Hell's Invasion Prologue (Michael Close) [IC]

Michael was probably going about his business on D-Day. Where was he and what was he doing when the first gate to hell opened near him?

Michael Chase

Michael is a 26 year old man with brown hair and green eyes. He's 6ft tall. I was hoping to start him as a character with no really reliable skills. Though he has a little bit of weapons knowledge, his D&D knowledge would encourage him to flee from demons, especially if they were ignoring bullets from security guards like in Evan's story... I'm hoping that Michael might be able to become an occultist/mage/alchemist.

Michael grew up on a property and though he showed very little interest in doing so as a kid and a teen, can nonetheless poorly ride a motorbike and fire rifles and shotguns, load and unload them as a result, but only in a very limited capacity. He can however sufficiently use a compound bow due his passion below.

His real passion was always invested in obsession with fantasy stories and roleplaying games such as D&D, Whitewolf and Call of Cthulhu. His obsession with such things had him playing with bows before age 10.

Michael made friends with one game enthusiast in particular by the name of Jamie, who was always a little... Different. Jamie later revealed to Michael his interest in the occult. Michael would enter his flat no longer filled with RPG books, but old religious texts, including works by Mr Crowly. Jamie informed that through ritual he had been summoning demons in his circle to learn and develop from. According to Jamie... The demons are not the evil ones... Well okay then.

Michael thought his friend was developing symptoms of schizophrenia, then suddenly Jamie just stopped talking about the occult. He said something about the world being his ritual circle rather than the spare bedroom. He has not spoken about the occult for 1 year since.

As for work, Michael hasn't found himself yet, he tried policing for a time, but as a dreamer, just wasn't suited to it. He also has tried a number of different jobs in offices, labourer, carpentry and has even taken plane lessons up until learning how to land.... He found his real talent actually lies in acting and after saving some money, decided to pack up and leave for L.A. to see if he could make it in an acting career.

Michael has…
Strength d20
Agility d8
Health d12
Perception d12
Wisdom d10
Luck d10

Michael’s Skills/Powers:
1. Horseback Riding d20
2. Gather Information d20
3. Knowledge Arcane Lore d20
4. Profession (Actor) d20
5. Perform (Acting) d20
6. Persuasion d20
7. Spellcraft d20 – 1 Free Cantrip & Read Magic
* Read Magic – Allows reading of arcane writing
* ___
8. Stealth d20
9. Archaic Weapons Skill d20
10. Firearms Weapon Skill d20 ->d10 (7pts)
11. Magic Trait d20
* Allows casting of spells and measures arcane energy

It was by no means an ordinary day for Michael, it was going to be extraordinary. He was catching a bus in Southern California to a studio for his first shoot as an extra. You see, Michael was an Australian, trying to break into acting. It was his second day in America. His GPS notified him he was only a block away from arrival and as the bus pulled into the next stop, Michael got off to walk.

As he began to walk up towards the studio, Michael's nerves started playing with his head.. In an attempt to distract himself, he pulled out his phone. After checking Facebook, he noticed that hehad 9 new e-mails. He let out a sigh of exhaustion when he saw who they were from. "Oh Jesus Christ Jamie" ; he whispered through clenched teeth.

Jamie was a friend of Michaels who's mental health had been deteriorating over the last few years. He thought Jamie had made significant improvements in the last year though. These emails each looked hysterical and Paranoid. Filled with rants about numbers lining up and warnings. "YOU NEED TO GET THEIR TRUE NAME, THEY HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO OBEY, MAGIC IS OUR BEST CHANCE" one of the messages read, "CIRCLES ARE CRITICAL" said another, "AVOID THEM IF YOU CAN, BUT IF ONE CORNERS YOU, CHALLENGE IT". Michael frowned and shook his head; he wished he could wave a magic wand and fix his friend.

Jamie was always very different, once one of Michaels RPG friends, Jamie has since renounced his desire to play; "Why PLAY being a wizard, when you can be the real thing and more". You see, Jamie thinks he's, well no, he's. Well he's heavily into the occult. You don't really get more alternative than Jamie. He got so into it, he converted his entire second bedroom into a ritual room and claimed he was summoning Angels, then one day apparently started summoning demons, not the kinds of creatures with any PHYSICAL form of course.

Michael sighed and put his phone away. He was just about to turn the corner and be able to see the studio. He licked his lips and swallowed, his throat dry from nerves. "Well, what's the worst that could happen", Michael joked. More than he realised as he was about to find out.

He heard the loud roar of an engine and something else... A lion? "They must be filming something outside!" Thought Michael as he sprinted around the corner smiling. As he turned the corner and looked up, his smile quickly turned into a look of surprise, then horror....

The first thing Michael noticed was there was no one manning the security gate to enter the studio grounds. The pedestrian turnstile was able to turn freely and the guard shack was empty.

He heard a new sound when he turned the corner just inside the gate and saw a mob of people screaming and running towards him. There was an electric golf cart with two rent-a-cops right there in the middle of the horde, fleeing with all the rest. But that was not the horrifying sight. It was the thing right behind them, flying in the air.


Chasing after the mob was a 8-foot tall, black skinned creature with large bat-like wings. His skin was scaly and he had a lizard-like tail, feet that ended with clawed toes. His head was roughly humanoid, except really ugly with and larger nose and a mouth full of teeth that could not be contained inside. He had malevolent eyes with red pupils. There were horns coming out of the back of his head and he had little pointed ears.

His hands had talon-like fingers and snatched up a woman by her head and simply twisted it off.

Without a moment to spare, Michael cursed and ran back around the corner looking for the nearest doorway to hide behind and wait. Several brief thoughts entered his mind as he moved back behind the corner. "It had to be a special effects thing right?" But there were no cameras.... Well no cameras that Michael could see at least... Yeah, let's not make any assumptions here... Yeah, but the movie, wasn't a Fantasy movie or anything, no mention of... erm, Demons?

"Ok, just stay calm and breathe, use your breathing exercises".... He stammered. "I'll just wait for things to pass and if the creature is a Demonic evil from the pits of hell I'll, I'll-" He was interrupted by another scream. As he hid around an old brick doorway, he saw the golf cart come into view in mid air, one of the security guards sitting in the passengers seat screaming as the other was being airlifted above, the demon holding his struggling body by the head. The golf cart went crashing onto its side, scraping its passenger along with it. A smear of blood trailed along the road behind it.

The Demon hovered momentarily in mid air, lifting the struggling man up in front of it, it ran its claw underneath the mans belly, spilling the contents in a shower of blood and gore onto the people below. The demon tossed the body of the man to the side, his body landing on top of a parked car just metres from Michael. Wide eyed, Michael was convinced this was not fake.... the people fanned out just as the second security guard could be seen screaming at the demon "You bastard!, he emptied his weapon into the demon, it's reaction was simply to land on top of him and have a snack. The mans screaming was only muffled by the gurgling of his blood.

Michael felt exposed. The people were dispersing rapidly as the demon ate and soon it would need to kill again. "Screw your magic bull crap Jamie you stinking bastard" whispered Michael with gritted teeth. He decided he would try to creep forward towards the guards corpse to grab his gun and if possible, his radio. Not that he'd use those things on the demon of course, fat lot of good that'd do, but maybe he could use the gun to open a door or something if need be. He hoped it was some sort of pistol. He had used glocks in the police and knew how to fire them or fix them in case of jamming.

The creature was enjoying the dead rent-a-cop's eyeballs and licking up blood from his claws. It was hardly paying any attention to anyone else for a few heartbeats.

Lucky for Michael the overturned golf cart was between him and the feeding creature. There was a pump shotgun that had spilled from the cart nearby. The wounded security guard was already trying to pull himself clear of the wreckage with a broken and scraped up leg. The guy's right wrist looked broken too.

Looking back at the winged creature, Michael could see his lizard-like tail twitching like a cat's when the feline was preparing to pounce. The the creature launched after another victim to land on a struggling woman that had tripped and stumbled about 30 feet farther down. She had only managed to stand back up, look in horror and scream as death barreled into her.

Before killing her, the creature was savoring the terror as he crouched over her on all fours, pinning her flat on her back. He had a long, snake-like tongue and he licked her cheek with a maniacal chortle. The woman was screaming so hard, her vocal cords gave out.

Michael picked up the shotgun, grasping for what ammo he could if there was any. Standing up, he headed straight back towards the doorway. He couldn't save the woman, no way. He had to be logical. Fumbling with the chamber, he made sure the shotgun was loaded. The rent-a-cop wasn't sticking around. All he could do was hobble as quickly as possible.

Michael heard the sound of the woman's muffled screaming as the demon dealt some form of lethal blow to her out of his vision. He felt sick in the stomach when he heard it. His anxiety began to shoot through the roof. He wanted to run away, but that would be a stupid mistake he didn't want to make. Tears began to well up in his eyes as he closed the chamber of the shotgun. If it wasn't loaded before, it was now.

"What do I do now, what do I do now??" Michael whispered to the sky frantically. He had a few options. He'd quickly check to see if the door was unlocked. If it was, he'd get inside. If it wasn't, he'd have to wait silently and HOPE the demon didn't come in his direction; OR, if it did start wandering over, either shoot the demon, or shoot the knob in the door to break into the building and then see what he could do then.

"Or maybe you could challenge him to a game of questions and riddles" joked a patronising voice in his head; draw a circle and trap it, throw holy water at it, silver? Hmm. "Shut the HELL up Jamie", Michael whispered through clenched teeth. He was angry at his friend, not for any other reason than the fact that he was right about demons existing, the crazy guy was bloody right. "Why the bloody hell would I try using make believe weapons to fight THAT thi-" Michael was interrupted by another thought, "Well, a minute ago you thought demons were make believe too, if demons are real, then so is magi-" Michael interrupted himself again "Just shut up and focus you stupid halfwit". Panting and uncertain, he was about to find out what he would try next...

The studio door was locked and Michael could not enter easily. But he had a loaded shotgun, and there were 6 spare shells in an attachment beside the trigger.


The wounded rent-a-cop was crawling past and his pistol clattered on the pavement too, ignored as he kept trying to get away. The rest of the mob of fleeing people went left and right from the intersection of the studio buildings, the majority trying for the gate to the grounds.


The creature finally eviscerated the screaming woman. She did not die quietly and the sound of gurgling was enough to make one nauseous if they thought about what happened. The creature straightened and said something in a guttural language that Michael had never heard before. The overturned golf cart was mostly blocking the creature from Michael's view, and it was also protecting him from being easily seen.

"Hmm, doesn't sound like they speak English then.... Maybe latin?" Either that or it's literally the language of hell." Michael was looking at things rather too casually for his own liking. He was petrified that not only was he about to die, but he was going to go to hell too! Yet here he was looking at the little details in the middle of all of this. He knew he had truly lost it when he quickly took out his phone and turned on the sound recording app, pocketing it afterwards and trying to spot the demon.

Then an idea flashed into Michaels head! He might know a way he can kill it. He was at a location with industrial power outlets! A standard household power-point outlet was 240v (well, in Australia at least), which can easily kill a human, but a single average professional theatre light sucks up to about 1500v or more....

Big studios often have several dozen power-points running through to the "lighting box", a room dedicated to lighting. Inside, is all the equipment, including the box that connects to the ceiling which can be plugged into the lighting board.... Connected to THAT by an industrial extension cord is a power box that would hold enough electricity to kill an elephant several times over... If he could get to the studio, maybe he could set a trap.

Michael saw the pistol lying on the ground and it was a VERY tempting offer in his mind. "Maybe it might be a useful weapon to use on smaller creatures if any were to emerge, or again it could be used for opening doors". He pulled his eyes away from the pistol, again waiting for the Demon to make its move. This time he was certain. If it came in his direction, he would blast the door open, close it and run (Barricading it if there was something in the immediate vicinity). If the demon were to move away, he would grab the pistol and potentially make his way to the studio more quietly if possible.

In order to kill this thing, you couldn't just run away like prey, you had to prevent it from being able to target you in the first place and stalk IT. Hide like a coward if you have to, then kill when you know you'll succeed. Michael took another deep breath, loosening his jaw of tension trying to listen where possible, only glancing around the doorway if he couldn't hear the demon at all.

The creature was quiet. There was another roar like that of a lion in the distance somewhere deeper in the studio grounds. There was also the sound of a high revving car and the squealing of tires. Then creature made more of the guttural sounds and then chuckled with perhaps evil glee... at least that was what Michael imagined as he heard it.

The rent-a-cop had managed to get to his good foot and was hopping away to attempt to move faster away.

You know what they say about running from a bear? You don't have to be faster than the bear, just faster than the last person fleeing. Michael was looking at the slowest victim.

The winged creature hopped up atop the overturned golf cart. Its feet had their own claws and gripped the vehicle with a crunch of aluminum and plastic. It was perched in a crouch watching its victim with a twitching tail like a cat ready to pounce on a mouse.

If the creature saw Michael trying to flatten himself into the very shallow alcove with the door off to the side of its vision, it had not made a sign.