Acquana
First Post
Yay! A fan!
Horacio! Yay!
Aww, how can I not when you ask so nicely? ^_^ Another update for you! Lots more art, yet another PC, and much plot thickener to go around!
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Chapter Five
Moundville
July 29, 1996
The Knights finish up their stay in Tallahassee while BMM members fix their van. It’s not even six in the morning when Alex pulls himself out of bed and forces Jared and North up. Getting the girls up proves to be far more of a hassle: while Del is a light sleeper, Watanabe is abnormally grumpy after first getting up, and Trudi sleeps like a rock. Twilight tapes the frustration that Del and Watanabe have trying to get the sleeping behemoth out of bed.
But finally the agents get back on the road. They call their commander, and Whitman answers dutifully. He assures the knights not to get discouraged, other agents in Savannah are going to try a more precise divination spell. It could take a while.
“In the meantime, I’m sending all of you back on the road. You’ll be meeting another agent in Alabama, near a town called Centerville. A Bureau administrator has asked for assistance. By the way, Nores—North,” Whitman corrects himself quickly. “It’s William Spacey. He says he’s eager to meet you again.”
After the conversation ends, all eyes turn to North, who only shrugs. “I know Mr. Spacey, yes. It’s been a while.”
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The agents drive onto Mr. Spacey’s property shortly before lunchtime. As the van cruises down the long driveway Jared lets out a long whistle. In agreement Watanabe nods: the place is beautiful. . It's a glorious house, a plantation style mansion with a wide lawn and beautiful gardens full of summer flowers. Two story, wide patios on the second floor, columns in the front. Very picturesque.
At the front of the driveway they’re greeted by two individuals: one, a middle aged man with receding brown hair, a decently made suit and a wide smile; the second is a straight-faced, extremely thin woman with red hair cut around her neck.
“Norestar!” the man cries as soon as the agents step out of the van.
North turns slightly red and the human walks up to greet him. “William,” he replies awkwardly under his teammates’ stares.
“It’s been too long, friend,” Mr. Spacey says warmly with a pat to the younger man’s back. “And you must be the agents I sent for.”
“Agent P’tarr,” Alex says with a nod.
He nods back and motions to the woman who hasn’t moved. “This is the agent that arrived to meet you earlier this morning.”
“Agent Raine Weaver,” she announces, holding out a hand to Alex.
“Those clothes are great!” Trudi shouts, bounding in front of Alex and shaking Raine’s hand for him. “That’s Chinese, right!”
“Y-yes …”
“I base all my designs on Asian stuff!”
Alex quickly passes introductions around to fill the pause that follows; then Spacey gestures for his guests to enter the house. The agents follow him in and listen as he talks amiably with “Norestar,” about Bureau business and showing him what revisions have been made to the house. From the sound of the conversation, the agents who have previously known North are now very aware that he’s been keeping more secrets than they guessed. Well, all save Trudi, who still has Raine trapped in conversation about Asian fashion.
For those who notice, they find that Mr. Spacey may live on Terra, but hasn’t been there his whole life. He was born on Gaia, and has been living alone since his children went off to college and magic school, and his wife divorced him. It’s fairly obvious he only knows how to keep up appearances as a Terran homeowner, considering how much magic covers the house. There's no conventional plumbing, some of the rooms have chandeliers that have no bulbs or candles, but tiny, glittering lights that hang suspended above.
The agents are lead to the parlor, the observant Knights notice the spell books and Gaian texts that fill one of the walls. Mr. Spacey also has a set of magical talismans and ancient ceremonial Elven weaponry in a glass case. Just inside the parlor a brownie stands waiting.
“Ah, Brambleheel, get some drinks for the guests,” Mr. Spacey instructs him. The brownie bows with a bright smile and waves to Delria before he leaves.
“You know him?” Watanabe asks.
Delria shakes her head. “Full-blooded brownies all act like they know each other. Just the way it is with them.”
As they all settle down, Alex finally clears his throat. “This is great and all … Thanks for the hospitality, Mr. Sp--”
“Please, call me Bill.”
“…Bill … But we were called in for a reason, right?”
Uncomfortably Bill loosens the collar of his shirt. “Uh, yes. There is a bit of a problem at a nearby gravesite.”
Mr. Spacey then informs the agents of an Native American monument outside of Centerville, called Moundville. As soon as the words leave his mouth, North’s eyes light up and he begins spouting out everything he knows about the site, which is a surprisingly large amount. Bill politely waits as North talks about the several hundred year old site, until Watanabe almost audibly rolls her eyes.
“Oo-kay,” she sighs out. “We get the idea.”
North stops mid-sentence and stares at his feet.
Bill clears his throat and continues. A group of goblins have made camp around the Moundville archeological site, and tourists are being put in danger. They've been attacking people, and the park rangers believe that a dangerous animal may be loose. Spacey knows better. He also mentions that there is a specter who haunts the site.
The agents exchange glances. Bill begins to go on about the goblins until Watanabe interrupts him. “What about this ghost?” she asks.
Bill nods. “He … is a rather uneasy spirit lingering around the site. In one of the tombs, specifically. I’ve run into him before and--" He cuts himself and sighs deeply. “He’s very dangerous.”
“Well … How so?” Jared presses further.
Bill ponders his words carefully, rubbing his chin. He then takes a deep breath and walks to a desk on the far side of the room. “I must be honest with all of you, there’s something else besides these goblins that needs to be handled. It’s one of the reasons Weaver is here.”
Alex turns to Raine and she nods. “I’m an undead hunter,” she answers his questioning glance. “Vir and Genya sent me to help Mr. Spacey before all of you were contacted.”
“Who?” Jared asks.
“Genya Toril and Yukamaya Vir,” Alex relies. “The two head Knights at the office in New Orleans.”
“It’s about this ghost …” Bill finally continues. “He’s dangerous. I hate to do this, but I think that the only way to make sure no one gets hurt is to exorcise him.”
Watanabe scowls, then leans close to Jared. “Something’s not right here,” she whispers to him.
“What has he done?” Jared asks for her.
Looking slightly more nervous, Spacey clears his throat. “He attacked me.” He then pulls up his coat sleeve to show an arcane mark on his arm. “And he sealed away my magic. I could’ve handled him myself until this … That’s why I need help. I don’t think this is going to go away on its own. And so long as he continues to attack humans then the tourists that go through Moundville are in just as much danger from this specter as they are from grave-robbing goblins.”
“So, take care of these goblins, then handle the ghost as necessary,” Alex sums up.
“Maybe getting rid of the goblins will be enough to satisfy the ghost,” Jared offers.
“I don’t know …” Spacey says, shifting his weight. “Just … please don’t take any chances.”
“Are any of you equipped to handle this?” Weaver asks the team.
Trudi is the first to note that none of them have weapons capable of not just “swishing” through a ghost thing. Spacey assures them that he does have a way to handle that, but he’ll give it to them before dark, when the goblins and ghost are more likely to come out.
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The agents are allowed to wander the house and grounds as they please. Jared stays around the library and begins perusing Bill’s collection, Alex asks Raine about business in New Orleans, Trudi goes off to finish some sewing she was working on, and Watanabe, Twilight, and Del wander the gardens to commune with nature. North is unsurprisingly nowhere to be seen.
In the library Jared stumbles on a book about the world beneath the surface, the Below as it’s known. As he figures, there is a chapter about Mind Flayers, and thinking of his boss J’Qwuan he reads. Hopefully he’ll be able to figure out just what his rather freakish boss’s deal is. After only a few pages of reading he begins to feel queasy and calls for Brambleheel to bring him a drink. Quickly.
Trudi finishes a new suit for Alex and excitedly runs to tell him. She’s starting to get a crush on him, but she’d never be able to tell him. So making a present for him is a close second. Alex is a bit taken aback by Trudi’s presentation of a martial artist type outfit and politely accepts it. Then Trudi is promptly distracted by the fact that, oh! Raine is a new team member and thus needs an outfit too. Raine simply stares blankly at Trudi’s enthusiasm.
Del, Watanabe, and Twilight make their own discovery. While wandering the gardens behind the house they find a very beautiful lake. Eagerly the ranger and druid run to get a better look, with Twilight close behind like an observant shadow. They spend the better part of several hours walking around the lake until they run across a hidden area of tall reeds. There they can just barely make out North’s form in the water. Suddenly becoming giggly the girls find a spot to watch. His features look different, his eyes are larger and bluer, his ears now long and pointed, hair flat-out silver, and a strange star-like birthmark rests on his forehead. While Del and Watanabe gossip about what this might mean, Twilight films their responses and the oblivious North surrounded by arcane sparkles over the water.
“HEY GUYS! WHAT’S HAPPENING?!” Jared’s voice calls over the lawns. The girls jump in surprise, as does North. Jared is now sloppy drunk--it took many drinks to drown out the new information on J’Qwuan’s people he’d just learned. Delria and Watanabe quickly run to meet Jared halfway in the hopes that maybe North won’t know they were watching. Instead of turning to face the direction of Jared’s voice, Twilight focuses her camera on North further to record him dashing out of the water. It’s difficult to ever tell if Twilight can actually be surprised … But one way or another a fairly unexpected form is caught on film: from the waist down North’s torso is propped upon the body of a horse. The centaur quickly snatches his small necklace from off the grass, and as soon as he places it on he is once again the rather small North, fully clothed.
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Twilight has an odd delight in starting things. Thus as most of the agents regather in the house, she sneaks beside Del and Watanabe and shows them what she caught on film. The two let out shocked cries, distracting Alex from where he sat beside Jared trying to sober the guy up. The rest of the agents gather around to see what Del and Watanabe were surprised about, and a moment of silence passes as they are treated to a replay of the tape.
Alex is visibly not pleased. Delria reminds him that he’d thought that weird language North spoke was Centaur, and he was right.
“That doesn’t explain nearly enough,” Alex grumbles.
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Dinner is awkward at best. Jared is force-fed large amounts of food and coffee, while he feebly tries to assure Raine he’s okay. Trudi is the only one unaware of the tension around most of the table. Alex has been glaring at North through most of the meal, North has been staring at his plate silently, and the others all await the inevitable. Even Bill Spacey senses the stiffness in the air.
Twilight being Twilight, she decides to fiddle with the tape meaningfully, which finally attracts North’s attention. He asks to see what’s she’s so intent on, and without much more than a calm smile she shows him. Immediately he turns a bright red and his eyes go wide.
“Y-you …” He looks up at everyone’s expressions and sees the only person who looks unaware of what’s on the tape is Spacey. “You dare!” North snaps, rising to his feet. “Perhaps now I should find a way to videotape you in the shower!”
“Well, come on,” Delria quickly juts in. “You were out in the open!”
North bristles visibly, and then points at Twilight’s still rolling camera. A simple cantrip is all it takes to pop out a vital joint in the tape, which while the camera is still recording makes the tape unspool and make horrid sounds. Twilight quickly gasps and shuts it off, but to her dismay the tape is tangled and ruined.
“Oh, that was cute,” Alex finally snarls.
“I didn’t ask anyone to watch me bathing,” North replies. “And certainly not to rec--"
“Quiet. Listen very carefully. I don’t care what you are. And no one else here does either. Centaur, Orc, human, nobody cares. Just this secretive bullsh*t is not gonna work.”
“It wasn’t your business to know anything about me.”
“Except that I’m your commander and the lot of us are supposed to be a team. You know what that means? That means not disappearing at your convenience and acting aloof as though you’re something more special than everyone else.”
Spacey places down his silverware. “Agent, please speak to royalty more civilly than that.”
Alex lowers an eyebrow. “Royal …?” Everyone faces Bill and North lets out a deep sigh.
This only makes Alex more infuriated and spins on the centaur, demanding the secrets to end right there that second. An extremely heated argument follows as North doesn’t take well to Alex’s demands for information or respect. Trudi begins stabbing the table with her fork viciously, thinking that somehow North is hurting Alex’s feelings.
Finally North relents and tells everyone the truth. His real name is Norestar, he’s a member of the royalty of the largest tribe of centaur that still roam Gaia’s side of Greece. He has lived much longer than most centaur (since most live only as long as humans), for over two hundred years in fact. This abnormally long life and rather … fair manner has made life difficult for him. Most centaur are warriors and fairly even with most people’s view of orcs. Thus the overly dignified, gentle Norestar hasn’t fit in very well with his people. For the last ten years he’s worked with the Bureau, mostly to get away from his tribe for long enough to gain skills that would make him of use to the centaur again. He assures the team the only reason he kept it to himself was that he found the knowledge wasn’t something everyone really needed to know.
(The only secret that Norestar keeps this time is that he’s also left to find a suitable bride. Since no centaur woman wants a man so unmasculine as himself, he’s managed to remain unwed and unmated his entire life. He hopes that perhaps he will finally find a human that he can turn into a centaur who will understand him.)
Silence follows. Delria pieces together that Norestar must have some pure Fey blood in him to have lived so long, or to be adept in magic. She knows most centaur are not known for having magical prowess. And that certainly explains his disappearences: 'Faerie walking,' being able to slip between Gaia and Terra, is quite a basic skill among Fey.
Alex senses this as well and shakes his head. He turns to leave the dinner room, grumbling under his breath “F***ing faeries.”
Del hears this, and helps Alex cool off with a create water spell directly over his head. In surprise Alex jumps and stares at Del. He seems more befuddled than offended. Trudi didn’t figure out where the water came from, only that Alex’s suit is now sopping, which means now is the perfect time for him to wear her gift!
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Bill Spacey’s solution for defending themselves against the hostile ghost is a set of charms that can be attached to a weapon, enabling them to hurt spirits. Norestar, Trudi, Alex, and Delria each receive one. Watanabe refuses to even touch them, Jared and Raine each use ranged weapons that the talismans won’t work on.
They drive out to the park when Jared is sufficiently sober. The park is technically closed by that time of evening, so Delria manages to charm the agents’ way past the gate. Literally.
The agents then begin their search of the area. A nature trail leads off into the woods, Trudi and Watanabe are told to stand guard and make sure no park rangers come through. They’re told that either Sokar or Corinthian (Twilight’s bat familiar and Del’s rook companion, respectively) will be sent to signal them if things go awry.
As the group enters the woods they head for the largest of the burial mounds, which is where Spacey said the goblins would be lurking. As soon as they’re nearing the mound, they hear a faint, frightened cry. A small child is running through the woods off the side, crying that someone is after him. Norestar and Jared are the first to speed after him and catch up to him. Norestar quickly scoops up the kid and asks what’s wrong, seeing a little too late the child has greenish skin. Jared is shot with an arrow in the shoulder, the goblin in Norestar’s arms stabs his side. The woods around the Knights are suddenly full of arrows and shouts in goblin.
Quickly Corinthian makes for the skies to call for the other teammates, and the others pull out their weapons. Automatically Raine leaps into a tree and begins sniping goblins from there; Jared pulls out his pistol and fires in the direction the arrow came from. Twilight sends out magic missiles, and Alex taunts the goblins in their tongue to see if he can follow any of their responses as he whips out his double bladed sword. Norestar on the other hand, tosses the goblin in his arms with a feral cry and suddenly a new figure stands where he was. Fully centaur and clad in armor, a fachard at his side, he stares down at the now very small, cowering goblin at his hooves.
“I have no doubt those human clothes were off a dead, human child. You will pay for that,” the centaur sneers.
Trudi is distracted from a rolley-polley she’s found as Corinthian flies up to her and Watanabe. The two quickly run to catch up with the other teammates.
In the meanwhile the other Knights are handling themselves well, sending the goblins on the run. Jared get a particularly good shot, which ends up stopping him dead in his tracks. He was close to the goblin, too close. The goblin’s head splatters from the shot and Jared is peppered with gore. Sudden flashes to his research earlier make him drop his gun and fall against a tree in horror of what he’s done. Del and Alex are horrified by something not entirely different: the normally peaceful, quiet Norestar is now slaughtering goblins left and right; running them through rather viciously with his pole-arm and then flinging them about, letting out Centaur war cries and bloodying his armor without regret.
Watanabe and Trudi arrive and join the fray at last. Trudi pulls out her nunchucks and attacks while Watanabe grabs her gun. Not far away from the outskirts of the fight Twilight summons her celestial dog, Tripod.
As the last few of the goblins are being subdued, Alex knocks one down to the ground and demands to know what the group of goblins were doing there. Norestar doesn’t give the goblin time to answer, galloping up to Alex and thoroughly trampling the creature to the ground.
“Jesus Christ!” Alex shouts. “What the h*ll is wrong with you!”
“They stabbed me,” he replies calmly.
“That one was down! Surrendering!” the commander blasts back. “You don’t murder captives!”
“Why not?” Norestar asks.
Delria has heard this exchange and lets out a furious scream, then flies off into the woods. Norestar turns human again and apologizes; he’s been a centaur warrior far longer than a Bureau agent.
The other agents regather, Jared looking particularly pale. Trudi lumbers back with a limp goblin in her hands, a rather large head wound on it.
“I’m sorry!” Trudi sniffles. “Where's Delria? Alex! Heal him! I just hit him ‘til he stopped moving! I didn’t mean to!”
Norestar decides to regain some trust of the group and leans close, healing the goblin. The goblin coughs and gurgles a bit, then realizes the severity of his situation. Looking at the group of Knights he begins gibbering in goblin at high speed, struggling in Trudi’s tight hold.
“He’s okay!” Trudi cries in delight, hugging him. “We should keep him!”
The others stare at her blankly in reply.
“See?” she says, holding him up. “He’s cute! I’ll name him ‘Geeba’ since he says that a lot!”
Alex decides not to argue with her for the moment and asks the goblin what he and his group were doing there attacking tourists. They learn that Mr. William Spacey had hired them to collect grave dust from the burial mound after the ghost sealed away his magic. But they’d heard there was some kind of treasure in there and stuck around until it was found.
Norestar threatens to kill him for lying about his friend, but Watanabe grumbles out “I knew there was something wrong here.”
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Delria manages to calm herself somewhere off the trail, and vows that next time Norestar tries something like that she’ll tranq him. Before she leaves however, she suddenly feels very lost. Being a druid, this is a new feeling. She’s used to maneuvering through woods, but suddenly she doesn’t recognize the way she’d just been down.
How this could have happened becomes clear as an icy feeling falls over her. She almost feels an aura of dark faerie, unseelie, around her. Then she hears a voice, a soft, slithering voice that speaks to her from all around:
"Beautiful one, blood of Terra and Gaia . . . There will be danger soon, and if others must suffer, I won't allow it to be you. Run. Run while you can. Leave the Bureau if you must. Change is coming, and I can't guarantee your safety if you don't heed this warning now."
Delria stiffens at this and listens all around. She hears nothing more.
Horacio! Yay!
Aww, how can I not when you ask so nicely? ^_^ Another update for you! Lots more art, yet another PC, and much plot thickener to go around!
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Chapter Five
Moundville
July 29, 1996
The Knights finish up their stay in Tallahassee while BMM members fix their van. It’s not even six in the morning when Alex pulls himself out of bed and forces Jared and North up. Getting the girls up proves to be far more of a hassle: while Del is a light sleeper, Watanabe is abnormally grumpy after first getting up, and Trudi sleeps like a rock. Twilight tapes the frustration that Del and Watanabe have trying to get the sleeping behemoth out of bed.
But finally the agents get back on the road. They call their commander, and Whitman answers dutifully. He assures the knights not to get discouraged, other agents in Savannah are going to try a more precise divination spell. It could take a while.
“In the meantime, I’m sending all of you back on the road. You’ll be meeting another agent in Alabama, near a town called Centerville. A Bureau administrator has asked for assistance. By the way, Nores—North,” Whitman corrects himself quickly. “It’s William Spacey. He says he’s eager to meet you again.”
After the conversation ends, all eyes turn to North, who only shrugs. “I know Mr. Spacey, yes. It’s been a while.”
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The agents drive onto Mr. Spacey’s property shortly before lunchtime. As the van cruises down the long driveway Jared lets out a long whistle. In agreement Watanabe nods: the place is beautiful. . It's a glorious house, a plantation style mansion with a wide lawn and beautiful gardens full of summer flowers. Two story, wide patios on the second floor, columns in the front. Very picturesque.
At the front of the driveway they’re greeted by two individuals: one, a middle aged man with receding brown hair, a decently made suit and a wide smile; the second is a straight-faced, extremely thin woman with red hair cut around her neck.
“Norestar!” the man cries as soon as the agents step out of the van.
North turns slightly red and the human walks up to greet him. “William,” he replies awkwardly under his teammates’ stares.
“It’s been too long, friend,” Mr. Spacey says warmly with a pat to the younger man’s back. “And you must be the agents I sent for.”
“Agent P’tarr,” Alex says with a nod.
He nods back and motions to the woman who hasn’t moved. “This is the agent that arrived to meet you earlier this morning.”
“Agent Raine Weaver,” she announces, holding out a hand to Alex.
“Those clothes are great!” Trudi shouts, bounding in front of Alex and shaking Raine’s hand for him. “That’s Chinese, right!”
“Y-yes …”
“I base all my designs on Asian stuff!”
Alex quickly passes introductions around to fill the pause that follows; then Spacey gestures for his guests to enter the house. The agents follow him in and listen as he talks amiably with “Norestar,” about Bureau business and showing him what revisions have been made to the house. From the sound of the conversation, the agents who have previously known North are now very aware that he’s been keeping more secrets than they guessed. Well, all save Trudi, who still has Raine trapped in conversation about Asian fashion.
For those who notice, they find that Mr. Spacey may live on Terra, but hasn’t been there his whole life. He was born on Gaia, and has been living alone since his children went off to college and magic school, and his wife divorced him. It’s fairly obvious he only knows how to keep up appearances as a Terran homeowner, considering how much magic covers the house. There's no conventional plumbing, some of the rooms have chandeliers that have no bulbs or candles, but tiny, glittering lights that hang suspended above.
The agents are lead to the parlor, the observant Knights notice the spell books and Gaian texts that fill one of the walls. Mr. Spacey also has a set of magical talismans and ancient ceremonial Elven weaponry in a glass case. Just inside the parlor a brownie stands waiting.
“Ah, Brambleheel, get some drinks for the guests,” Mr. Spacey instructs him. The brownie bows with a bright smile and waves to Delria before he leaves.
“You know him?” Watanabe asks.
Delria shakes her head. “Full-blooded brownies all act like they know each other. Just the way it is with them.”
As they all settle down, Alex finally clears his throat. “This is great and all … Thanks for the hospitality, Mr. Sp--”
“Please, call me Bill.”
“…Bill … But we were called in for a reason, right?”
Uncomfortably Bill loosens the collar of his shirt. “Uh, yes. There is a bit of a problem at a nearby gravesite.”
Mr. Spacey then informs the agents of an Native American monument outside of Centerville, called Moundville. As soon as the words leave his mouth, North’s eyes light up and he begins spouting out everything he knows about the site, which is a surprisingly large amount. Bill politely waits as North talks about the several hundred year old site, until Watanabe almost audibly rolls her eyes.
“Oo-kay,” she sighs out. “We get the idea.”
North stops mid-sentence and stares at his feet.
Bill clears his throat and continues. A group of goblins have made camp around the Moundville archeological site, and tourists are being put in danger. They've been attacking people, and the park rangers believe that a dangerous animal may be loose. Spacey knows better. He also mentions that there is a specter who haunts the site.
The agents exchange glances. Bill begins to go on about the goblins until Watanabe interrupts him. “What about this ghost?” she asks.
Bill nods. “He … is a rather uneasy spirit lingering around the site. In one of the tombs, specifically. I’ve run into him before and--" He cuts himself and sighs deeply. “He’s very dangerous.”
“Well … How so?” Jared presses further.
Bill ponders his words carefully, rubbing his chin. He then takes a deep breath and walks to a desk on the far side of the room. “I must be honest with all of you, there’s something else besides these goblins that needs to be handled. It’s one of the reasons Weaver is here.”
Alex turns to Raine and she nods. “I’m an undead hunter,” she answers his questioning glance. “Vir and Genya sent me to help Mr. Spacey before all of you were contacted.”
“Who?” Jared asks.
“Genya Toril and Yukamaya Vir,” Alex relies. “The two head Knights at the office in New Orleans.”
“It’s about this ghost …” Bill finally continues. “He’s dangerous. I hate to do this, but I think that the only way to make sure no one gets hurt is to exorcise him.”
Watanabe scowls, then leans close to Jared. “Something’s not right here,” she whispers to him.
“What has he done?” Jared asks for her.
Looking slightly more nervous, Spacey clears his throat. “He attacked me.” He then pulls up his coat sleeve to show an arcane mark on his arm. “And he sealed away my magic. I could’ve handled him myself until this … That’s why I need help. I don’t think this is going to go away on its own. And so long as he continues to attack humans then the tourists that go through Moundville are in just as much danger from this specter as they are from grave-robbing goblins.”
“So, take care of these goblins, then handle the ghost as necessary,” Alex sums up.
“Maybe getting rid of the goblins will be enough to satisfy the ghost,” Jared offers.
“I don’t know …” Spacey says, shifting his weight. “Just … please don’t take any chances.”
“Are any of you equipped to handle this?” Weaver asks the team.
Trudi is the first to note that none of them have weapons capable of not just “swishing” through a ghost thing. Spacey assures them that he does have a way to handle that, but he’ll give it to them before dark, when the goblins and ghost are more likely to come out.
_________________________
The agents are allowed to wander the house and grounds as they please. Jared stays around the library and begins perusing Bill’s collection, Alex asks Raine about business in New Orleans, Trudi goes off to finish some sewing she was working on, and Watanabe, Twilight, and Del wander the gardens to commune with nature. North is unsurprisingly nowhere to be seen.
In the library Jared stumbles on a book about the world beneath the surface, the Below as it’s known. As he figures, there is a chapter about Mind Flayers, and thinking of his boss J’Qwuan he reads. Hopefully he’ll be able to figure out just what his rather freakish boss’s deal is. After only a few pages of reading he begins to feel queasy and calls for Brambleheel to bring him a drink. Quickly.
Trudi finishes a new suit for Alex and excitedly runs to tell him. She’s starting to get a crush on him, but she’d never be able to tell him. So making a present for him is a close second. Alex is a bit taken aback by Trudi’s presentation of a martial artist type outfit and politely accepts it. Then Trudi is promptly distracted by the fact that, oh! Raine is a new team member and thus needs an outfit too. Raine simply stares blankly at Trudi’s enthusiasm.
Del, Watanabe, and Twilight make their own discovery. While wandering the gardens behind the house they find a very beautiful lake. Eagerly the ranger and druid run to get a better look, with Twilight close behind like an observant shadow. They spend the better part of several hours walking around the lake until they run across a hidden area of tall reeds. There they can just barely make out North’s form in the water. Suddenly becoming giggly the girls find a spot to watch. His features look different, his eyes are larger and bluer, his ears now long and pointed, hair flat-out silver, and a strange star-like birthmark rests on his forehead. While Del and Watanabe gossip about what this might mean, Twilight films their responses and the oblivious North surrounded by arcane sparkles over the water.
“HEY GUYS! WHAT’S HAPPENING?!” Jared’s voice calls over the lawns. The girls jump in surprise, as does North. Jared is now sloppy drunk--it took many drinks to drown out the new information on J’Qwuan’s people he’d just learned. Delria and Watanabe quickly run to meet Jared halfway in the hopes that maybe North won’t know they were watching. Instead of turning to face the direction of Jared’s voice, Twilight focuses her camera on North further to record him dashing out of the water. It’s difficult to ever tell if Twilight can actually be surprised … But one way or another a fairly unexpected form is caught on film: from the waist down North’s torso is propped upon the body of a horse. The centaur quickly snatches his small necklace from off the grass, and as soon as he places it on he is once again the rather small North, fully clothed.
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Twilight has an odd delight in starting things. Thus as most of the agents regather in the house, she sneaks beside Del and Watanabe and shows them what she caught on film. The two let out shocked cries, distracting Alex from where he sat beside Jared trying to sober the guy up. The rest of the agents gather around to see what Del and Watanabe were surprised about, and a moment of silence passes as they are treated to a replay of the tape.
Alex is visibly not pleased. Delria reminds him that he’d thought that weird language North spoke was Centaur, and he was right.
“That doesn’t explain nearly enough,” Alex grumbles.
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Dinner is awkward at best. Jared is force-fed large amounts of food and coffee, while he feebly tries to assure Raine he’s okay. Trudi is the only one unaware of the tension around most of the table. Alex has been glaring at North through most of the meal, North has been staring at his plate silently, and the others all await the inevitable. Even Bill Spacey senses the stiffness in the air.
Twilight being Twilight, she decides to fiddle with the tape meaningfully, which finally attracts North’s attention. He asks to see what’s she’s so intent on, and without much more than a calm smile she shows him. Immediately he turns a bright red and his eyes go wide.
“Y-you …” He looks up at everyone’s expressions and sees the only person who looks unaware of what’s on the tape is Spacey. “You dare!” North snaps, rising to his feet. “Perhaps now I should find a way to videotape you in the shower!”
“Well, come on,” Delria quickly juts in. “You were out in the open!”
North bristles visibly, and then points at Twilight’s still rolling camera. A simple cantrip is all it takes to pop out a vital joint in the tape, which while the camera is still recording makes the tape unspool and make horrid sounds. Twilight quickly gasps and shuts it off, but to her dismay the tape is tangled and ruined.
“Oh, that was cute,” Alex finally snarls.
“I didn’t ask anyone to watch me bathing,” North replies. “And certainly not to rec--"
“Quiet. Listen very carefully. I don’t care what you are. And no one else here does either. Centaur, Orc, human, nobody cares. Just this secretive bullsh*t is not gonna work.”
“It wasn’t your business to know anything about me.”
“Except that I’m your commander and the lot of us are supposed to be a team. You know what that means? That means not disappearing at your convenience and acting aloof as though you’re something more special than everyone else.”
Spacey places down his silverware. “Agent, please speak to royalty more civilly than that.”
Alex lowers an eyebrow. “Royal …?” Everyone faces Bill and North lets out a deep sigh.
This only makes Alex more infuriated and spins on the centaur, demanding the secrets to end right there that second. An extremely heated argument follows as North doesn’t take well to Alex’s demands for information or respect. Trudi begins stabbing the table with her fork viciously, thinking that somehow North is hurting Alex’s feelings.
Finally North relents and tells everyone the truth. His real name is Norestar, he’s a member of the royalty of the largest tribe of centaur that still roam Gaia’s side of Greece. He has lived much longer than most centaur (since most live only as long as humans), for over two hundred years in fact. This abnormally long life and rather … fair manner has made life difficult for him. Most centaur are warriors and fairly even with most people’s view of orcs. Thus the overly dignified, gentle Norestar hasn’t fit in very well with his people. For the last ten years he’s worked with the Bureau, mostly to get away from his tribe for long enough to gain skills that would make him of use to the centaur again. He assures the team the only reason he kept it to himself was that he found the knowledge wasn’t something everyone really needed to know.
(The only secret that Norestar keeps this time is that he’s also left to find a suitable bride. Since no centaur woman wants a man so unmasculine as himself, he’s managed to remain unwed and unmated his entire life. He hopes that perhaps he will finally find a human that he can turn into a centaur who will understand him.)
Silence follows. Delria pieces together that Norestar must have some pure Fey blood in him to have lived so long, or to be adept in magic. She knows most centaur are not known for having magical prowess. And that certainly explains his disappearences: 'Faerie walking,' being able to slip between Gaia and Terra, is quite a basic skill among Fey.
Alex senses this as well and shakes his head. He turns to leave the dinner room, grumbling under his breath “F***ing faeries.”
Del hears this, and helps Alex cool off with a create water spell directly over his head. In surprise Alex jumps and stares at Del. He seems more befuddled than offended. Trudi didn’t figure out where the water came from, only that Alex’s suit is now sopping, which means now is the perfect time for him to wear her gift!
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Bill Spacey’s solution for defending themselves against the hostile ghost is a set of charms that can be attached to a weapon, enabling them to hurt spirits. Norestar, Trudi, Alex, and Delria each receive one. Watanabe refuses to even touch them, Jared and Raine each use ranged weapons that the talismans won’t work on.
They drive out to the park when Jared is sufficiently sober. The park is technically closed by that time of evening, so Delria manages to charm the agents’ way past the gate. Literally.
The agents then begin their search of the area. A nature trail leads off into the woods, Trudi and Watanabe are told to stand guard and make sure no park rangers come through. They’re told that either Sokar or Corinthian (Twilight’s bat familiar and Del’s rook companion, respectively) will be sent to signal them if things go awry.
As the group enters the woods they head for the largest of the burial mounds, which is where Spacey said the goblins would be lurking. As soon as they’re nearing the mound, they hear a faint, frightened cry. A small child is running through the woods off the side, crying that someone is after him. Norestar and Jared are the first to speed after him and catch up to him. Norestar quickly scoops up the kid and asks what’s wrong, seeing a little too late the child has greenish skin. Jared is shot with an arrow in the shoulder, the goblin in Norestar’s arms stabs his side. The woods around the Knights are suddenly full of arrows and shouts in goblin.
Quickly Corinthian makes for the skies to call for the other teammates, and the others pull out their weapons. Automatically Raine leaps into a tree and begins sniping goblins from there; Jared pulls out his pistol and fires in the direction the arrow came from. Twilight sends out magic missiles, and Alex taunts the goblins in their tongue to see if he can follow any of their responses as he whips out his double bladed sword. Norestar on the other hand, tosses the goblin in his arms with a feral cry and suddenly a new figure stands where he was. Fully centaur and clad in armor, a fachard at his side, he stares down at the now very small, cowering goblin at his hooves.
“I have no doubt those human clothes were off a dead, human child. You will pay for that,” the centaur sneers.
Trudi is distracted from a rolley-polley she’s found as Corinthian flies up to her and Watanabe. The two quickly run to catch up with the other teammates.
In the meanwhile the other Knights are handling themselves well, sending the goblins on the run. Jared get a particularly good shot, which ends up stopping him dead in his tracks. He was close to the goblin, too close. The goblin’s head splatters from the shot and Jared is peppered with gore. Sudden flashes to his research earlier make him drop his gun and fall against a tree in horror of what he’s done. Del and Alex are horrified by something not entirely different: the normally peaceful, quiet Norestar is now slaughtering goblins left and right; running them through rather viciously with his pole-arm and then flinging them about, letting out Centaur war cries and bloodying his armor without regret.
Watanabe and Trudi arrive and join the fray at last. Trudi pulls out her nunchucks and attacks while Watanabe grabs her gun. Not far away from the outskirts of the fight Twilight summons her celestial dog, Tripod.
As the last few of the goblins are being subdued, Alex knocks one down to the ground and demands to know what the group of goblins were doing there. Norestar doesn’t give the goblin time to answer, galloping up to Alex and thoroughly trampling the creature to the ground.
“Jesus Christ!” Alex shouts. “What the h*ll is wrong with you!”
“They stabbed me,” he replies calmly.
“That one was down! Surrendering!” the commander blasts back. “You don’t murder captives!”
“Why not?” Norestar asks.
Delria has heard this exchange and lets out a furious scream, then flies off into the woods. Norestar turns human again and apologizes; he’s been a centaur warrior far longer than a Bureau agent.
The other agents regather, Jared looking particularly pale. Trudi lumbers back with a limp goblin in her hands, a rather large head wound on it.
“I’m sorry!” Trudi sniffles. “Where's Delria? Alex! Heal him! I just hit him ‘til he stopped moving! I didn’t mean to!”
Norestar decides to regain some trust of the group and leans close, healing the goblin. The goblin coughs and gurgles a bit, then realizes the severity of his situation. Looking at the group of Knights he begins gibbering in goblin at high speed, struggling in Trudi’s tight hold.
“He’s okay!” Trudi cries in delight, hugging him. “We should keep him!”
The others stare at her blankly in reply.
“See?” she says, holding him up. “He’s cute! I’ll name him ‘Geeba’ since he says that a lot!”
Alex decides not to argue with her for the moment and asks the goblin what he and his group were doing there attacking tourists. They learn that Mr. William Spacey had hired them to collect grave dust from the burial mound after the ghost sealed away his magic. But they’d heard there was some kind of treasure in there and stuck around until it was found.
Norestar threatens to kill him for lying about his friend, but Watanabe grumbles out “I knew there was something wrong here.”
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Delria manages to calm herself somewhere off the trail, and vows that next time Norestar tries something like that she’ll tranq him. Before she leaves however, she suddenly feels very lost. Being a druid, this is a new feeling. She’s used to maneuvering through woods, but suddenly she doesn’t recognize the way she’d just been down.
How this could have happened becomes clear as an icy feeling falls over her. She almost feels an aura of dark faerie, unseelie, around her. Then she hears a voice, a soft, slithering voice that speaks to her from all around:
"Beautiful one, blood of Terra and Gaia . . . There will be danger soon, and if others must suffer, I won't allow it to be you. Run. Run while you can. Leave the Bureau if you must. Change is coming, and I can't guarantee your safety if you don't heed this warning now."
Delria stiffens at this and listens all around. She hears nothing more.
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