Andreyich

Ember Grove - Reboot

Well the corpse was buried and the Macedonian had received his file on the witches, and Dr. Florescu even had time to quietly go back into the university to use their computers in a slightly illicit way with the aim of making sure all was what he previously believed it to be. Satisfied after looking through databases of the university, he went back to his car thinking about the day, and the one to follow. Valentin was a man of faith himself, but he did feel that Josef was getting himself engaged with the wrong crowd. The Holy Saviours were batshit insane from what he could tell, and cannon fodder against the witches was their ultimate fate insofar as he could see. The true extermination of their breed would come from professional operators, men in the night extinguishing the unholy lives with not a sound coming from them. Men who didn't rely on the sole power of God as the Holy Saviour freaks, but rather those that relied on his wisdom to make ingenious weapons and munitions to slaughter the supernatural blight upon earth. In the past centuries it was only the bravest and greatest of men who could go forth and fight these beasts. The Knights of yore insured many fell foes were brought down, but they could only take on the small fry. Now the way of the sword was passed on to men who had advanced technologies at their grasp and could bring an end to the tyranny of monsters millennia old. It was one such monster Valentin sought in Ember Grove, and it would be his magnum opus to finally end an animal that had met Kings of Sumeria. Perhaps he could retire then, knowing that he ended a piece of history.

Driving home he decided to take a quick sleep before a quick dinner so that he could face the people at the Operation Humanity base more readily. Getting shut eye just long enough to rest without going into true REM sleep Valentin made himself a sad dinner ubiquitous to single guys; eggs with whatever was in the fridge thrown in to catch the four main food groups: crispy bits, fat, starch and sugar. He wasn’t going out on an operation tonight so he didn’t even bother going for his equipment, only really taking his thermal imagers and sidearm. He made sure to change however, as well as changing his license plates before driving out. It was a while before he made it to the OH base, showing his ID to get in and park. He would approach whoever was on duty at the entrance, once more flashing his ID along with the text he received from the mustached leader of the place. “I need to speak with Colonel Trotter and some higher-end Hunters very urgently. I have some information in regards to the little shit he wants to capture and I believe the means to do so.”

The Protectorate: A Legal Interest Check

Tentative interest.

P.S. @Goldeagle1221 would there be a council seat for either the gendarmes/police or for heads of guilds of some sort?

Ember Grove - Reboot

The girl had run off, and not wanting to get himself into any more situations Valentin decided now was his time for exeunt. For him the exhibit was done, and thank the Lord. The place had contained hippies, rich bastards and at times the unholy union of the two. Dear God his knuckles itched. But there was serious business at hand, and so leaning against his car the Professor only waited for his friend to whom he waved once he saw him, motioning for him to come take a seat with him in the SUV so they could have a nice private chat. Frankly he didn’t even want other hunters overhearing what had happened, knowing associating even with a nominal member of the Holy Saviours wasn’t the best optics. “Ah, Josef. Good to see you. Who was your friend?” he said, making polite small talk before they could discuss the night jobs. “How have you been?”

Josef returned Valentin’s nod with one of his own as he sat down next to the hulk of a man. “She’s just some student I met on the way out. Figured I could make sure she made it over here safely. You know what prowls around at night around here, after all.”

The professor let out a humoured “hmph” noise from his nose as Josef elaborated on the girl. “I don’t think she’s at risk in the very middle of the campus. But nevertheless: ‘how gallant of you’.” Valentin laughed at “old man”, even if in truth there was a pang or two of insecurity at the sound of the words.

“Well, I’ll get to it then. First of all I must ask a little favour. In the trunk of my car is a… friend who needs to be hidden. If you’re free then I’ll ask for help bringing them out to the woods but if not then simply for a little access to the cleaning stuff you have. There’s not much left of him so I don’t think it’ll be too difficult to dissolve and then dispose of the fiend.”

Valentin paused to take a sip of his tea while a car with obnoxiously loud rap music drove by and then continued when once again there was guaranteed privacy. “There’s two people at the university that need to be dealt with. One is a student, a warlock from what I can tell. I overheard him talking with another student about going to the family cabin, and I saw when his father went to pick him up that the bastard smoked. I don’t think it would be too improbable if at a family weekend getaway daddy left a cigarette burning and the house went up in flames. Such tragedies happen all the time, no?” The hunter smiled and waved to a fellow professor going to his car, the action intended as much to keep appearances as to punctuate the conversation. "There is also a TA, a werewolf I believe. Her lover gifts her all sorts of shitty jewellery in public, but it is from only the silver examples she recoils. I also saw her eyes go funny once. We teach different times and departments but I don't think a deeper investigation into her will be hard. Probably goes to the woods like the rest of her kind every so often. Both were here today."

“Perhaps you’re right, Valentin. But these supernaturals can be unpredictable and bold.” Josef had a feeling the supernaturals would start acting erratic once they caught wind of hunters on their trail, like a cornered beast. Especially with a hunter like Valentin making the rounds- the veteran hunter was one to send a message. Lord knows what Valentin had done to his “friend” in the trunk.

“The body shouldn’t be too hard to get rid of. We’ll have to clean your trunk too later as well. Don’t want the off chance some blood shows up on a black light.” As he spoke to Valentin, Josef scanned the parking lot, a bit wary of any passerby. The last thing they needed was some normie listening in on them, or worse yet, a supernatural they didn’t know about yet. “I don’t have much time tonight to help you with that suspected warlock and werewolf. Xavir wants the Saviors to meet. Something about witches he might have uncovered, and of course he wants us to prepare for a raid in the days to come. I wanted to ask you if you knew anything about some coven named the “Circle of the Ancients”? Xavier seems to think he’s found some evidence that a chapter of that coven is operating here, in Ember Grove.” Josef sighed as he rubbed his head thinking about the frustrations he had with his newly found Christian friends. “Seems to be the only thing Xavier cares about. Never seen him talk about anything but witches ever since I moved here, from Macedonia. Sometimes I feel that Xavier has forgotten that werewolves and vampires are also deserving of God’s judgement.”

Valentin shrugged at the first reply. “And what would you do, mop them to death?” it was a joke, although with somewhat of a serious underlying issue it meant to highlight. Josef’s train of thought wasn’t wrong, and it was precisely why a harmless professor of this town’s university carried a loaded M1911 with a silencer to capitalize on the subsonic nature of .45ACP. The “old man” was imparting some of his experienced wisdom; you could never know when a client from your night job decided to contact you during the day, so to speak. He could only nod as the Macedonian commented on the matter of disposing the body. In public life the little passive-aggressive comments to his student was as confrontational as the Professor got and had to date no problems with law enforcement, but who knew what could happen. The dead creature was sealed in plastic for now, but he knew some of the fiends of ember grove could sniff out the tiniest of droplets of now dried blood.

As Josef continued Valentin frowned, but then nodded in concurrence. “I’d prefer to bury it, let its kinsmen stumble upon it to see what fate awaits them all. But if you really need the time for your… meeting, then melting it in cleaning agents will suffice. I have enough trophies and other bits to collect my due off of it. I would like to deal with the warlock this weekend however. Looking through his social media it seems the family is going to the cabin tomorrow and staying both nights, an opportunity that may not return for a while. The werewolf may wait. Perhaps dropping a packet of silver dust in a latte of hers in the near future will do, although I want to minimize the purification we do on campus. As for the coven, I can perhaps deliver you a file. I’m only a contractor for the big shots on road sixty-nine, but I still go to their facility. They’re some of the larger fish in the pond as the Americans say, but this is not the reason they’re at the bottom of the kill list. They mostly bother other witches, and they will only be dealt with once all other covens have been slaughtered. I concur with this truth be told. Though given the opportunity of course I would feed them their own entrails, there are more dire threats for now. They do have a Chapter here if intelligence is right. I will give you the file as I said, but I suggest you steer your new buddies towards other covens."

“More likely some kid on a hike a few weeks from now would find it if we buried it. Don’t need unwanted police attention on us any more than we have to.” Valentin was always one for theatrics, which surprisingly hadn’t got him killed yet. Maybe he was just that lucky. “If you go to one of those organic stores, you could probably get some colloidal silver, slip it into some water. It is one of those health “fads” these Americans seem fond of. Probably won’t kill her. Probably will be very painful, though. As for convincing Xavier to not go after some witches.. I would probably have more luck trying to argue that the sky isn’t blue. I don’t think the Holy Saviors would take too kindly to a newcomer challenging their enigmatic leader. Still, any intelligence would be welcome if you’d be able to get your hands on it.”

Dr. Florescu rubbed his chin thoughtfully, and then shrugged. “Maybe. But I would reckon it would be a kid with a suspiciously good sense of smell.” He shifted the gear stick to D, and started driving down to the university’s road into the woods. “I’ll meet you outside Bobby’s Sports Bar then. You’ll get the papers and we’ll part ways. I’ll text you about meeting some time tomorrow evening so we can take care of the warlock, or perhaps Sunday. After I give you the documents I need to have another chat with my narc friends, apparently a friend of one of my students is some important werewolf they have to capture. You know me, I don’t do capturing. But this is important and should be easy from what I saw of the little shit. I probably won’t do it but I will help do it. I guess the werewolf TA will have to wait, vile bitch. Might just cut her throat in the parking lot or something of the sorts, or trail her home. Maybe I'll buy that silver health-shit to make her 'feel sick' so she stays home. Then I can get her during the work day when there's no witnesses. Make it look like a robbery gone very, very wrong. If you need help with your friends’ new little project feel free to ask, eh?” They were quite far on the road, and there was nobody behind or ahead of the SUV, and putting on a set of thermal imaging goggles Valentin couldn’t make out anybody in the woods nearby either. Thus he exited the car and opened the trunk, handing a shovel and a revolver to Josef while picking up another shovel for himself. After disposing of the corpse they’d have to clean out the trunk Valentin remembered. Yeah, it was annoying and wasn’t as grand a part of the eternal war. But it was important nevertheless.

Ares Solutions Inc. - A modern day PMC Roleplay

Heavy fire was exchanged, almost solely full auto on the side of the OPFOR while being largely done in more tempered bursts by Squad Ajax. Hypatia had done well, the SVD eliminating several of the enemy in rapid succession. The Dragunov was a strange weapon in modern terms, not quite a DMR and not quite a sniper, but in this situation it was perfect leading to quick kills from quite afar. While the cannon fodder at the front of the local warriors were still disoriented with relation to the sniper, the men at the back with proper gear acted decisively; leaving the car he was hiding in the man in athletic gear now had an AR and plate carrier of his own, and together with one of his high-end goons the two returned fire at the sniper with the first shots landing mere millimeters from her. They were adjusting their aim, and ready to shoot again moments later.

The squad by the Nimrs would most certainly be aware of the reduction in the volume of fire towards them as a result of Hypatia's work from the main grouping of the foe, but the Lada was approaching at a very high speed and the two FALs would be a very grave threat to the mercenaries. However, Gorgon sent out a very opportune grenade — it landed a fair distance from the moving car, but while naught of the concussive impact reached it there was also nothing to stop or slow down the shrapnel (beyond a thing sheet of glass) that turned the two men at the front into bloody messes. The two survivors in the rear passenger seats were forced to leave, and they were struck by a hail of SKS and RPD fire that insured all the warriors of the Lada were out of action. Now the mercenaries outnumbered the thugs, but they still had one gambit. One man was still in a good position to operate the DShK, even if fearful of the crossfire that the Ares employees had set up. Thus he squatted low, and after taking a quick peak to orient himself unleashed the high calibre weapon on the Nimrs. While he was blind-firing, the rate of fire and fearsome 12.7x108mm bullets were nevertheless a threat. The two men at the front of the flatbed were also still active, and the one with the SMG now felt confident in taking aimed shots in single-fire rather than small bursts in hopes of suppressing the mercs. The driver meanwhile hit the gas as hard as he could, the vehicles needing a moment to accelerate but soon moving towards the Nimrs very fast.

Moments later the new gunner of the HMG felt confident to stand up and taking careful fire; in theory only one of the mercs would have to draw his fire, and then the rest of the squad could take him on very quickly. But nobody wanted to take that risk, and so Bakker reckoned they'd need to give them another grenade. The issue was however that the driver would most certainly have seen the explosion that got the Lada, and at even the slightest hint of a grenade would likely take evasive maneuvers. An idea struck the Dutchman, even if it felt silly as he got to executing it. He started crawling under the Nimr with his rifle, hoping he could shoot from the security of the vehicle without much fear of fire returned this way. Admittedly he could really only hit the tires and perhaps the lights from this angle, but in this desert night that just might do. As the slow crawl started, the Marine cursed himself for not having taken off his vest and helmet, the useless bits of armour making his movement very slow and troublesome.

The Division | Mao Mao & Andreyich

---

LINCOLN TUNNEL // HUDSON YARDS

Again there were gunshots, but from the taunt of the woman Badger could readily surmise they hadn't hit his comrade and so he continued moving to his position. However by the sounds of movement it seemed that the following shots were aimed to kill Bates, and he could just about make out the sound of subsonic munitions leaving a suppressed firearm. Well, they were only handguns, but Don still couldn't allow his comrade to come under threat.

Badger nodded at Bates's response, looking about the scene. Only one of the four firearms active just now were silenced and the noise of guns echoed across the area. This in turn presented a danger, several dangers in fact. The buddies of these cops could easily be around some corner and they would not be happy to see two armed men over the corpses of their fellow officers. But even if that wasn't the case, there could be lots of other vultures attracted to the sound. All hell was breaking loose and marauders of all sorts would flock here in hopes of finding some dead to pick apart for valuables.

Having finally made it to the shot policemen Badger first removed the magazine from his M4 and replaced the spent round. Then he would squat down and take their pistols along with their munitions, belts, and vests into his backpack. Even if he didn't need them it was better they came with him rather than end up in the hands of some scavenger. If he couldn't eventually find someone worthwhile to hand over the equipment to then he would just throw them into some sewer or stash them with some trash where they wouldn't be found. It might of course seem somewhat ghoulish to already start looting the woman when she was still alive, but Badger didn't particularly care. The country was fucking collapsing, there were more important things to be thinking about than some sensibilities right now.

The shot woman was clearly a real cop according to a cursory examination... well, a badge and other ID could be faked and while it was unlikely the consideration should still be on the table, and examining the friend of Officer McKinney would likely reveal more or less the same as with her, although two badges would certainly be harder to fake than one. The short interrogation that happened did confuse the Agent somewhat. While the woman's idea of cleansing the city eerily mirrored his own, he wasn't sure if he could really consider himself akin to the officer. The Agent couldn't really believe what he was hearing, and he wasn't even sure he wanted to. With the bloodloss she'd be undergoing there were only moments left, and Badger shook her a little to keep her from slipping into unconsciousness.

"What do you mean? Did these people spread the disease intentionally?" he demanded, the thought that they might have very well made it not even crossing his mind; he made sure he kept his voice down in case somebody was already closing in on the position of the duo. Regardless of exactly what her explanation was, Badger would look quizzically to Firefly, the fact he wasn't sure the woman's story should be believed all over the face.

Then it hit him. "Firefly. The civilian. Where is he?" He stood up, flicking his assault rifle to fully automatic. If the woman was in fact telling the truth then they had to know where the arrested citizen was and apprehend him as fast as possible. If they didn't, then the duo would be responsible for a very, very dangerous man escaping justice. Though he made sure not to show it, a soft panic started to set into the Agent.

Ember Grove - Reboot

The Professor watched as some runt approached the prick students he had just dealt with, the boy looking somewhat familiar. But hey, any of these kids looked familiar given they all looked the fucking same. Valentin shook his head, knowing his annoyance with some bad apples shouldn't tarnish his view of the whole student body. But damn, it was hard.

He went by to examine another painting, eventually deciding to take a good high-resolution picture of each with his phone when nobody - or at least not the host of the event - was looking. Valentin was a firm believer in pirating films, books, and videogames. So if all that couldn't be open-source for the wise individual, why couldn't some snobby art be likewise? It's not like art is actually productive, the Romanian reasoned. As he took a sip of his tea and simultaneously photographed yet another painting, something hit Valentin.

He didn't budge a millimetre.

Dr. Florescu wasn't a confrontational man, but it was quite different when someone all but forced confrontation striking him as such and while he turned very slowly thoughts of making somebody count their teeth in the gutter flowed through his mind, his lips beginning to frame the words. What he saw made him frown more in annoyance than anger, for his violent thoughts would now have to simmer down by themselves rather than be expressed. He stared at the girl for a moment or two, motionless. The hunter had heard of the little experiment and probably had seen her, but to be frank he had (for now successfully) avoided her. The thought of fighting someone who probably couldn't lift his favoured weapons and would probably be sent airborne by them was not particularly appealing. But even discounting that, she was a little girl. Fancying himself a folksy knight of sorts, Valentin would in any work with her have to more or less shield her from any harm with himself as bulwark which was a liability to say the least. That wasn't all that came to threaten his work if done with a juvenile however. When he was done with any of the supernatural regardless of if a witch, a werewolf or a vampire he left... art of them. Why just before the vampire he had sawed into paste this morning, Valentin had skinned and beheaded a witch, before forcing torn-off ribs into the eyes, nostrils, ears and mouth of the mangled head. To complete the piece, a final rib was stuck into the throat so the head could be mounted on a stump that her coven used for their meetings to let them know: the crime of their existence was known, and the sentence would be death.

But today was an even worse day to see Remy in the wild. Valentin was going to meet his Macedonian friend and it would not be good if any agents of Operation Humanity learned of the relationship. Furthermore, the girl likely wouldn't be very good at keeping operational security, and if he was known to associate with her once the nature of the youth was learned then his very own life would be in jeopardy. All of this thought went through his head in a fraction of a second, and once it was done he gently but firmly removed her from the skateboard, stepping on it to get the apparatus upright and then picking it up, while taking the elements of the "disguise" the lassie had off of her head so she wouldn't be so noticeable. He quickly followed the trail of her terrorism by the flabbergasted faces of the wealthy, and pinched the bridge of his nose. Josef was already here, while Valentin had to deal with this problem. Gripping the wrist of the girl Valentin would try to discretely lead her away, each of his sausage fingers close to the size of one of her arms. Most men disliked babies while having decent relationships with more grown kids. Valentin was the inverse, he found himself easily able to calm babies but his understanding of children was so poor it could not be mitigated by his own great many childish elements.

"Come, you want to play videogames?" the man said, deciding he'd take the girl to his office. "I've a great many."

StarCraft: New Beginning

Paul only nodded in affirmation, a good compromise of many different features reached. "Good, good, good." the fellow said while steepling his fingers on his improvised seat. "It is agreed then! Your vessel will be very soon." The man removed a surprisingly pristine PDA from his pocket, entering some commands into the thing before whistling loudly.

"The boys will get right on it, they cut fast with the SCVs we got recently. Your ride will be ready in oh...." the man paused, looking to the sky. "Twenty, thirty minutes. Depends what model of wraith we get, the ones from before the brood war have very funny cables, a bitch to cut."

The man scratched his elbow thoughtfully, before standing up and turning the PDA around after entering a few more inputs. "While they work though, we'll need you to cough up the credits." He looked to Maya to join the Lieutenant as he started entering the payment for the duo's new vessel.

ꇙ ꒤ ꋊ ꋪ ꒤ ꋊ ꋊ ꏂ ꋪ ꇙ

C a n y o n
E v e n i n g

---

The Knight really didn’t have a great many things to do. Considering the route they were going to take his horse would not be debilitated by the inability to go up and so it was clear he would ride vanguard rather than staying on the schooner with the bug and the Dwarf. August made sure that Bobby was well fed, watered, and clean, and then rode out to the rendezvous. Waiting for the rest of the party he finished the meal from the tavern, before moving on to prayer for the rest of the time that he was waiting. Though for many two hours would be far too much time with no activity, August found he rather enjoyed the short break. It let him once more clear his mind and find some peace between the bouts of violence that more or less defined a Paladin’s life. Just like that, the time passed very handily for August with much introspection done, the time both feeling as if slowed down for more work to be done and yet also having passed so comfortably fast. It took him a moment to snap out of his daydreaming as one by one the Sunrunners showed up with their boga, and he made sure to acknowledge them with but the slightest movement of the neck that could pass for a solemn nod.

Keeping quiet while Hawke did a quick check before the group left, he once more only nodded to affirm that he and his mount were good to go. Seeing the fellow wrap his face up, August was reminded to do likewise and a few moments later wrapped an orle around his helmet just above the horns, letting the long white cloth flutter in the wind.

The ride was calm and restful, almost surprisingly so; were Sunrunners really needed for this? Of course August wouldn’t complain that he could have a relaxing journey, but at the same time his fate was in the way of the blade, and to deny it was almost a bad omen; fate punished those that didn’t obey, and all who fought against it were hopeless rebels. Removing his sword from its sheathe, August looked at the thing thoughtfully. To pass the time he considered maintaining it, but the thing was already razor sharp, well oiled, and with nowt in the way of blemishes. It shined even, quiet beautifully so even if the reflectiveness of the weapon was at time a hazard given it alerted people quite far away to his presence. But that was why he kept it in the scabbard upon his belt, and so it went back to from where it came.

All of this thinking was quite quickly interrupted however when looking up it was clear a sandstorm was gathering. Lying down in a shallow trench he could dig in moments and covering his visor he knew he could weather it, but he was not alone and hence such a selfish train of thought could not be allowed to continue. It was a good thing then that a cave was spotted by Hawke, though the Dwarf’s meteorological analysis gave them only an hour or so to get to safety.

The leadership of the team ordered the group to haul the schooner to safety, but insofar as August could see this was a great risk even if the mage girl managed to divert the sandstorm for an hour or so. “No time.” August announced, looking back and forth between the cave and the sandstorm. “We ought to leave the schooner here, secure it in place with harpoons and anchor. Any potential raiders will have to likewise seek shelter, so we have no fear of somebody robbing the vessel while we wait out the storm. I say we simply get the crew on our mounts and carry them as fast as possible to the cave, not risk any lives and resources unnecessarily.” Of course, it was only a suggestion and August would follow any orders to contrary to anything short of his own death.

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<sup>H e a l t h :
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
100%

E f f e c t s :
None (?)

W i t h :
Sunrunner party

N o t e s :
None</sup>

Ember Grove - Reboot

Hehe! ihr Nicker!
Wie seid ihr niedlich, neidliches Volk!
Aus Nibelheims Nacht naht' ich mich gern,
Neigtet ihr euch zu mir!

Das Rheingold in all its beauty, the German words echoing to a simpler if in many ways a far more vile time. While many prefer to have some sort of fast, hard hitting tunes while exercising, Valentin Florescu preferred something to calm his mind while his body was so excited. It let the man use his time better, going through all the things he had to think about and hopefully find solutions to the many problems he had. Truly, the smith machine was a wonderful purchase.

There was the little issue of the guest though. He kept thrashing, and even with the noise-cancelling headphones the rattle of the chains was quite a nuisance. The man sighed, wiping the sweat off of his brow and taking several swigs from his waterbottle. Well, might as well deal with the bastard know Valenting reasoned. Walking over to the side of the basement wherein everything was covered in plastic sheets he removed the blindfold from the fellow restrained against the table. The hunter smiled, giving a very friendly wave that belied the man’s intentions. “Hello!” he said, opening a case the contents of which the victim would most certainly be unable to see. “Now there is a slight chance you will right away tell me what I want to know for fear of what I’m going to do to you, but usually the arrogance of your kind prevents that. However even if you would willingly reveal all I need you are still a thing. Not an animal, no. You are akin to them, but with the one distinction that whereas animals are simply elements of nature acting upon instincts, you are evil. Thus, a simple death would be too simple for you, you deserve to suffer. Though you can suffer less by cooperating with me, your death will not be painless. Now, why do I tell you this? Well, I want to see the fear. I like seeing it in fact. The little twinkle of your brain trying to find a way to escape, and knowing there is none; only writhing agony awaits. I want to see the same thing you saw on your many victims, I want to be a witness to justice being done.”

Picking up a saw Valentin tested one of its teeth to make sure it was sufficiently sharp, and another to make sure it was painfully dull. Flourishing the tool, the hunter finished his monologue. “Shall we?”

---

It was a very long shower, but he had to make absolute sure there would not be even the slightest bit of the smell of blood upon him. He’d have to dispose of the bits of the dead creature he couldn’t sell later, he thought, remembering he had to go to that art thing now and meet with the Macedonian. Ah, well, what was a janitor good for if not cleaning up? Wrapping up the mess, he put it along with the other things he’d be carrying to his car. There would most likely be a missing persons report for the bugger on the table, and if so soon after yet another beast went missing so soon after there’d be eyebrows raised. Perhaps different knife work would have to be done, blame it on wild animals like all the werewolf attacks in the woods were. The work of a hunter couldn’t be delayed, for if it was then that meant there was a threat to innocent people not removed — a thing Valentin could not stand.

Dressing very simply in a brown tweed suit and pants with only a black silk ascot and handkerchief as flourishes he filled his SUV with the tools of both his trades, before closing it and riding on to the university. Looking at his watch it was time for his snack, and so with a thermos of tea, a simple sandwich and a little Liszt on the radio he enjoyed the ride to the university… even if he knew he’d very soon be surrounded by many pretentious pricks and the people that orbited them.

---

Stepping out of the car he looked more like hired muscle guarding some ethnocentric gang’s leader than a University Professor, but it was what it was. But it was what it was, and walking in the Romanian found himself surrounded by exactly what he expected. Pierced faces, hair dyed unnatural colours, tattoos signalling either somebody had daddy issues or desperately wished that they did. The guy hosting the event seemed classy enough, but what classy entailed was different across time and culture and hence this new cohort of sycophants. Still, anyone who was able to reach a point of hosting such exhibits of their own resources was clearly doing something right, and so he couldn’t really say anything bad of the Drake fellow, in fact he could only applaud him for being to stand the company his work attracted. They were interesting paintings, decent work. He doubted they’d enter the annals of history, for they were too… well, they were trying to hint rather than express. but if you were only doing art for the sake of fame then you were a person the Professor would like to punch the teeth out of.

Metaphors for the man ranged from teddy bear to a quite literal grizzly as he appeared quietly, towering from behind a duo of his students, his shadow giving him away to the couple. He ignored whatever greeting they stuttered out, smiling to them. “Well I am glad to see you! I take it your papers are going very well then, if you have time to go to these big art exhibits yes? Well, clearly then I have given you more than enough time for it, I will make sure to mark accordingly.” Whenever he found any of his students Valentin made sure to follow the same routine, thinning the flock of the younger folk present. Nevertheless Valentin tried his best to make sure the Drake fellow along with the other organizers of the event wouldn’t see what he was doing; it was after all, arguably somewhat rude. If the host would lock eyes with Valentin, then he’d raise his tea thermos in cheers feigning ignorance to any slight incurred and walk over to converse, but he hoped to avoid that for now. There were two important goals the Hunter had in mind for now; discerning who here was his quarry yet unmarked, and finding his acquaintance from the opposite side of the Balkans.

Heroes of Might and Magic: Defying the Gravekeep

Breathing. The sense of breathing would be the first thing to return to young Brandon, and soon all the senses related to it. The air was humid, or on second thought smokey would be a better description; clearly something was burning. As the sense of smell returned the nobleman would get the feeling that much of what was in the air was incense, but many fouler smells yet indistinguishable would also fill his nostrils. The lad was lying on some sort of steps, the cold and somewhat wet stone digging into his skin. A ghastly susurration would fill his ears and upon opening his eyes it would seem to be coming from the smoke about him. Coils of it would form shapes that in the first moments of consciousness would easily be mistaken for faces or skulls both proper and mutilated, malformed. It was a crypt of some sort, a great many steps leading to a rectangular block of stone that may have been a platform for embalming, or perhaps a coffin, or maybe an altar of some sort. Regardless of what it was, a trail of sickly black blood along the steps leading to the Unicorn would be simply evidence that he had fallen and rolled off of it.

Through a strange green lens Brandon now had it would be easy to see the room was poorly lit by the few candles in it, the globs of filthy wax appearing to only accent the darkness rather than provide light. The thing that really allowed him to see was a flame spreading across many books and corpses in the building, the fire yet too small to reach the banners across the walls. It was slow, the occasional fiery bursts of corpses' gases or fats not doing enough to counteract the cold and wetness of rot and blood. The stench was terrible, worse than anything the Lordling would have previously dealt with and yet somehow bearable. If he chose to stand up rather than rest the many pains he would sense across his body, it would be clear that all witnessed to this moment was more or less the full extent of the building. The only new thing revealed would be the exit, a very long thing from which some helping light both natural and not would come. If he paid attention, the noble would hear voices and the clank of plate armour coming from there (albeit getting further and further away).

Though the fire was spreading slowly - almost leisurely in fact - there was an ever so slight sense of urgency given by a rumble from below. It didn't signal that the structure was going to collapse soon, but rather that there would soon be bigger rumbles that would signal this. As the lad would now have to choose what he would do next, memories would start to flutter into his mind.