Session 5. The Last Two

The Ethros realm is under attack. Nails pulls Marcus over his shoulder as he carries him into the elevator. Eric and Tonya follow directly behind. Alarms sound as their elevator progresses higher and higher up the building. Finally, the elevator stops. By this time Marcus Blair is beginning to wake from the toxin’s effects. He is weary from the blade’s poison but will manage in time. The elevator doors open; the Healing Scars are on the floor 34,382, the same level they met with the Ethros council. The council members are all dead, and the room is in shambles. Something big came through here and left a hefty trail of destruction. It is very dark in the room; the glass windows are blocked by something. Upon closer examination they find that the darkness over the window is a massive swarm of locusts. Millions of the insects have wrapped themselves around the building. The creatures are slowly chewing at the frame of the skyscraper, hoping to find a weakness. Amongst the maze of broken circuits and wire one of the video conference equipment monitors is still functional. The face of councilman Eternal Balance appears on the screen. He demands to know Killer-of-Lies’s location. Marcus regrettably informs the Ethros spirit that Killer-of-Lies has been destroyed by the pack’s hands. Balance smirks and informs the Uratha that things work much differently here in the Ethros realm; spirits do not die from “mortal death.” Killer-of-Lies is merely incorporeal and will not take form until reunited with the realm’s essence. Balance further explains that within the building is a Hub, the heart of the Ethros realm. It contains enough essence to fuel the entire realm and will easily give Killer form once more. Magaloth must not encounter Killer-of-Lies. If Killer joins with him, very bad things will happen. Killer is a “spiritual cousin” and his power will only increase Magaloth’s. Above all, Magaloth cannot enter the Hub. If he does so, he could take out the entire realm. Before Eternal Balance can unravel more details the power is shut down. His monitor flickers off and the lights are replaced by total darkness. During the commotion and loss of power, no one realized that the attackers were still in the room. Three rather large and nasty black dragons lie mounted to the ceiling ready to strike. Each dragon falls down and grapples its intended target, only Eric Sky manages to dodge the beasts. He pushes Tonya to the side and clicks off the safety of his Uzi. A hideous sound travels through the air and stings Sky’s ears. One of the beasts is shrieking at the Uratha in a deafeningly tone. It wants to know where the book is. Sky quickly answers the dragon’s question with a long burst of 9mm rounds from his weapon. Even in the darkness he manages to find the target, his other Urathan senses make up for his lack of vision. Bullets rip flesh; the dark reptile is bleeding profusely. Tonya retreats to the corner of the room and is safe for the time being. Nails takes a beating but eventually manages to overpower his opponent dragon. He finishes off the aggressor with a well-placed back-breaker. Meanwhile Marcus, still woozy from the effects of the toxin, has some trouble defending himself. The third dragon wraps its forked tongue around the Alpha, tightening its grasp in a vicious choke-hold. Marcus cannot breath, and instinctively decides to give into his rage. The Iron Master shifts into his warrior form. Muscles bulge as he turns into Gauru. The dragon’s tongue swells with Blair’s change, eventually snapping as Marcus flexes his neck. Blood spews forth from the confused creature’s mouth. Gauru Marcus tears into the dragon with tooth and claw. The battle is over as quickly as it had started. In an uncontrollable rage, Marcus devours the beast’s flesh, a quick fix from the malnutrition imposed during the trials of Seven. Nails and Eric also have they fill of the other two beasts. The rage slowly subsides and Blair returns to human form, covered in flesh and blood. Marcus is appalled that he just ate raw meat and does his best to clean up. “Nails” DeWinter grins and licks his bloody lips; obviously he felt quite different about his meal. Eric Sky’s first thought after battle is to check on Tonya’s status. He finds her on the floor, shaking and shivering. Rain tells Eric that something is attacking her spirit, and she cannot fight it off any longer. Her eyes turn white and she shakes violently. The tremors within her eventually fade. She quickly regains her footing and looks at the Sky with a menacing stare. Eric Sky grits his teeth, he can smell Killer’s stink inside the girl. The Ethros spirit, inside Tonya, tells the Healing Scars that he has temporarily possessed the girl. Tonya will serve as a vessel until he can regain his essence. Sky doesn’t like the situation one bit, but Eternal Balance said to protect the whelp so there is little he can do for the moment. The Ethros looks down the girl’s shirt, smirks, and confesses that the girl does have a nice rack. It would be a pity for him to kill her. Eric Sky’s fury boils. The Uratha Bone Shadow carefully buries his hatred for the time being, warning the spirit that he will exact revenge if harm should befall the girl. Killer will become whole once they reach the Hub, which is only five stories above. Unfortunately, the elevator will no longer be an option for traveling. After opening the elevator doors the shaft reveals a pillar of unnatural fire, a new defense of the building in light of the attacks. The Healing Scars quickly close the doors and escape the approaching flames. Nails pulls out the RPG and points it to the ceiling as everyone else scrambles for cover. Two blasts later the five stories have been breached. The group climbs each level and enters the Hub, the brain of the entire building. Killer-of-Lies wastes no time and goes to the control console to open the gates. After several attempts he curses in the ancient tongue. With the power cut, the console will not function properly. They need to restore the main grid to obtain access to this room. Killer-of-Lies sighs and informs the Scars that the power grid is on a sublevel within the basement. Nails only has three RPG rounds left, hardly enough to blast through the structure of the building to that destination. The Healing Scars continue to discuss how to travel thousands of floors without the elevator or any stairs available. Killer, overhearing this, corrects them and explains that the Ethros floor number system is different than mortals. Humans number their buildings off of the first floor above ground, while Ethros number their building off of the first basement floor and work their way up. There are exactly 34,000 basement levels so the “first floor” of the building is really labeled 34,001. If they are on Ethros floor 34,382 then, by simply math, the group is really only 381 stories in the air, much lower than they had originally thought. Breaking the glass and climbing down would be possible, if not for the millions of locusts that would devour them and gain access to the building. They formulate a plan: why not use the building’s defenses to their advantage? If they break the glass, all the locusts will undoubtedly enter through at that point. Perhaps they could simultaneously open the elevator door and use the fire to kill the swarm. Nails stands by the elevator and waits for Marcus to break the glass. Blair draws his Katana and strikes the window. Locusts pour through the opening. Nails pulls the door open, releasing a pillar of flame in the insect’s general direction. It is working, the bugs are not smart enough to learn from their mistakes, more and more enter to meet their demise. After a long while the bulk of the locusts are destroyed. Nails pulls the large doors to a close and the fire ceases. With the majority of the locusts gone, the hole in the window allows the Healing Scars to climb to the surface below. Marcus offers himself as a host to Killer instead of Tonya, but Killer-of-Lies refuses. From the side of the building, the pack notices an army of undead soldiers mounted around the building hundreds of feet away. The hordes are quite comparable to that of Nail’s vision from the book. He scans the thousands looking for the one known as Magaloth. No such figure emerges from his field of vision. The army is not attacking; they must be waiting for a signal from Magaloth before advancing. After the climb to ground below, they enter the front doors of the building. Killer tells them that sublevel can be entered through a trap door on the first floor. Inside the group meets the secretary again sitting at her desk. She laughs and admits that she was the one who betrayed the Ethros realm by revealing its location to Magaloth. Her false image fades away as she shifts into a spider host. She is an Azlu, one of the fiercest fiends of the Uratha. The spider hosts are shards of an ancient greater spirit that once battled Father Wolf. Marcus quickly draws his duel Uzis and prepares to fire. The Azlu returns a cold stare that turns the Alpha to stone. Completely immobilized, there is little Marcus can do but try his best to break free. Nails engages the creature, striking it squarely with the butt of his RPG. Eric Sky protects Tony/Rain/Killer-of-Lies while the Blood Talon continues to battle. DeWinter leaps high in the air above the creature and fires his weapon at the spider. The RPG round buries into its abdomen and explodes. The Uratha returns to the ground just in time to smash its severed head with his feet, which happened to be the only recognizable part of the spider remaining. Upon the Azlu’s destruction, Marcus Blair is returned to normal. There’s no time to waste, the Scars descend the trap door and begin climbing. Eventually they descend for several hours until the walls are not longer scalable. With little light they cannot see to the bottom. Everyone releases their grasp and falls down into darkness. They all land on solid ground, finding themselves in the middle of a war zone. The Healing Scars have reached the power grid sublevel. A dwindled group of Ethros lead by one individual is fighting off a faction of approaching zombies and various other nasty creatures. They leader, named Dirge, is barking commands as he wields a mini gun as if it were a mere pistol. Dirge quickly explains that the enemy took over the power control station and the Ethros have spent the last few hours trying to gain it back. Eric Sky searches the countless corpses and finds a few grenades. Dirge agrees to draw the aggressor’s fire as the Scars make a suicide rush on the power control console at the other side of the room. Dirge warns them not to let any of the “fuckers” touch them; the beasts can infect anybody by physical contract. The Scars take heed and begin their assault. Dirge and his followers concentrate their cover fire on the brunt of the attackers. Sky also uses the grenades to blast back several opponents, but the fiends are beginning to surround the Healing Scars. Dirge tells the Uratha to keep going as he rushes on the countless zombies. He pulls several grenade pins attached to his hip as the creatures steadily come within range. Several grenade balsts erupt into a fireball that destroys most of the opposition, including Dirge. The Scars don’t have time to dwell on his sacrifice; they quickly rush on the control panel and start mashing buttons. Seconds later, the building begins to power up. The powered defense systems spring forth to life, as several automated rail guns detach from the ceiling and take care of the rest of the intruders. With power restored the Healing Scars will be able to gain access to the Hub. An elevator located next to the power terminal will easily take them to the appropriate level. They all enter the elevator and the doors close. It races upward, much faster than the other they had previously ridden, and drops them off at floor 34,387 in just a few seconds. Killer and the Scars input the correct code and enter the central room of the Hub. A giant sun-like sphere of essence spins at the core. It is flowing with thousands of points of essence! Killer is immediately made whole again, and Tonya gains control of her body. In presence of Hub sphere, the werewolves have also regained their connection to their essence. An enormous explosion rocks the building. One side of the skyscraper is reduced to ruble to reveal a dark figure mounted on a black dragon. His armor is laced with various wardings of the First Tongue. Though humanoid, his appearance bares strange features; one might say that there is savage animalism to it. A thick scar runs down the middle of his face. Nails immediately recognizes him from the book. It is Magaloth, and he wants Killer-of-Lies. The newly formed Killer-of-Lies cowers in the corner of the Hub in fear. Magaloth is taken back when his eyes fall upon the mage called Rain. With cold words he declares that she should have been killed by his servant Reckless-Hate. Tonya appears to know him as well; her skin begins to turn silver as she initiates a spell. She whispers a few words and it begins to rain. The Ethros sphere dims with her magic, as if she is harnessing the entire power of the realm itself. The silver mage tells the Healing Scars to stand close to her. A layer of protection forms around the caster, Killer-of-Lies, and the Scars. The sky continues to rain. Magaloth laughs and sneers, telling her that it will take more than water to sway him. The rainfall is steady now. The drops grow more frequent and powerful with each passing second. Over time the raindrops have turned into needles, long and sharp blades that piece and puncture everything in their decent to the ground. Magaloth’s body is literally torn apart, and his surrounding army is also washed away by the deadly downpour. Magaloth and his invading forces have been banished from the Ethros realm. From behind the sphere the Ethros councilman Eternal Balance makes his presence known. He thanks the Healing Scars and decrees that the final two trials of the Seven are complete. With the sixth trial they saved the entire realm from total destruction. The final act of the Seven involved them returning Killer-of-Lies to form. Through this action a balance was created, an answer to the imbalance that began with Killer's death at the pack's hands. He proclaims that the Ethros are the only spirits who believe in balance, the idea that harmony can and must exist between all things opposing. The rest of the spirit world follows a “kill or be killed” philosophy and cares little about such things. The Ethros attempt to enforce their moral code throughout the shadow, but the small troupe can only do some much. He understands their resentment towards Killer, but balance holds a blind eye in its resolve. The lesson learned here bears great importance; this example of balance amoung the Ethros spirits might give Marcus Blair the insight needed to save their totem spirit.