Delhi, about some event that would come soon. The group also shared their suspicions about the journalist and the artist, who, despite not being Victorians, had killed at least one person each. Due to Chakrawarti’s earlier actions the artist was likely to end up in a cell for a short while and Dhibar agreed to look into the journalist. The group would investigate Priestly’s correspondence in-between handling their own business in New Delhi.