Broccli_Head
Explorer
sigh....I apologize for letting this AMAZING story hour get to page 2.
Back on page 1, then.
BUMP!
Back on page 1, then.
BUMP!
-
Monstrous Menagerie II: Hordes & Heroes has a launch date! Mark your calendars for November 12th, 2024. 300+ more monsters for your D&D 2024, or Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition games, plus new horde rules and rules for heroic monsters who level up alongside you--whether they be allies, companions, or foes! Click here to follow on Kickstarter!
Under The Eclipse: Updated May 19th!
- Thread starter Zubkavich
- Start date
Zubkavich
First Post
Session Twelve: Red Chalk
Over the course of the next few hours, Karen tries her best to explain to Sandra almost all of the strange things that have happened to her. At first, Sandra seems overwhelmed, but eventually she reveals to Karen that a horrible sense of psychic foreboding she had felt led Deprtment-7 to New York in the first place, and that Karen’s story seems to coincide with the visions she’s been having. Although Sandra has felt fleeting dark auras that she couldn’t explain, she hasn’t had a chance to pinpoint them. The only thing she could seem to get a consistent impression of was Sedrick’s bookstore, so Evan set up a group of cameras to try and figure out what it was.
While Karen fills Sandra in on Coral and the beings who are trying to bring their evil god to our world, she stresses that they need all the help they can get. Sandra isn’t used to getting involved in the supernatural, only investigating it, but she pledges to help as much as she can. She decides to try to meditate and see if she can get a better bead on where some of the strange auras are located. She isn’t sure if the strong magic of the bookstore will interfere with her psychic exercises, but after hearing about the creatures Karen and her group has encountered, she decides she’ll try it rather than being outside and risking any attacks.
Not having any choice but to wait, Karen grows restless and decides to take a quick walk to a corner store to buy some candy to entice the faerie folk with. On her way back, her senses seem to sharpen, as they did with the insect patterns a few weeks ago. She looks around carefully and her eyes seem drawn to a penny on the sidewalk. Picking it up, she notices that it’s dated 1984, the same year she was born. Not willing to assume it’s a coincidence, she walks a bit further down the sidewalk and sees another penny; this one is dated 1985. Her curiosity piqued, she continues until she sees another up ahead of her. Stopping, she remembers how much trouble she’s gotten into going off by herself and decides that she should get some one to come with her before she wanders into another bit of the unknown. Even if the penny isn’t there when she returns, at least she hasn’t gone off alone and been attacked.
Heading back to the bookstore, she asks Tupilak to accompany her on a short jaunt. The spiritual warrior is sick of being cooped up in the bookstore anyways, and quickly agrees. As they walk down the street where Karen discovered the penny, Tupilak asks her about Conroy’s faith. He’s noticed the cross that Conroy wears around his neck and wonders if it’s some sort of religious symbol. With a smirk, Karen explains to him that it’s a Christian symbol, showing faith to God.
“This god, Christian, what is he like?” asks Tupilak.
“No, the god is named just ‘God’. Christians are God’s worshippers.” She says.
“The god is named ‘God’?” he says, looking confused.
“Yeah, the Inuit gods have never interacted with him?” she asks expectantly.
“No, never heard of him.” he says.
While Karen tries to rationalize the fact that there may or may not be a Christian god, her senses twitch again as a cyclist rides by on a red bicycle. The red seems extra vibrant and her eyes are subconsciously locked onto it. Assuming that it’s the type of mystical sign she’s been waiting for, she jogs after the cyclist and Tupilak follows. Within a few minutes, several other red items catch her eye and she follows them, hoping it will lead towards something of interest.
Finally, she sees a flash of something red from an alleyway and stops to take a closer look. A short, tan-skinned man in a long jacket seems to be etching the wall of the alley with red chalk. Karen and Tupilak slowly creep forward, not sure exactly what to expect. Just as they’re within touching distance of the man, he turns around to face them with a wicked grin across his face.
“It’s not nice to interrupt an artist, my dear.” he says.
Then, his hands crackle with energy and a stream of colored light shoots forth, blinding both Karen and Tupilak. Although she flails in front of her to try and grab at the man, she can’t find him. By the time both of their vision returns, the man is gone, leaving only the red blotch of chalk and more questions than ever.
At first glance, the red seems normal enough, a thick blob of chalk, with no distinctive features. But when Karen takes a look up close at it, she’s shocked to see thousands of very tiny symbols etched almost too small to see. From a normal distance, it all blends together into a solid color, but extremely close she can make out what it really is. The writing is unbelievably precise, and she’s positive that it isn’t anything normal.
Calling Evan on her cel phone, Karen asks him to bring some camera equipment, so that they can get some pictures of the red writing before she washes it off the wall. While he arrives and takes a bunch of photos with some high-powered macro lenses, Karen and Tupilak keep a watchful eye on the neighborhood, looking for any sign of the strange man. After Evan finishes, Karen buys some bottled water from a nearby grocery store and splashes it on the chalk to get rid of it. Although the redness washes away, they’re all quite surprised to see that most of the writing has been burned into the cement surface of the wall.
“How are you gonna get rid of that? You want me to find a sledgehammer?” remarks Evan.
Karen doesn’t want to make any noise and arouse suspicion, so they opt for simple surveillance instead. Sending Evan back to the bookstore to tell the others to hang tight, Tupilak and Karen hide out in the alleyway, hoping that the strange man will return. After several hours when the sun goes down, their patience pays off. The man creeps back into the alley, but this time he’s not alone. Following a few feet behind him are three German Shepard dogs. Figuring that they have to move quickly to get the drop on the man and the dogs, they quickly move forward. Unfortunately, the dogs’ senses are too sharp, and they easily pick up Tupilak’s scent, sending everything into chaos.
All three dogs attack, snapping with sharp teeth and claws while the man seems to ignore the battle and continue his bizarre artistic handiwork on the wall. Tupilak is badly bitten several times and angrily slams his knife into the snout of one of the canines, while Karen tries to maneuver around them and get closer to the man. Just as she thinks she can get past, things take a turn for the worse. All three of the dogs’ eyes glow red and she barely has time to avert her face as they breath fire! Tupilak yells in anger and pain as the flames burn his skin while Karen grits her teeth and leaps past it to land beside the man. She jams the gun into the man’s temple, trying not to let the pain distract her.
“Okay a**hole, call off the dogs.” she threatens.
The man smirks and even before she can fire, he’s already moving. With a simple gesture of his hand, he wipes the burnt letters clean from the wall and ducks below her gun. She fires at him, grazing his arm, but he keeps going, dashing down the alleyway towards the street. With his back turned, she levels the barrel with his midsection, ignoring Tupilak’s yells as he slashes at the dogs. With two clean shots, she blasts holes in his spine and chest, sending the man crashing to the ground. As he expires, she hears him wheeze out a few final words.
“Blasted weak bodies.”
As soon as the man drops, the dogs cease their attack. In fact, the animals seem completely normal and begin whining and licking the wounds they’d inflicted only seconds before. Tupilak is shocked and at first isn’t sure if he should keep striking at them. Karen looks around cautiously, sure that the noise of their battle will bring the police soon. They can’t drag a corpse through the streets, so they have to leave it. Kicking him over to get a closer look at his face, she ponders his last comment. The dead mans eyes stare off into nothingness and from his open mouth spills forth red chalk, the exact same color as was on the wall.
“Looks like the human was possessed by the chalk thing...” notes Tupilak.
A cold chill runs up Karen’s spine. That body may have been an innocent person, just a normal guy who was drawn into this thing without knowing why it was happening. She killed him and there was no way to take it back. Her hands tremble as she puts away her gun. With a last glance at the body, they head out, trying to avoid being seen by anyone on the street.
Over the course of the next few hours, Karen tries her best to explain to Sandra almost all of the strange things that have happened to her. At first, Sandra seems overwhelmed, but eventually she reveals to Karen that a horrible sense of psychic foreboding she had felt led Deprtment-7 to New York in the first place, and that Karen’s story seems to coincide with the visions she’s been having. Although Sandra has felt fleeting dark auras that she couldn’t explain, she hasn’t had a chance to pinpoint them. The only thing she could seem to get a consistent impression of was Sedrick’s bookstore, so Evan set up a group of cameras to try and figure out what it was.
While Karen fills Sandra in on Coral and the beings who are trying to bring their evil god to our world, she stresses that they need all the help they can get. Sandra isn’t used to getting involved in the supernatural, only investigating it, but she pledges to help as much as she can. She decides to try to meditate and see if she can get a better bead on where some of the strange auras are located. She isn’t sure if the strong magic of the bookstore will interfere with her psychic exercises, but after hearing about the creatures Karen and her group has encountered, she decides she’ll try it rather than being outside and risking any attacks.
Not having any choice but to wait, Karen grows restless and decides to take a quick walk to a corner store to buy some candy to entice the faerie folk with. On her way back, her senses seem to sharpen, as they did with the insect patterns a few weeks ago. She looks around carefully and her eyes seem drawn to a penny on the sidewalk. Picking it up, she notices that it’s dated 1984, the same year she was born. Not willing to assume it’s a coincidence, she walks a bit further down the sidewalk and sees another penny; this one is dated 1985. Her curiosity piqued, she continues until she sees another up ahead of her. Stopping, she remembers how much trouble she’s gotten into going off by herself and decides that she should get some one to come with her before she wanders into another bit of the unknown. Even if the penny isn’t there when she returns, at least she hasn’t gone off alone and been attacked.
Heading back to the bookstore, she asks Tupilak to accompany her on a short jaunt. The spiritual warrior is sick of being cooped up in the bookstore anyways, and quickly agrees. As they walk down the street where Karen discovered the penny, Tupilak asks her about Conroy’s faith. He’s noticed the cross that Conroy wears around his neck and wonders if it’s some sort of religious symbol. With a smirk, Karen explains to him that it’s a Christian symbol, showing faith to God.
“This god, Christian, what is he like?” asks Tupilak.
“No, the god is named just ‘God’. Christians are God’s worshippers.” She says.
“The god is named ‘God’?” he says, looking confused.
“Yeah, the Inuit gods have never interacted with him?” she asks expectantly.
“No, never heard of him.” he says.
While Karen tries to rationalize the fact that there may or may not be a Christian god, her senses twitch again as a cyclist rides by on a red bicycle. The red seems extra vibrant and her eyes are subconsciously locked onto it. Assuming that it’s the type of mystical sign she’s been waiting for, she jogs after the cyclist and Tupilak follows. Within a few minutes, several other red items catch her eye and she follows them, hoping it will lead towards something of interest.
Finally, she sees a flash of something red from an alleyway and stops to take a closer look. A short, tan-skinned man in a long jacket seems to be etching the wall of the alley with red chalk. Karen and Tupilak slowly creep forward, not sure exactly what to expect. Just as they’re within touching distance of the man, he turns around to face them with a wicked grin across his face.
“It’s not nice to interrupt an artist, my dear.” he says.
Then, his hands crackle with energy and a stream of colored light shoots forth, blinding both Karen and Tupilak. Although she flails in front of her to try and grab at the man, she can’t find him. By the time both of their vision returns, the man is gone, leaving only the red blotch of chalk and more questions than ever.
At first glance, the red seems normal enough, a thick blob of chalk, with no distinctive features. But when Karen takes a look up close at it, she’s shocked to see thousands of very tiny symbols etched almost too small to see. From a normal distance, it all blends together into a solid color, but extremely close she can make out what it really is. The writing is unbelievably precise, and she’s positive that it isn’t anything normal.
Calling Evan on her cel phone, Karen asks him to bring some camera equipment, so that they can get some pictures of the red writing before she washes it off the wall. While he arrives and takes a bunch of photos with some high-powered macro lenses, Karen and Tupilak keep a watchful eye on the neighborhood, looking for any sign of the strange man. After Evan finishes, Karen buys some bottled water from a nearby grocery store and splashes it on the chalk to get rid of it. Although the redness washes away, they’re all quite surprised to see that most of the writing has been burned into the cement surface of the wall.
“How are you gonna get rid of that? You want me to find a sledgehammer?” remarks Evan.
Karen doesn’t want to make any noise and arouse suspicion, so they opt for simple surveillance instead. Sending Evan back to the bookstore to tell the others to hang tight, Tupilak and Karen hide out in the alleyway, hoping that the strange man will return. After several hours when the sun goes down, their patience pays off. The man creeps back into the alley, but this time he’s not alone. Following a few feet behind him are three German Shepard dogs. Figuring that they have to move quickly to get the drop on the man and the dogs, they quickly move forward. Unfortunately, the dogs’ senses are too sharp, and they easily pick up Tupilak’s scent, sending everything into chaos.
All three dogs attack, snapping with sharp teeth and claws while the man seems to ignore the battle and continue his bizarre artistic handiwork on the wall. Tupilak is badly bitten several times and angrily slams his knife into the snout of one of the canines, while Karen tries to maneuver around them and get closer to the man. Just as she thinks she can get past, things take a turn for the worse. All three of the dogs’ eyes glow red and she barely has time to avert her face as they breath fire! Tupilak yells in anger and pain as the flames burn his skin while Karen grits her teeth and leaps past it to land beside the man. She jams the gun into the man’s temple, trying not to let the pain distract her.
“Okay a**hole, call off the dogs.” she threatens.
The man smirks and even before she can fire, he’s already moving. With a simple gesture of his hand, he wipes the burnt letters clean from the wall and ducks below her gun. She fires at him, grazing his arm, but he keeps going, dashing down the alleyway towards the street. With his back turned, she levels the barrel with his midsection, ignoring Tupilak’s yells as he slashes at the dogs. With two clean shots, she blasts holes in his spine and chest, sending the man crashing to the ground. As he expires, she hears him wheeze out a few final words.
“Blasted weak bodies.”
As soon as the man drops, the dogs cease their attack. In fact, the animals seem completely normal and begin whining and licking the wounds they’d inflicted only seconds before. Tupilak is shocked and at first isn’t sure if he should keep striking at them. Karen looks around cautiously, sure that the noise of their battle will bring the police soon. They can’t drag a corpse through the streets, so they have to leave it. Kicking him over to get a closer look at his face, she ponders his last comment. The dead mans eyes stare off into nothingness and from his open mouth spills forth red chalk, the exact same color as was on the wall.
“Looks like the human was possessed by the chalk thing...” notes Tupilak.
A cold chill runs up Karen’s spine. That body may have been an innocent person, just a normal guy who was drawn into this thing without knowing why it was happening. She killed him and there was no way to take it back. Her hands tremble as she puts away her gun. With a last glance at the body, they head out, trying to avoid being seen by anyone on the street.
Last edited:
Broccli_Head
Explorer
Hey Z.,
nice to see another post. what was that chalk thing?
I liked how you described Karen's crisis of conscience.
nice to see another post. what was that chalk thing?
I liked how you described Karen's crisis of conscience.
Zubkavich
First Post
Session Thirteen: Pawn Shop Chaos
Heading back to Dog-Eared Pages, Karen is burnt and hurt once again, prompting Onan to give her another stern lecture while he tends to her various wounds. Karen tries not to think about the innocent she may have killed while giving the rest of the group a rundown of the incident with the man full of red chalk.
While she rests and recovers from the combat, Sedrick brings her some good news. The silver that the group had pulled from the Hooded figure was hard to enchant, but he was able to create two small charms. The tiny chunks of silver will detect the Shadow-Borne and other entities not of this world. When they are close, they will grow warmer, when not, they stay room temperature or colder.
“Reminds me of playing Hot or Cold when I was a kid.” She remarks.
“Of course it does. That game came from enchantments such as this, even if no one can remember it now.” He says with a grin.
She asks Sedrick about the red chalk and the type of magic that could etch such small mystical writing into the wall. Sedrick has never seen anything like it and isn’t sure where he could research the answers. Not sure of where else to turn for more information, she jots a letter down for Miller and drops it into the Snapdragon Box:
Hi Miller,
What exactly is a “Shadow-Borne”?
Is there any way that we can help you in Coral? Not that we aren’t pretty busy here. Speaking of which, where is your world? What is it like?
We are doing our best here. I think we have found some allies here to help us. Sedrick managed to fashion two charms from the silver, like you said to. We should be able to use them to find these creatures. Are any of them demons?
On of the things we ran into filled some guy up with red chalk and blinded us with magic. He had dogs that seemed normal until they breathed fire on us. I figured he was bad news, so I shot him up. He said something about “weak bodies”, then died, leaving this body filled with red chalk stuff. Then the dogs went back to normal.
I don’t want to hurt innocent people! How do I get rid of these evil demons?
Karen
It doesn’t take long for a reply to appear:
Greetings,
I hope this letter finds you well. The Shadow-Borne are beings that exist in darkness. They were formed from the mistakes our people made in the past; A legacy of violence that we may never atone for. We are doing all we can to contain them, but still their power grows. I do not know if you can help us directly, but stopping them on your side is a start. I do not know what “demons” are. The Shadow-Borne are evil.
The red dust you speak of is Crimson Path, a foul abomination that preys on souls. It fears purifying minerals of our world. Maybe yours will ward it away as well? Crimson Path can multiply and grow. It is a channeler of energy and very dangerous. It brings out evil impulses and I am sorry to hear that some of it has crossed over. My prayers are with you.
Miller
Karen reads it over, carefully analyzing what Miller wrote. She scrawls out another quick letter, hoping that he will write back just as quickly:
What kind of purifying minerals? How do they multiply? What kind of mistakes created the Shadow-Borne? Is their power growing because of what they’re doing here? What do you mean by a “channeler of energy”?
Karen
Onan feeds her some broth and tells her to lie still while he tries his best to help her condition. Concentrating deeply, he calls upon powerful healing magics to bind her wounds. Before her eyes, her skin tingles and the cuts and blisters seem to melt away, replaced with a slight numbness that soon fades. The Inuit shaman has been preying steadily and with Tupilak’s help, he’s tapping into more powerful spirit spells. Karen is blown away by the strength of his healing, and stares at her clear and unblemished skin in amazement.
Just as she’s about to compliment him on his new abilities, her cel phone rings. Looking over at it, she wonders who could be calling her. Then, without warning, she has a quick flash in her mind and she knows who it is: Buzzard! Unsure of how she knew without even looking at the display on the phone, she picks it up and greets the gothic pawn shop owner.
Although Buzzard seems polite and decent to her, she can instantly tell that he’s not himself. His words are to perfect and he isn’t making any effort to flirt with her. He asks where she went after the rave and she explains that she had some problems with Horvulok. Buzzard barely gives her time to explain before he’s inviting her to come by the pawn shop for a meeting. He’s got several boxes of the drugs that Morfuseid was dealing in and he wants to know if she wants “in” on the action. Karen tells him that she’ll be by the pawn shop shortly. As she hangs up the phone, she sighs.
“Who was that?” asks Onan.
“Buzzard. Looks like Morfuseid’s hypnotized him or something. He sounds like a regular gentlemen instead of the a**hole I know and love. I’ve got to go over there right away and see what he’s gotten himself into.” She says.
“You realize that it’s a total trap.”
“Yeah, I know. That’s why we’re going to head in as a group and nail the b**tards.”
(more to come... damn long session...)
Heading back to Dog-Eared Pages, Karen is burnt and hurt once again, prompting Onan to give her another stern lecture while he tends to her various wounds. Karen tries not to think about the innocent she may have killed while giving the rest of the group a rundown of the incident with the man full of red chalk.
While she rests and recovers from the combat, Sedrick brings her some good news. The silver that the group had pulled from the Hooded figure was hard to enchant, but he was able to create two small charms. The tiny chunks of silver will detect the Shadow-Borne and other entities not of this world. When they are close, they will grow warmer, when not, they stay room temperature or colder.
“Reminds me of playing Hot or Cold when I was a kid.” She remarks.
“Of course it does. That game came from enchantments such as this, even if no one can remember it now.” He says with a grin.
She asks Sedrick about the red chalk and the type of magic that could etch such small mystical writing into the wall. Sedrick has never seen anything like it and isn’t sure where he could research the answers. Not sure of where else to turn for more information, she jots a letter down for Miller and drops it into the Snapdragon Box:
Hi Miller,
What exactly is a “Shadow-Borne”?
Is there any way that we can help you in Coral? Not that we aren’t pretty busy here. Speaking of which, where is your world? What is it like?
We are doing our best here. I think we have found some allies here to help us. Sedrick managed to fashion two charms from the silver, like you said to. We should be able to use them to find these creatures. Are any of them demons?
On of the things we ran into filled some guy up with red chalk and blinded us with magic. He had dogs that seemed normal until they breathed fire on us. I figured he was bad news, so I shot him up. He said something about “weak bodies”, then died, leaving this body filled with red chalk stuff. Then the dogs went back to normal.
I don’t want to hurt innocent people! How do I get rid of these evil demons?
Karen
It doesn’t take long for a reply to appear:
Greetings,
I hope this letter finds you well. The Shadow-Borne are beings that exist in darkness. They were formed from the mistakes our people made in the past; A legacy of violence that we may never atone for. We are doing all we can to contain them, but still their power grows. I do not know if you can help us directly, but stopping them on your side is a start. I do not know what “demons” are. The Shadow-Borne are evil.
The red dust you speak of is Crimson Path, a foul abomination that preys on souls. It fears purifying minerals of our world. Maybe yours will ward it away as well? Crimson Path can multiply and grow. It is a channeler of energy and very dangerous. It brings out evil impulses and I am sorry to hear that some of it has crossed over. My prayers are with you.
Miller
Karen reads it over, carefully analyzing what Miller wrote. She scrawls out another quick letter, hoping that he will write back just as quickly:
What kind of purifying minerals? How do they multiply? What kind of mistakes created the Shadow-Borne? Is their power growing because of what they’re doing here? What do you mean by a “channeler of energy”?
Karen
Onan feeds her some broth and tells her to lie still while he tries his best to help her condition. Concentrating deeply, he calls upon powerful healing magics to bind her wounds. Before her eyes, her skin tingles and the cuts and blisters seem to melt away, replaced with a slight numbness that soon fades. The Inuit shaman has been preying steadily and with Tupilak’s help, he’s tapping into more powerful spirit spells. Karen is blown away by the strength of his healing, and stares at her clear and unblemished skin in amazement.
Just as she’s about to compliment him on his new abilities, her cel phone rings. Looking over at it, she wonders who could be calling her. Then, without warning, she has a quick flash in her mind and she knows who it is: Buzzard! Unsure of how she knew without even looking at the display on the phone, she picks it up and greets the gothic pawn shop owner.
Although Buzzard seems polite and decent to her, she can instantly tell that he’s not himself. His words are to perfect and he isn’t making any effort to flirt with her. He asks where she went after the rave and she explains that she had some problems with Horvulok. Buzzard barely gives her time to explain before he’s inviting her to come by the pawn shop for a meeting. He’s got several boxes of the drugs that Morfuseid was dealing in and he wants to know if she wants “in” on the action. Karen tells him that she’ll be by the pawn shop shortly. As she hangs up the phone, she sighs.
“Who was that?” asks Onan.
“Buzzard. Looks like Morfuseid’s hypnotized him or something. He sounds like a regular gentlemen instead of the a**hole I know and love. I’ve got to go over there right away and see what he’s gotten himself into.” She says.
“You realize that it’s a total trap.”
“Yeah, I know. That’s why we’re going to head in as a group and nail the b**tards.”
(more to come... damn long session...)
Broccli_Head
Explorer
Horacio said:
I agree with Horacio!
I know that you'll also be coming up with characer pics soon...right?
