Michaelmas Term 2007 - History (Ancient and Modern)

[Knave]

What happened here?

David digs into his records, and makes a few discreet enquiries with contacts around the city. Mr and Professor Andrews led quiet and unassuming lives: he was a partner in a London actuarial practice, she was a Professor of Economics, with a research focus on Development Economies. They had two grown-up sons, one studying at the University of Edinburgh, the other working in Australia. They were walking back from a late dinner party at a friend's house when they were killed.

The police assumed it was a hit and run, because of the violence of the injuries, but its now clear that a Barrowwight ambushed them and beat them to death. They were buried one atop the other in Mr Andrew's family plot, some of the last spaces remaining in St Sepulchre's Cemetery. It seems that they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

Edited September 5 by Knave (see edit history)

[emotionaut]

Sophie

●○ the Monstrous ○●

StatsCharm -2, Cool +2, Sharp 0, Tough 0, Weird +3

Harm: ○○○ / ○○○○

Unstable: ○

Luck:  ○○○○○○○

Exp:  ●●●●○

Moves

Unnatural AppealRoll +Weird instead of +Charm when you manipulate someone.

Dark NegotiatorYou can use the manipulate someone move on monsters as well as people, if they can reason and talk.

IC

Sophie watches Sigurdur watch her. A million lies ramble through her head, but a part of her knows it's pointless. She just stays silent as the young man takes the books and makes his way out. She had been caught, and he now had an edge on her, if he wished to press it. Well, it's only fair Sophie look for an advantage of her own, and she has an idea of where to get it.

Leaving the library, she opts not to follow Sigurdur, but instead heads back to the psychology building where he had done his sleep study. She swipes herself in and heads back down to the basement to find the lab. By this hour, the place should be deserted. The question is whether she can get inside without causing a scene or making a mess...

OOC

Act Under Pressure to try getting inside. But that's another fail.

 

Edited September 6 by emotionaut (see edit history)

[Knave]

Things go to hell Keeper Hard Move: turn their move back on them

The sleep lab is part of Sophie"s department, so it's easy enough to get access and have a look around. She finds the used equipment without much effort either. Only a few hairs remain attached here and there. She pulls each strand loose with care, and bundles them together, then texts Annika to come over after lectures.

When she meets the budding witch though, she's disappointed. The few wisps of hair aren't enough of a token for Annika to use as a focus for her magic: she needs a full lock of hair for it to work as a token.

Of course, not everyone is so limited.

That night, when Sophie sleeps, she dreams as always. The dreamscape is a forest once more, and she sets off in search of Sophia. But she can't find her. The child must be hiding somewhere. Sophie presses on, deeper into the trees. The woods now are no cheery picnic spot, but a dark mass of clutching branches. She hears the sounds of a child crying softly, as though trying not to be heard. Slowly, Sophie approaches the noise, when a twig cracks behind her. She whips around just in time to see a gaunt, skeletal figure passing through a gap in the undergrowth. It burns with a black flame, and disappears into the trees.

OOC: Take -1 ongoing while your dreams are stalked by this figure and Sophia runs and hides.

 

Edited September 6 by Knave (see edit history)

[Spektor]

°•⌂→φ←ζ Aηηika, †hΣ HΣx ζ→φ←⌂•°

Stats: Charm +2, Cool +0, Sharp +0, Tough -1, Weird +2

Harm: ●●● / ○○○○

Unstable: ○

Luck:  ○○○○○○○

Exp:  ●●●●○

Temptation: Power

Moves & Gear

Bad Luck CharmWhenever you use magic and miss, the backlash never affects you directly if there’s someone else around to hit. It’ll go for allies, other hunters, and innocent bystanders. Sometimes, every so often, it might even hit an enemy.

Cast the Bones Once per mystery, you may perform some kind of divination (tarot, casting the runes, reading entrails, or something like that) to glean information about the future. When you seek guidance by divination, roll +Sharp. On a 10+, hold 2. On a 7-9, hold 1. On a miss, you get some information, but it’s not what you want to hear. Spend those holds to ask any question from the investigate a mystery move, or one of the following questions:

• What can I gain from this person/place/thing/creature?
• Who has touched this person/place/thing/creature
before me?

The Keeper will answer truthfully, with either a direct answer or how to find out more.

Sympathetic TokenAs long as you carry a personal object belonging to someone, such as a lock of hair, a full set of toenails, or a treasured family heirloom, you get +1 ongoing to use magic against them. You can also use magic against them at a distance. If you try to use magic against them and miss, the token is lost, destroyed, or loses its power.

 

Rotes:

Leeching Enchantment(Must be cast at night. Requires the burning of pressed flowers.)
This ability works similar to the Use Magic ability: Enchant a Weapon, but with extra bonuses.

On a 10+
Enchant a weapon. It gets +1 harm and +magic and + Vampiric (1 healing for each time it deals damage).

On a 7-9
The effect is weakened. Choose two of the three tags.

On a miss
The weapon turns on you as you attempt to enchant it. Take 1 harm ignore armour. Apply no Effects.

 

Gear:

Athame(2-harm hand magic silver)

Staff(1-harm hand balanced large)

Annika had spent plenty of nights in dark rooms overflowing with too many living bodies, listening to squealing vocalists speak of the dead rising, all over heavy guitar riffs and double bass kick drums. But this night was different. She had actually experienced the living dead, and they weren't like the mutilated corpse that the deathcore band she was currently watching used as their emblem -- its rotting flesh peeling from its face and forming the illegible words of the band's name. What was their name anyways? Something like 'Embryonic Fetish', but she couldn't be sure. It was a poor marketing strategy to make the band name completely unreadable, come to think of it.

Lights flash through the heavy smog of concert mist and cigarette smoke. Shoulders slam into hers as she pushes through the crowds towards the back of the underground club she had pushed herself to attend this evening. Finally free of the moshing, tattooed teens she leans against the back wall, hand against cold concrete that was wet with something -- beer? sweat? vomit? The last of those thoughts causes her to pull her hand away and wipe it against her sweat-soaked tank top. She came out this night to try and escape the horrors she had faced just a few nights before with David and Ekram. This was supposed to take her mind off of things. Yet, she can't get the image of Ekram dragging the corpse behind him, looking half dead himself, from appearing in front of her with every flash from the strobe. For some reason she had pictured the heavy guitar riffs and thumping drums she was hearing now to play when she was fighting for her life against the monsters, as if she was trapped in some music video. But it hadn't been anything like that. In fact, the eerie silence that followed her near death experience was more troubling than any guttural growling she had heard in the loud and dark rooms where she sought her solace.

She half stumbles up the stairs and out of the steaming basement. The muted drums still pound from the exit next to her when she finally slumps to the ground with her back against the structure's exterior wall. "F*ck..." She swears and pulls a half-bent cigarette from the partially crushed pack she slides from her pocket. The nicotine feels rancid in her lungs on the first inhale, but its a soothing rancidity. Something fitting for a f*ck up like herself, or so she thinks. Her and Ekram had spent most of the morning and afternoon together in an attempt to give her some sort of skill at fighting with very little progress. Then they had shared an awkward half-date which consisted of chips, milkshakes, and awkward conversations. They were from extremely different worlds. Ekram was the badass she had always pretended to be and being around him made her feel like the biggest poser of all. It's why she had cut the date off early and ended the day with an uneasy feeling that it would probably never happen again. She isn't quite sure yet if that's her choice or if it's just something she expects.

Her thoughts are interrupted when some drunk ass hat stumbles a bit too heavily into a deep puddle and splashes her with day-old rainwater and London's liquid runoff. "Motherf*cker!" She shouts out and receives a middle finger in response. Seething, she imagines herself standing up and tackling the little shit to the ground, balling her hands into fists, and pummeling the life out of him. But she doesn't do that. She accepts the garbage water with little more than a swear and finds it fitting in her current mood. Garbage water for a girl who's lead a life of trash. She wants to get wasted again. She wants to go tell Sophie to let Alice know that she quits this whole stupid monster hunting thing; that she's quitting magic for good; that they should find someone who knows what the f*ck they are doing instead of some lost rich bitch who can barely pretend to be the person she's pretended to be her whole life.

But she has to study. She can't screw that part of her life up, at the very least. She flicks the soggy cigarette away, which ricochets off the nearby trashcan and lands in the puddle nearby. Nothing left now but to catch the bus back to Oxford and start all over again.

---

The next day Annika awakens with a headache and morning breath from unbrushed teeth. She feels as if she had spent the night chugging bourbon, when in truth she only had a couple of beers. Nevertheless, she pops her headphones on and blasts more metal music to help her focus on her studies. Some of those studies involve her actual classes on campus, the rest is more focused on her side-gig. She wants to find a way to rip these demon-f*cks right out of the corpses they so presumptuously have possessed. If she can figure out that much, maybe she can actually be helpful the next time they come across one. Surely there is something in one of those Wiccan handbooks for beginners that mentions possession and how to rid someone of it. Or perhaps she needs to step out a bit and try out something more intermediate or advanced. Sure, such rituals came with a massive amount of danger. But what does she have to lose at this point?

OoC

I think I'm Investigating a Mystery but I'm not really certain? I know you said it would probably be big magic, and if that's something you want to handle more in the moment that's fine too. We can take this as her learning how such things are possible from a narrative standpoint.

 

[Knave]

Annika reads, and reads, and reads. She learns a lot that she didn't know about magic, and she reads a lot about monsters.

The problem is that this Barrowwight lord, this draugr, whoever they are, isn't possessed as such. They are in their own body, even though it is dead, and as such are tied by many tethers to it, much as a living person is. She is forced to turn to some of David's collection, more obscure works.

Finally, she finds something. To pull a soul from its own dead body is a specific process, with very specific requirements:

First, the body must be near the placed where it died.

Second, the body must be physically held in place.

Third, it requires two people to use magic from opposite sides of the body: one to push the spirit and one to pull at it.

If all this can be accomplished, the spirit will move on as in a normal death, and the body will become an inanimate corpse.

Edited September 6 by Knave (see edit history)

[emotionaut]

Sophie

●○ the Monstrous ○●

StatsCharm -2, Cool +2, Sharp 0, Tough 0, Weird +3

Harm: ○○○ / ○○○○

Unstable: ○

Luck:  ○○○○○○○

Exp:  ●●●●○

Moves

Unnatural AppealRoll +Weird instead of +Charm when you manipulate someone.

Dark NegotiatorYou can use the manipulate someone move on monsters as well as people, if they can reason and talk.

IC

Sophie stops dead in her tracks. For time untold, the Dream has been a haven away from the troubles of the real world. It was quite literally created by Sophia for that very purpose, and it did too good a job of it. But for the first time ever, the peace of the Dream has been undone. Something is here that does not belong. And it has caused Sophia to feel fear.

Anger builds within Sophie, and the world around her shifts subtly to reflect it. The sky above the twisted trees reddens as if from a sunset or a distant forest fire. A breeze picks up through the trees, tousling her hair and shaking the bare branches. In a firm voice, Sophie calls out after the creature, "You don't belong here. This is her place. If you want something of us, if you wish to talk, I have another place for that. Join me there."

Sophie then steps sideways, the Dream parting as if a curtain. When she emerges on the other side, she is in another part of the Dream, partitioned from the places Sophia roams. It has the look of Catz back in Oxford, but the faces populating the dorms are of her own creation. They are fantasies, built in her mind to be played with in ways unsuitable for a young girl to see. There are things Sophie denies herself in the waking world, out of respect for her stolen body. But here in the Dream, in this hidden corner, she allows herself to imagine what might be. Love, passion, and even darker things...

Sophie sits down at the table in the kitchenette and she waits to see if the creature accepts her invitation.

OOC

Using Manipulate Someone with her Dark Manipulator trait to speak with monsters.

 

[Knave]

They'll do it, if...

For a moment, Sophie thinks her ploy has failed. The kitchenette seems the same as always.

But then the shadows begin to grow longer, defying the light to reach out and spread across the ceiling and wall. The room becomes black. The air becomes cold; cold enough that she sees her breath.

Sophie feels rather than sees the monster appear behind her, seemingly from no where. When it speaks, she can tell its mouth is right beside her ear.

The voice is deep and resonant, and freighted with coercion and compulsion. Sophie feels sure that if she understood the words, she would be hard put to find the willpower to disobey.

Fortunately, the language is unfamiliar to her, she hears meaningless sounds:

He-vi thoner thu thessun kirk jumon num, gamli?

Clearly a question of some sort.

Thona meer nu na. Vertu myn.

The forcefulness of this obvious command is claustrophobic, even though she can't understand or obey.

The monster vanishes from the Dream. For now.

 

Edited September 6 by Knave (see edit history)

[Gregorotto]

⛤᛭⛤ StatsCharm -1, Cool +1, Sharp 0, Tough +2, Weird +1 ⛤᛭⛤

 

Harm: ○○○ / ○○○○

Unstable: ○

Luck:  ○○○○○○○

Exp:  ●●○○○

Moves

Cast Out EvilCast Out Evil: You may banish an unnatural creature from your presence. Roll +Tough. On a 10+ it is banished. On a 7-9 it takes a little while for the banishing to take effect—the creature has time to make one or two actions. Either way, the banished creature is unharmed, and you have no control over where it goes. This move may be used on unnatural hunters (e.g. the Monstrous). On a miss, something is keeping it here. That’s bad.

Lay on HandsLay On Hands: Your touch can heal injury and disease. When you lay your hands on someone hurt, roll +Cool. On a 10+, heal 2 harm or an illness, plus they’re stabilized. On a 7-9, you can heal the harm or illness as on a 10+, but you take it into yourself. On a miss, your aura causes them extra harm.

No LimitsWhen you push your physical body past its limits, roll +Weird:
• On a 10 or more, your body obeys your will, to the limits of physical possibility (see below), for a moment.
• On a 7-9, you do it but choose one consequence: suffer 1-harm, take –1 forward, or you need to rest right now.
• On a miss, something goes horribly wrong.

Advanced No Limits. If you advance your no limits move, add this:
• On a 12 or more, you can continue acting at your body’s limits for 30 seconds.

For the purposes of this move, “physical possibility” means “conceivably possible for a human.” For example:
• Physically Possible: Lift an SUV, Jump over a truck, Punch through a wall.
• Not Physically Possible: Lift a building, Fly, Punch a blast of energy at a foe.

SmiteSmite: Your body and divine weapon always count as a weakness against the monsters you fight. Your unarmed attacks are 2-harm intimate hand messy.

IC

He goes back to his room, skipping classes. He rests. He recovers. He awakes hungover, finally learning what that feels like, but it passes quickly, an inconvenience at worst. It comes to him slowly, what happened, and he realizes that, as they were preparing to leave the clinic, he did something. He touched Sophie, and took whatever was ailing her into him. That's new. That's... very interesting, actually. He can take the pains of others, regardless of what kind, and make them his own. How does that work?

So he gets to work experimenting immediately.

A bruise? He offers a massage around the tissue; it goes away, with his arm starting to hurt a little: and there it is, the same bruise. A migraine? He skips that one, he knows that works... at first. He comes back later and massages the girl's temples, and it goes away for her... and he needs ibuprofen immediately.

Hal fills his time with trying to understand this power, and wonders... what else is there? This is a great start. And one he isn't sure he should advertise, though surely Sophie knows. Right?

OOC

Experimenting with Lay on Hands

[DoNotFearToTread]

In Brief

Ekram

The Wronged

Stats: Charm +1, Cool +0, Sharp +1, Tough +2, Weird -1

Harm: ●●● / ○○○○

Unstable: ○

Luck:  ●●●●●●○

Exp:  ○○○○○

Playbook Moves

I Know My PreyYou get +1 ongoing when knowingly investigating, pursuing or fighting the breed of monster that caused your loss.

DIY SurgeryWhen you do quick and dirty first aid on someone (including yourself), roll +Cool.

On a 10+ it’s all good, it counts as normal first aid, plus stabilize the injury and heal 1 harm. On a 7-9 it counts as normal first aid, plus one of these, your choice:

• Stabilise the injury but the patient takes -1 forward.
• Heal 1-harm and stabilise for now, but it will return as 2-harm and become unstable again later.
• Heal 1-harm and stabilise but the patient takes -1 ongoing until it’s fixed properly.

Never Again!In combat, you may choose to protect someone without rolling, as if you had rolled a 10+, but you may not choose to “suffer little harm.”

Trust Your Gut (alt Weird)When you consult your instincts about what to do next, roll +Weird:

• On a 10 or more, the Keeper will tell where you should go. Wherever that is, it will be important. You get +1 ongoing on the way to this place.
• On a 7-9, the Keeper will tell you a general direction to go. Take +1 forward as you explore that.
• On a miss, your instincts lead you into danger.

 

Lonely Boy

They'd done what they had to do and he'd come away filthy, bloody and tired. Some would call that a good night. He spends a solid forty minutes in the shower as the steam fills the bathroom and the water scorches the dirt from his body. Afterwards, with a towel wrapped around his waist, he stares at himself in the mirror for longer than any self-respecting bad boy should. The fresh bandaging on his arm covered the docs stitch work but Ekram could foresee the results, triple lines of white scarring that would join the jagged line above his ribs and the burn marks under his chin, barely hidden by the expertly manicured growth on his jawline. It's been bugging him since the adrenaline of the fight faded, the way this fight felt different. He wasn't just killing monsters now. He was actively engaged in bringing other people into the fight, and Annika came away with the first of what would be many scars. Dragging a comb through his hair, he finds the eyes staring back at him to be empty and sour today. Monster slayer is a title he held in high regard. Hell, it was practically his purpose for getting out of bed in the morning. But pimp for the OUMHS? That feels dirty.

His work in class that week is grim, all blacks and reds and greens that speak to the festering in his soul. It is perfectly on brand but he takes no joy in creating it. There is no connection and he takes the grade with a shrug and a grunt. Saturday comes and goes leaving him even less pleased with himself. Annika's struggles with the knife make him glad she is practicing in a safe environment, but his thoughts turn away from her form and toward her form more than he is comfortable with. When they go out to eat he is still chewing on the thoughts, the doubts at his own ability to train her if he can't keep his head on straight. The more they talk, the more he realizes that she could have a real life without all this crap. And the more he dislikes being involved in her getting stuck in it in the first place. The conversation is stilted and awkward, which isn't unusual for him, but when they go their separate ways he is faced with an uncomfortable reality. His excuse before when things went weird on a date was that they just didn't know his life. Didn't know about monsters and what he had to deal with. Now, with Annika, it was still off and he can't play that card. So it has to be him, right? He's just...shit at having a conversation. At acting like a normal person.

With the others off working on how to deal with the draugr, Ekram finds his wheels spinning and he takes to the streets. He used to do patrols at night back home but he'd fallen off that since coming to Oxford, where the streets are brighter and the police presence more visible. Taking up the knife and wandering the college as the crowds fade and the dark settles in gives him a way to not think about everything else. He feels focused in those cool, dim moments between night and morning. So he does it the next night, and again two nights later, and when a couple of his classmates ask him over to work collectively on their upcoming history and theory essay he declines and takes to the streets again. Beyond a check in call with David, he lets the society sit on the backburner as the week progresses.

OOC Stuff

Everyone's feeling the pressure. Beautiful, I see it as a montage.

Edited September 11 by DoNotFearToTread (see edit history)

[Knave]

Hal gets two things that day: a reputation among the Jesus ladies as an excellent masseur, and a growing realisation that his visions had not just been for show. They had given him something; changed him in some way. He's not just a kid that inherited a weird family business. He himself has been made weird through it, pushed into strangeness. It's not just what he does anymore; it's what he is now too.

Edited September 11 by Knave (see edit history)

[emotionaut]

Sophie

●○ the Monstrous ○●

StatsCharm -2, Cool +2, Sharp 0, Tough 0, Weird +3

Harm: ○○○ / ○○○○

Unstable: ○

Luck:  ○○○○○○○

Exp:  ●●●●○

Moves

Unnatural AppealRoll +Weird instead of +Charm when you manipulate someone.

Dark NegotiatorYou can use the manipulate someone move on monsters as well as people, if they can reason and talk.

IC

Sophie wakes feeling like she ought to go right back to sleep. But she can't. She has to write down those words before they slip from her mind entirely. She jumps out of bed and grabs a pen and the nearest scrap of paper. She closes her eyes and focuses on remembering the sounds the creature in her dream made. She records them as carefully and as accurately as she can. She says them aloud to verify that she's got the phonetics right, and a shiver goes down her spine as she makes the sounds. She has no idea what they mean, but they can't be good.

She needs to find out.

She considers bringing David in on this. This is the sort of thing he's good at. But how would she explain the origin of the words? How would she explain the presence invading her dreams? And how could she press upon him the urgency she feels without revealing the truth about Sophia and herself. Sophie doesn't know what David already knows or suspects about her origins, but she's in no rush to confirm or reveal anything he doens't know for certain.

She decides to speak with one of the linguistics experts in the psych department first. Perhaps they can narrow down the dialect or give her some lead on the language. It's nothing like anything she's ever heard before, but she's hardly been a world traveler in her life. Ireland, England, and a short time in Scotland. But she's never been off the isles. And she's only ever heard tongues brought to her.
 

OOC

Can I Investigate a Mystery to try learning more about whatever the creature said to her in the dream? If I fail this, I'll bring it to David.

Oh, snap! All right, but I'm not sure how any of the questions can really be applied here. Maybe "What is being concealed here?" to understand what was being said, and then "What was it going to do?" based on whatever rough translation she figures out. I'm open to GM's interpretation here.

 

Edited September 12 by emotionaut (see edit history)

[Knave]

It's not too hard to find a linguistics expert in these parts, and for Sophie it's a simple matter to convince one of them, a Dr Christopher Friend, to take an interest in her little puzzle.

He listens to the words as she repeats them a few times, then gives his opinion.

What is being concealed here?

"Definitely a Scandinavian language. Maybe Norwegian or Icelandic? But not quite. Old Norse? Kirkju is church. Gamli is an old thing or old person. Hm

He consults a couple of books, and then Google Translate.

"The author or speaker seems to be addressing an "old one", and enquiring why they align or ally themselves with the churchmen. And then they make a demand for service, or obedience possibly. It's an unusual dialect if it's Icelandic."

What was it going to do?

Sophie remembers the compulsion that she felt in The Dream, and feeling the same feeling when she probed Sigurður's emotions. The creature was trying to make her into a thrall, or at least put her to some use. Fortunately, she was protected by not understanding the command when it was given in Old Norse. Sigurður, an Icelandian, wasn't so lucky. He is being controlled, at least partially, by this creature.

 

[Knave]

A few days later...

---

The Society is gathered for its weekly meeting in the private back room of the Eagle and Child, complete with display of significant weaponry, boards of former members, and occult histories of the region. The corner bar is stocked well, if not extravagantly.

Alice is present, but she doesn't seem inclined to take the lead or direct proceedings. She turns the pages of an old book idly, glancing every so often at the wards on the door- and window-frames, as though checking they are still there.

Edited September 16 by Knave (see edit history)

[emotionaut]

Sophie

●○ the Monstrous ○●

StatsCharm -2, Cool +2, Sharp 0, Tough 0, Weird +3

Harm: ○○○ / ○○○○

Unstable: ○

Luck:  ○○○○○○○

Exp:  ●●●●○

Moves

Unnatural AppealRoll +Weird instead of +Charm when you manipulate someone.

Dark NegotiatorYou can use the manipulate someone move on monsters as well as people, if they can reason and talk.

IC

Sophie stops by Annika's room on her way out of Catz for the meeting. She worries somewhat that she's been remiss in her duties on the academic side of things, but she's also glad that Annika has taken to her role with the OUMHS. Sophie also wonders if the girl is taken with Ekram, but she's not ready to broach that subject, even if she can convince herself that it's any of her business.

Should Annika be at home, Sophie asks if she'd like to walk together to the pub. There's plenty of mundane chatter to fill the time, from their studies to various local dramas playing out among the student population of Catz. She doesn't directly ask Annika about anything related to her graveyard adventure, her training with Ekram, or her self-studies in the ways of witchcraft. But she leaves the door open to Annika unburdening herself of anything that might be on her mind, regardless of topic.

Sophie speaks little about her own goings-on. There will be enough to say - and more to hide - at the meeting tonight. She likely comes across as the most boring frumpy tute mum around, but that's just fine by her. To be boring is to be normal, and that's a fantasy she often indulges.
 

---

Once they're all settled in the back room of the pub, Sophie waits for a lull that needs feeling. Bracing herself, she then volunteers, "So I've been meanin' to share some more of what I've learned on our boyo Sigurdur. Turns out Alice was half right. While not a possession in the classic sense, he's under the influence of something. Ask me how I know?" she suggests, but then doesn't wait for anyone to actually ask. "The thing paid me a visit. I got the feelin' it wanted me to do something for it, but I didn't understand a word it said. Probably for the best, since that may have been the only thing protectin' me from the compulsion, so.

"I wrote down the words best I could. Spoke to a linguist or two and got a rough translation. It knows we're onto it. And it spoke of the 'churchmen', which makes me wonder if it knows of you, David," she says, looking across the table at the older member. "Here, you ever run afoul of an Icelandic spook that rummages about in one's dreams?"
 

 

[Spektor]

°•⌂→φ←ζ Aηηika, †hΣ HΣx ζ→φ←⌂•°

Stats: Charm +2, Cool +0, Sharp +0, Tough -1, Weird +2

Harm: ○○○/○○○○

Unstable: ○

Luck:  ○○○○○○○

Exp:  ●●●●○

Temptation: Power

Moves & Gear

Bad Luck CharmWhenever you use magic and miss, the backlash never affects you directly if there’s someone else around to hit. It’ll go for allies, other hunters, and innocent bystanders. Sometimes, every so often, it might even hit an enemy.

Cast the Bones Once per mystery, you may perform some kind of divination (tarot, casting the runes, reading entrails, or something like that) to glean information about the future. When you seek guidance by divination, roll +Sharp. On a 10+, hold 2. On a 7-9, hold 1. On a miss, you get some information, but it’s not what you want to hear. Spend those holds to ask any question from the investigate a mystery move, or one of the following questions:

• What can I gain from this person/place/thing/creature?
• Who has touched this person/place/thing/creature
before me?

The Keeper will answer truthfully, with either a direct answer or how to find out more.

Sympathetic TokenAs long as you carry a personal object belonging to someone, such as a lock of hair, a full set of toenails, or a treasured family heirloom, you get +1 ongoing to use magic against them. You can also use magic against them at a distance. If you try to use magic against them and miss, the token is lost, destroyed, or loses its power.

 

Rotes:

Leeching Enchantment(Must be cast at night. Requires the burning of pressed flowers.)
This ability works similar to the Use Magic ability: Enchant a Weapon, but with extra bonuses.

On a 10+
Enchant a weapon. It gets +1 harm and +magic and + Vampiric (1 healing for each time it deals damage).

On a 7-9
The effect is weakened. Choose two of the three tags.

On a miss
The weapon turns on you as you attempt to enchant it. Take 1 harm ignore armour. Apply no Effects.

 

Gear:

Athame(2-harm hand magic silver)

Staff(1-harm hand balanced large)

Annika had drowned herself completely into her studies of the occult and it showed in her class work. Why focus on learning the psychology of people when you could use powerful, otherworldly magics? Well, she couldn't yet, but she was starting to get the idea behind it all. All because she had spent the last few days researching all that she could about the occult. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, the driving force behind her sudden increase in studies had come from her failed training. She was not quick on her feet. She did not float light a butterfly, and the only stinging that came from her attempts was the sting of hurt pride. Like most things that she wasn't immediately good at, Annika became overly frustrated with her failures. She was impatient. She didn't immediately fight like she had seen in the movies, or even close to what Ekram could do, so clearly she must be a lost cause.

When Sophie arrives to her room to pick her up for their walk, Annika stumbles over stacks of books and discarded dirty laundry to reach the door. Surprisingly, when the door swings open, Annika appears to be dressed up and ready to go. The dark circles beneath her pallid eyes hint at sleepless nights, but -- is she wearing a bit of foundation to smooth her skin? That, combined with a darkening around her eyes not brought on by lack of sleep but instead an application of eyeliner, make it obvious to the discerning eye that she had done her makeup. A surprising sight, considering it was hardly on her list of priorities when she awoke late for class every day since her first day of attendance at Oxford. "Ready to go?"

During their walk, Annika seems completely oblivious to Sophie's attempts to learn more about how the last few days have gone for her. So oblivious that it almost seems as if she's been looking for any excuse to talk to someone about what's been going on. She explains a few of the breakthroughs she's had with her magic, how she's fallen behind in her academic studies, and finally, the awkward half-date-half-training day she had with Ekram. "I don't know if I'm going to do it again. It's probably best I stay towards the back and just focus on what I can do at a distance." It's not a bad tactic on a normal battlefield, but the world of monsters was unpredictable. What's more, it sounds a lot like an excuse to cut off the chance at another date with Ekram.

Much like the selfish child she is, Annika seems to completely forget to ask about Sophie until the moment they are just outside of Eagle and Child. "Oh shit, Sophie! I'm so sorry, I've been blabbering about my shit all this time. How have you been? We should...hang out." The pause is a poorly veiled social faux pas. The type that happens when one is questioning whether it's a good idea even as they put it forth. Did her and Sophie really have much in common besides their focus in academics and monster hunting? Shouldn't that be enough? "I'm serious. I feel like I know so little about you, but I've told you so much about me. We should grab a drink soon. I promise, I'll shut my mouth and listen the whole time."

---

Annika leans against one of the walls near a displayed historical weapon as a complete contrast to its reverence. She smacks loudly on bubblegum with the most casual of stances. The half-length black jacket seems more a fashion statement than a functional piece of clothing, and the tight, thin-strapped shirt she wears beneath it has another illegible metalcore band's name scrawled across it in a gruesome spatter of white against the red hued fabric. Her ripped black jeans are tucked into the high top combat boots that cover her feet, one of which is partially untied. With her hands unceremoniously shoved into her coat pockets, she stares with a bored expression towards Alice, who still hasn't spoken up. She's certain to keep her eyes directly pointed away from where Ekram is. "Well? We are all here." She states rudely, just in time for Sophie to butt in with helpful information.

The response on Annika's face to the revelation that Sophie had been visited by one of these creeps is a slack-jawed one. "Holy shit, it got into your dreams?" She continues chewing her gum annoyingly as Sophie continues her explanation, which makes her look finally towards David. "Looks like our little demon doesn't care much for you Godly-folk, eh? I have been doing some studying up on magic, but I have not tried messing around with dream protection much. I'm sure I could track down a charm or enchantment to protect us while we sleep. But that doesn't exactly keep us from being torn to shreds in the physical world." As she speaks, she feels a sting beneath the bandage across her throat. Thankfully, she had taken David's orders about how to see to its treatment and made sure it had stayed as clean as possible. The bandage had shrunk in size so that she didn't look like an emergency room patient anymore, but there would still be a scar once its final dressing was removed. "So, what do we do about the Sigurdur lad? There has to be away to remove this thing's influence on him. What does it have him doing exactly? Oh! If I can get a lock of hair or something from him, I could keep an eye on him without being too intrusive. I think there are a few other things I can do with it as well, but I'd have to look back through my notes."

OoC