Gatekeepers of the Obsidean Door

2020/05/06 	 Amelia Grimm Union Night Marshal Natasha

1

2:29 pm. A calm pleasant day in Colonial Bay City. The weather is being kind. A warm early spring day with just a hint of misty cloud taking the glare from the sky.

2:30 pm. Torrential rain is lashing the streets, hurled everywhere by fierce gusts of wind, falling from a cloud covered sky as dark as night punctuated by vivid flashes and thunderous cracks from multiple dangerously close lightning strikes. The horizon in the direction of the City Centre is fitfully illuminated by a flickering blue glow covering several city blocks.

---

Anyone with access to HeroNet, police radio, etc.. can hear reports of alarms being set off from: The Abandoned School, Buddhist Temple, Fate's Sanctum, Golden Dragon Tea House, Inner Light Bookstore, Lucky Finds Shop, Steinburg Tower, Undermoon Embassy, and the Yacht Anydos in the Yacht Club Marina

Grimm says, "Hmmm. Fate's Sanctum. That's been left empty for a while and could have some dangerous stuff to steal."

Lucky Finds The merry tinkle of an old-fashioned chime welcomes people this somewhat dark and cluttered shop. Antique furniture of different descriptions and styles crowds in on every side, and between, among and on top of this other antiques of all descriptions - and at times even pretty but modern goods - are displayed, with little pattern to it except the matter of where they fit.

At the back of the room is a glass counter, beneath which are displayed items of jewellery and the like, and behind which the owner typically sits, among boxes precariously balanced high. Here are also stairs leading up and a door to the back room.

There's no doubt that Lucky Finds is being robbed. The front door has been completely ripped off the hinges and tossed out into the street. Inside the shop are several DEMON agents, two DEMON Inferno Legion agents, and the hulking shape of a Brute Demon. One agent is holding open a gray cloth bag. The other agents are rushing from object to object, waving wands near the objects, and putting the items into the bag if the tip of the wand glows.

The Brute demon is in the doorway.

Natasha flies as fast as she can back toward Lucky Finds! With Amy visiting her friends in Montreal, she's looking after the store - she won't fail in her duty as guarddragon!

Some might go with the cliche', look.. up in the sky. But Bullet's not up there long enough for that. She rocketed skywards and the first place she saw being hit was the first place she responded to. So a gold and white costumed and caped blur comes down out of said sky... a three point landing made. Okay four point. Two feet, one knee, and one hand. But she's up vertical right away and already moving towards the Brute in the doorway. "Big mistake." she mutters on her way in.

Grimm teleports her way to the general area, then uses shorter hops to reach Lucky Finds. She's already texted Sasha to check if he's even in this dimension to take care of the kids, and Radical about Steinberg Tower. When she gets in view of Lucky Finds, she pauses on the rooftop across from it. "Oh...shick." She tries to stretch her shadow sight to scan for whatever else is going on inside.

Night Marshal glides, getting to the sidewalk across the street from the shop, and landing lightly on his feet. He then draws his weapon and looks at the demon in the doorway of the building. He mutters to himself. "Of course. Why would it be a normal breakin?"

Lizzy is on her way to the Diner when she notices the Demon at Lucky Finds. . o O (I hope Natasha's alright.) she thinks as she steps out of sight between two trucks. "e Pluribus Unum," she whispers, and becomes Union.

Natasha, on approach, sends a swarm of a dozen illusotry Natashas toward the door and hence the brute demon. The trick she thought up for Best of the Best should, she hope, confuse the thieves till she can arrive herself. Amelia texts to everyone she knows who is connected to Sasha in any fashion that she hasn't had an answer from Sasha. So she's going to the School to make sure the little wolves will be okay.

Already moving towards the Brute, Bullet makes a split second decision. She is running his way like she intends to ram him in through the doorway. But at the last moment, she leaps and executes a perfect dive over the guy's head, twisting to land facing him. What? Being a Cheerleader paid off!

But without saying a word, she turns her landing into a windup for a punch to the small of the Brute's back. The intent is to -not- knock him into the store, but out of it. No sense in damaging the place more.

The Brute demon's task was to hold the doorway. So it was braced ready to stay in position when hit. From in front. Struck from behind it stumbles forward, trips amd lands on its face in the street.

"Lucky Finds reserves the right to refuse service to anyone. Today, you guys are all anyone." remarks Bullet as she straightens and postures for everyone.


 * CRACK ***

A lightning strike on a parked car less then 30 ft away down the road hammers eardrums and lights up the area brighter than day.

Natashas fly round the demon's head like cartoon birds!

In the illuminating light of the lightning flash you see the DEMON agents are zombies. Their faces rotting, hands partially skeletal. The Inferno agents have enclosed helms. You can't tell about them.

Union runs up to strike the fallen Demon, with a knee-drop to the back of the neck.

The poor picked on Brute Demon takes another punishing blow.

Grimm vanishes from the rooftop and appears just inside the store by the door. She has to resist the urge to send a blastwave across all of them, but that would destroy the store as well. So instead, she reaches out her hands and dark streamers of energy start to seek out all the agents in the immediate area of the Inferno agents. "They're all undead!" she calls out to the others.

It would be assumed that the sense disabling attack was effective against all the targets. But the only change in the agents' activities is the demon agents no longer pick up items when the wands glow.

Night Marshal grimaces at hte idea of fightin undead..and is pretty sure his gun will do nothign to them. He opens fire instead on the brute demon once, just trying to make sure it stays down.

The Brute demon is tough. That's why it's called Brute. But it's been the center of a storm of pounding. It makes one attempt to lift up to its feet, and goes down when Night Marshal shoots it.

The two Infermo agents fire blindly. But their carbine fire just makes neat little holes in the walls, blow out the front left window, and shatters a truly vile appearing ceramic vase.

Narrowing her eyes as the weapons fire begins to damage the shop, Bullet shakes her head, "You guys make lousy customers." she mutters before she blurs in almost pseudomotion, her speed just this side of ludicrous. So.. no Plaid. But she whips in, attempts to grab one, depositing it outside, then another, then another. Basically, she's trying to get the zombies out of the shop.

When the blur of gold and white motion ceases, Bullet finds herself outside, surrounded by Zombies and Inferno Agents. "None of you are welcome in there any longer." she mutters as she places hands on her knees and catches her breath.

Union sees the agents appear around her one-by-one. She stands and punches the closest.

Union's fist sinks into the agents gut and comes out its back. The agent sags and slides off her fist into a pile of ick.

Union says, "They...they're already dead?"

"They're long dead in some cases," Grimm assures Union, but she still looks grossed out at the result.

Natasha was about to fly through into the store when the thieves were moved outside! She attacks the zombies with breath of magical rot, figuring that a dead body should be especially vulnerable to it!

Inferno Legion demon agents are notoriously tough and dangerous. They have the best quality armor overlaid by a forecefield. Not, it seems, these. No forcefield was seen and the relatively moderate damage of Natasha's magical attack tears through them like a mincing machine through candyfloss. All the agents colapse in heaps pf rotting skin and broken bones.

As the energy washes over her, Bullet cringes and lifts her hands defensively, "SAME SIDE! SAME SIDE!" She calls out. "I got them out of the damned store!"

Natasha reaches out apologetics forepaws to Bullet.

Natasha does make a mental note that that seems to work well against zombies, though. :)

Shaking her head to clear it, Bullet glances about at the zombies, "They were taking belongings from the shop. But not just here!" she says before she rockets skyward to look for the next location.

Natasha doesn't stay in apologetic position long, though. She dashes about among the crumbled remains, collecting the things stolen from the shop! (and any other treasure they may have had.)

Grimm walks over to the unconscious demon as Bullet just leaves it behind. "Great. Now do I try to send this back to its hell dimension, or just tie it up for the cops?"

Oddly, the cloth bag the agents were putting items in is quite empty.

NO! Natasha sniffs at the cloth bag to see if she can determine what happened to them.

Night Marshal holsters his weapon, "That all of them?"

"From here, yeah. But there's alerts all over the city at various magical locations. Either we're lucky and they're false, or they all have raiding parties. We need to go to the next most valuable target," Grimm says as she tries to magically bind and restrain the demon with shadows.

Natasha says, "The things they stole have been gated away!"

Grimm mutters to herself as she uses her mental powers to keep the demon down. Her head turns to Natasha. "What?? How? Let me see one of their bags."

Natasha blows smoke from her nose. This has become personal.

Natasha passes the bag to Grimm, hoping she can determine more than Natasha could.

Grimm takes the bag and studies it with her magical and dimensional senses, hoping she can get an idea of where it sent the objects to. "Maybe I can get a location of where all these goods are going. Go straight to the source."

It doesn't take long for Natasha to realise they took magical items. Left some far more valuable objects behind but took even trival enchanted stuff.

Night Marshal chuckles. "I reckon that every time I see something right supernatural, you're there, Miss Grimm. This ain't no coincidence."

Grimm laughs at Night Marshal's comment. "Yeah, never believe in coincidences."

Union says, "Could we go through the bag?"

Natasha shakes her head. "The gate is closed."

"It's a local gate," Grimm says as she looks into the bag and studies it a bit. She lifts her head and tracks slowly in the direction of City Center. "Yup, right over there. Who'da thunk?" She smirks at the huge blue glow in the skyline. She starts to open a gate of her own to get as close to there as she can. "I can try to get us as close to where these items were transported."

Natasha lines up ready to be transported!

City Center

Here stand the grand buildings of the city constructed during the rapid 19th-Century expansion, on low land reclaimed from long-lost Harrisburg Creek. Main Street is broader here that to the south, though still paved with cobbles, and surrounded on all sides by grandiose edifices (though at any time at least one seems to be under renovation): the heart of this district. Around this are narrower residential streets with a flavor much like that of Old Town, all with faux-gaslamp street lighting.

The city center looks different today. Maybe it's the slagged piles of various numerous objects at each point of the ornate twenty meter diameter pentagram burnt into the paving of the square. Or the freshly dead Morbane corpses. Five of them. One at each point of the arcane symbol. Morbanes with their hands bound and throats sliced by a razor sharp blade. Inside the pentagram are four pairs pf footprints burnt deep into the cobbled street, still smoking.

Union looks around in shock. "Those piles...is that where the things from the shop went?"

Maybe you really REALLY don't want to know, Grimm. But you know anyway. This is of course a summoning ritual. Looks like it was successful too. It probably summoned the Four Gatekeepers of the Obsidean Door. The door to the cell where Ares was imprisoned by the other Greek Gods after he decided that war was fun and never mind the other gods wanted to keep some human worshippers.

Grimm opens the gateway to City Center and stares in horror at the Morbanes that are dead, and the size of the symbol. Part of her wishes Lereau were among the dead, but she's not that lucky. "Oh....shick..." she says in pure shock. She doesn't even need to say this is bad. She takes in the rest of the details of the ritual. "I think they summoned the Four Gatekeepers of the Obsidian Door. The Obsidian door, it's the cell where Ares, God of War, was imprisoned."

Union says, "Yeah...I don't think they covered that in school. I have heard of Ares, though."

Natasha goes to sniff the pentagram. Trying to figure out if ruining it with her claws would be good, bad or irrelevant by this point.

Natasha goes to collect the treasure! The treasure from lucky Finds, mostly. But she might be tempted by some of the rest...

Grimm steps through her gate and looks around cautiously, trying to hide her panic. "The Obsidian Door might still be locked. Each gatekeeper only opens their lock once a quest is completed."

Coming down in a speed landing once more, Bullet looks around at everything and asks, "Um. Is this... okay, what -is- this?" she asks, not sure what to do. Or if there is anything that she -can- do.

Grimm thinks. o O (I really wish Randal were here. Wait, no I don't. But I wish I could ask him what the hell these Gatekeepers want.)

Night Marshal raises a brow. "Why would they key on a Greek god? I didn't think that was their...thing? So....where's our culprit?"

Natasha slumps, head flat on the ground, dejectedly. The treasure has been ruined! All the nice magic smell is gone! And it's all melted.

"I'm not sure who would do this. Morbanes are insane. One Morbane is willing to slit his throat when the time comes to try and corrupt me, so there's a chance these ones might have been willing even if they're bound." Grimm sneers a bit as she adds while walking to the nearest morbane body, "It's all about the aesthetics. But maybe we can see if there were actual signs of a struggle on the bodies."

"So, there's not anything to do actively yet?" asks Bullet. She recoils at the look of the Morbanes herself, and shakes her head before lifting skyward. "Going for recon mode." she admits. But of course, it's also an attempt to -not- be around the dead bodies.

Natasha gets up again, smoke pouring from her nostrils. And so goes to sniff at the big footprints.

Union says, "Should we...try to follow one of them? Try to keep him from completing his quest?"

Night Marshal does check out the bodies..."They definitely fought, it looks like."

Natasha sighs. No trail to follow. At least the footprints are nice and warm, though. Cobble-meltingly warm.

One of the doors to City Hall cracks open and a worried face peeks out around the edge of the door, "uh... hello..?"

Union smiles brightly. "Hello. Did you happen to see anything that happened out here?"

The face asks, "Is it safe to come out?"

Grimm nods and inspects with Night Marshal. "Yeah...ligature marks. The cut is a bit uneven from struggling as it was done." Grimm sighs and looks to the pentagram. She starts walking it, muttering to herself, trying to retrace the ritual. "I don't think the gatekeepers went anywhere. They most likely showed up when summoned, imparted a quest from each, then departed. They don't perform the quest. You perform the quest for them."

Union says, "It looks like the bad guys have left. Except for the dead ones."

Natasha looks up. "Who performs the quest for them?"

Natasha starts sniffing about for traces of DEMON types who aren't dead!

The figure steps gingerly out. He's wearing a security guard uniform. "It was awful. Made my bones chill just watching it."

Grimm comments as she moves along the ritual site, "And you're right, Night Marshal. Definitely not their thing. Which can rule out a rival morbane doing this. Potentially. This was done by someone more powerful. With the resources to summon demons and animate the dead. Who wants War out of his cage." She stops her explanation and looks to Natasha. "The ritual summoner and his creations, most likely."

Night Marshal looks over to the guard, "What happened, exactly?"

The guard sounds quite terrified. "I was in the security room having a break when all of a sudden a raging storm started up. It was just.. one minute great spring weather. Next minute the worst strom I've seen. Then a bunch of people in robes appeared in the square outside the City Hall. I shut and locked the doors. Then went back to watch on the monitors."

Union says, "Could you please try to describe the people, sir?"

The guard points inside. "I can do better than that. I have it all on tape."

Natasha sniffs all about the area, but to no avail.

Union calls out to the others, "Anyone up for a movie?"

Night Marshal nods. "Well, let's take a look at the tape, then. If that's okay?"

Natasha goes to look at the movie. Better than lying about and moping.

Grimm frowns as she studies the footprints, trying to figure out what dimension they were summoned from so she can figure out where the Obsidian door is. After staring at them for a bit, she finally flickers and appears near the others to review the tape.

Union says, "Thank you, sir. We'd very much like to see that tape."

Natasha has a sinking feeling there won't be any popcorn with this movie.

Grimm smirks to Union. "Not exactly the sort of movie night I'm accustomed to."

The tape shows a group appearing in the square just after the storm starts. They look like Demon people, except instead of the usual Red and Gold robes, all but five are wearing purple and black robes. The five who are in red and gold have their hands bound.

As well as the humans there are several demons. At least Night Marshall, and undoubtedly others, will recognise the largest demon and the obvious leader of the group. Amelia Half-Demon and her companion, the Demon Lord.

The ritual goes just as Grimm would have expected. Magical items pouring out of enchanted hoops into piles at the points of the pentagram. The five standard Morbanes being slaughtered. And the arrival of the four gatekeepers.

Night Marshal folds his arms as he watches the tape. "Hrm."

There is a brief conversation between Half-Demon and the gatekeepers. Then the gatekeepers vanish. Followed by the vanishing of the Half-Demon group.

Union says, "That...that looks like Ms. Steinberg - except for the...parts..."

Grimm watches and frowns as she sees an Amelia. "Yup," she agrees with Union.

Night Marshal nods. "That's the half-demon version. Tried to kidnap our version."

Natasha nods. She definitely prefers our version of Amelia.

Union texts Amelia with the information.

Union says, "Thank you for your invaluable assistance sir. What is your name?"

Grimm texts Connor about the details.

There's an autoreply from Amelia to Union, "I'm off dimension. I'll call back when I return."