Lovejoy — Roleplayer Guild

Cast:

Lovejoy (GM)- Father Ragnar Hjálmgrímr 
Drakey - Father Rodion Kuznetsov
Sisyphus - Father Hassan Qureshi
deathbringer - Mother Astraea
The Angry Goat - Father Yerokhin Zlatek Stamenkovikj (Stina to his friends)
OppositionJ - Mother Tatiana (Thana) Leviatan
shylarah - Mother Ziotea Elpis Phaidros 
Draken - Father Ilya Bjornlie
vietmyke- Father Galahad Quaid
Scout - Mother Viveca
CollectorOfMyst - Father Oren Kanus

PROLOGUE SUMMARY 2/16/2018

Stina, Hassan & Ragnar @The Angry Goat @Sisyphus

The three have made their way to the Shadow & Storm pub in the Tale's End slums, where they hope to enjoy one final evening of freedom before they travel to Cero City and rejoin the rest of Warband Phoenix. While there, they are asked to participate in a sting operation by lieutenants Lev Dragonov and Rexus Lycaon of the SA to apprehend Rami Kadenza, a smuggler. Kadenza is said to have information on Father Dara, a dangerous summoner and apostate. Stina, Hassan and the SA soldiers fight Kadenza's pirate crew in the pub, while Ragnar chases after a sharpshooter positioned in a building outside the pub.

Before the events of the night played out, the three inquisitors obtained a trio of wolf pups from a Muraadan street girl. Ragnar has decided to care for them and plans to gift them to his warsiblings.

Galahad, Tatiana & Astraia @vietmyke @OppositionJ @deathbringer

After arriving in the capital city of Sapharan, the three Lanostran inquisitors split up and head to their respective homes. Tatiana visits her father's manor, where she finds him dying, slumped against a wall. The circumstances of his death are unclear, but Tatiana decides to keep his death a secret as she rejoins her comrades. Astraia returns home and is greeted with a cold welcome by her father, who has heard tell of her training with Father Antonin and insults her for associating with a non-Lanostran. She storms out after assaulting him and asserting her independence. Galahad returns to his family's estate, where he has a strained, quiet dinner with his mother. She gifts him a new sword.

When the three reunite the next morning, they find the city garrison in turmoil. They are met by Mother Elisheva of Warband Seraph, who informs them that the Black Glacier has undergone a mysterious change and has begin to manifest a strange new breed of demon. The T'saraen garrison, a group of scientists who have kept a research station near the Glacier for decades, have all been slaughtered by these mysterious demons. Her partner, Father Cillian, was also wounded during their preliminary investigation, and Astraia heads to the war hospital to help treat him. Elisheva enlists the three inquisitors to help, but before they can set out, a large band of provincial Lanostrans march into the streets, demanding answers. 

Rodion @drakey

Rodion travels to the Imperial Drydocks in the T'saraen capital city, Cero. There, Head Engineer Amir T'sukasa and his daughter, Sheva, give him a tour of the shipyard, which is currently being used to outfit old LW-era warships with Hearth Systems that will allow them to travel to El for the second wave of reinforcements. The T'saraen engineers bring Rodion to the primary research and development center within the drydocks, a place known as The Forge, where they introduce him to the two warships which Warband Phoenix will make use of during their expedition-- the VSS Grace and the VSS Karamzina. In the Karamzina's engine room, Rodion is shown the URA, an incredibly powerful engine which, according to Amir, is able to create Omestrian ether for use as fuel.

Oren & Ziotea @CollectorOfMyst @shylarah

The two Omestrian inquisitors have journeyed to the Corpseland of Omestris in order to visit the ruins of Iddin Mar. On their trip they are joined by Private Andrei Seminov, a young and idealistic soldier who secretly fights for the end of the Omestrian slave trade. They reach the Marian Gate-- the only Varyan garrison left in the Corpseland. After meeting Sergeant Veena and Sergeant Mikhail, the only two soldiers manning the station,  Oren and Ziotea make their way down to the entrance to the ruins, where they order Seminov to stay behind.

They explore the silent ruins of the former Omestrian capital city, coming across a great bridge adorned by two statues, one of Omestris and the other destroyed. Ziotea senses a spike of ether energy to the east, and the two inquisitors set out to investigate its source. They find themselves in a subterranean train station, where they encounter Rose, a red-haired teenage girl with ether ability and an old woman revealing herself to be Mother Lyessa al-Nors, a former High Inquisitor of the Varyan Church. Essa, as she now goes by, invites Oren and Ziotea to her solar, where she introduces them to Vahn and Fie, and reveals to the inquisitors that the two children, along with Rose, are all descendants of the deposed royal clans that used to govern the different nations. The three children have escaped a life of prostitution in a place known as the Scarlet House, where rich and powerful Varyan patrons are able to sire royal-blooded heirs.

The two inquisitors also learn that Private Seminov and the two sergeants they met at the Marian Gate are not who they seem, for Essa informs them that the soldiers manning the garrison have all been shipped to fight in the East, and there are currently no plans to replace the garrison.

Ilya @Draken

Ilya returns to his family's grand tower in the Godsreach of Magnagrad, where he enjoys a meal with his family, barons of the Varyan ethertrade. He brings up training alongside his Omestrian warsiblings, and is surprised to hear that one of his comrades might have belonged to his family as a bloodslave.

He retires to his room, wondering who this could be. He also muses on the vision he saw at Culmination, and in which he finds himself alone with Father Ragnar aboard an deck of a ship he's never seen before.

Visions:

I-XVII (pronounced as "One-Seventeen")

The Aspect of Lord Varya that appeared to Warband Phoenix during Culmination. The visions it showed each member of the warband left a mark on them in different ways. Some were perplexed by what I-XVII showed them, others were left horrified, while others were left thinking to themselves in silence. Despite each inquisitor having their own unique experience with I-XVII, each somehow knew its name upon waking, and felt its touch upon their souls. 

Like other Divine Aspects, I-XVII has no default appearance, but is perceived differently depending on the individual who sees it.

Rodeon was brought to a place shrouded in darkness, where he felt the enormity of the world itself stretching endlessly around him, but found himself completely and utterly alone. The land beneath him was hard iron and his footsteps seemed to echo into eternity. As Rodeon traversed through the darkness, he could glimpse stars steadily coming into view. The stars grew myriad and beautiful until they exploded in an aurora of light and color. There,  canvassing the darkness, he watched as they coalesced into a grand constellation of a massive dragon-like creature. When the dragon spoke to him, Rodion heard a woman's voice echoing in his mind. 

"Remember me," it said.

Tatiana was back on the darkened ice surrounding the Black Glacier, on the day of her unsuccessful hunt. All was as it was, her father standing there watching, the bitter unnatural wind that manifested around the Black Glacier lashing at her angrily. When the demon closed in on her with fangs bared, ready to tear her apart, she reached out to it, and just as she did on that day, ordered the demon to stop. 

Only this time, the entire world stopped. Even the wind ceased. She glanced at her father and saw him frozen in mid-step, rushing to her aid. 

It was then that she heard it. The voice of the Black Glacier itself, speaking directly into her soul. When she turned to face it, she found herself standing directly in front of it, close enough to gaze upon her own reflection in the mirrored darkness of the Glacier's shell.

Her reflection spoke back to her, but not in her own voice, but in the language of the Black Glacier-- that mournful rumbling that was as apparent to every Lanostran child as the howling of the winter wind. Somehow, she understood it.

"Love," it repeated. Over and over again, until Tatiana woke from her vision.

Ziotea opened her eyes and found herself... exactly where she had been kneeling in the moments before closing them. When she looked around, she saw all of her companions on their knees with their eyes closed before the colossal doors of the Red Shrine, no doubt experiencing their own visions. Unsure as to what was happening, or if something had gone wrong, she rose to her feet. It was then that she heard the thunderous noise of a million voices crying out together.

Leaving her companions, she turned around and approached the edge of the great platform where the entrance to the Red Shrine stood. Beyond, the surface of the city of Magnagrad stretched onward and from its depths, the roar of a million voices rose up in mechanical unison. With the cacophonous ocean of sound ringing in her ears, Ziotea made her way down the steps of the Shrine to investigate.

When she was halfway down the massive stairwell, she finally saw the source of the sound. Looking upon the streets, she saw them choked with legions of people. All of them stood shoulder to shoulder, every child, man and woman in all the empire seemed to have gathered in every conceivable space-- every street, rooftop, plaza and alley was filled to capacity. She could see the dark azure eyes of native Varyans, the pale blue eyes of T'saraens, the deep emerald of Lanostrans, the cold indigo of Muraadans and the burning gold of Omestrians. Each of those eyes was fixated on her.

"Destroyer," the crowd of millions chanted. Over, and over, and over again. Suddenly, a great explosion of... something encompassed the city and the endless crowds of people disappeared as the maelstrom of golden light washed over them. She felt burning heat begin to cook her alive, it was pain unlike anything she'd felt before. The tempest of golden fire began to swallow her whole when suddenly, a blue circle of light manifested around her, and she felt the burning sensation begin to cease.

At that moment, she woke up.

Astraea found herself waking up in what appeared to be a ruined war hospital. She was lying on a filthy old hospital bed, and the ceiling above her was heavily damaged by what she assumed to be mortar fire. Beyond the crumbling stones, she could glimpse a pale sky-- stark in its emptiness-- the kind of sky that only exists above Varya. When she sat up, she ccaught sight of the rest of the hospital, and to her horror, discovered that the ward seemed to stretch onward to a distant point in the horizon. Thousands of hospital beds were lined up in front of her, unending as they disappeared into eternity, all of them empty but hers.

Suddenly, from somewhere deeper in that eternal corridors, she heard the howling of a wolf. Astraea tried to get up from her bed, but for some reason, her body was heavy like a stone. Something was wrong. It's as if she had woken up from a long period of sleep. Nevertheless, she hobbled to the where the sound was emanating from, and soon enough, she found him. A cyan wolf with golden eyes, lying bloody on the tiles before her.

She could still hear its feint whimpering after she awoke.

Ragnar didn't see anything. When he closed his eyes, the next time he opened them was when Tatiana roused him awake. There was no vision, no sound, nothing at all. This lack of any sort of vision weighs on him heavily, and when asked about what he experienced, he makes up a lie about the Aspect transporting him back to Muraad and seeing his family again.

Stina awoke to find himself standing alone, at the peak of a high tower, somewhere in a vibrant sun-drenched land. Looking around at the distances beneath him, he found that he couldn't recognize where he was, for no place that he had ever laid eyes on was as filled with life and color as the bucolic lands surrounding him. This wasn't Varya, or anywhere else in the empire, but a place beyond where he knew. 

Beneath the tower was a great forest, an army of sentinel trees rooted to the brush. He had seen trees before, in the lands of wealthy Varyan military officers, in pictographs of Lanostre, but here, there were more trees than he had ever seen  in his life. 

Beyond the mountains far from the tower the cobalt sky darkened into shadow. A monstrous storm seemed to enshroud the place beyond those peaks. Mist roiled and lightning struck as black and grey clouds waltzed through the darkness. The storm seemed to be approaching the emerald valley beneath him, and as the clouds grew closer, he found the world was beginning to lose its color.

It was then that he saw it. Hidden behind the storm but only visible through the intermittent flashes of lighting. A massive humanoid shape in the far horizon, shaking the world with its every step. It steadily marched toward him. 

He woke to find that the rumbling in his bones had not ceased.

Hassan awoke to find himself... nowhere. All was pitch black, there was no sight, sound nor smell. No sensation of air touching his skin or ground beneath his feet. In fact, there was no feeling at all. Hassan tried to wiggle his fingers, his toes, and found that he didn't have any fingers or toes to move. There was just... nothing. This place was nothing. And he was nothing.

 His consciousness was the only thing in this place that kept him cognizant of the fact that he  existed. Hassan looked back at his entire life, making a mental catalog of experiences, his companions, hurts he had suffered, victories he had gloried in. He was relieved to find that they were all there. He could remember them all. Relief.

It was then that he tried to remember his own name, and couldn't. He then tried to remember what he looked like, and found that he couldn't do that either. Little by little, he began to forget.

When Hassan opened his eyes, he found that he was the last to awaken.

When he opened his eyes, Galahad stood in his chambers within the Red Seminary. Immediately, his heart pang with an overpowering sensation of loss and he found himself beset by a burning desire to see his companions. Seized by this sense of overwhelming sadness, Galahad ran out of his chambers and looked around for signs of Warband Phoenix, but instead found the seminary empty and silent. Only the sound of his footsteps echoed across its halls.

While searching, he made his way past a polished mirror and in the periphery of his vision, managed to catch a glimpse of himself. He immediately walked back to gaze upon his reflection, and to his shock, found the face looking back at him to not be his own. The man in the mirror was at least fifteen years older, with light scars adorning his face. There was a weariness to the man's features, as if he had seen and suffered much. While he couldn't recognize how his face had changed, his eyes were still the same. They were cold emerald, the strength and wisdom in them still burning bright.

A voice called out to him.

Suddenly, he was not standing in the darkened halls of the Red Seminary, but in the middle of what appeared to be a battlefield where the dead had accumulated to such a degree that mounds of them rose up around him. The smell of rotting flesh assaulted his senses, and strange dark birds unknown to him pecked at the dead, their lifeless eyes watching on.

A man in black stood over a mountain of bones. His red eyes glared down at Galahad as he smiled at him. 

"I'll be waiting," the stranger said to him, his voice barely above a whisper. 

By the time Galahad had awoken, he could still hear the man's words snaking through his mind.

The Visions of Warband Leviathan as shown to them by Aspect I-XIX

Oren opened his eyes. He was back at Sydon-Mar, the impossible stone globe laying half-buried in the northernmost snows of Omestris. The memory of him standing before the titanic monolith was etched into his subconscious, he remembered everything from when he visited it as a child-- the dry cold wind, the ocean of shadow that it cast upon the snow, the loneliness of it all. 

It was different this time.

Oren turned around and saw them. A thousand thousand people stretching into the horizon, their gold eyes burning like torches for as far as Oren could see. They were all smiling, and somehow, he felt their hearts bestowing love upon him. It was then that he noticed it. The sting of frost on the top of his fist. Oren looked at his right hand and there it was-- an azure circle carved upon his pale skin. He grazed it with his fingers and felt it cool to the touch.

The azure circle began to glow, brighter and brighter, its resplendent blue light like a star in that darkness.

His eyes were still half-blinded by its light when he woke.

Ilya stood aboard the high spire of a beautiful white ark. He had never seen it before, but in his heart of hearts he knew that this was the VSS Karamzina. 

Below him the deck was completely empty, which was strange to him. A ship needs its crew, and where else would they be but on the deck? Ilya climbed down the spire to investigate. The ship's Hearth Systems had cast its auto-aegis around the deck, forbidding the cold  from seeping in and killing him. Still, even with the aegis' protection, he felt the frigid touch of the dark blizzards seeping into his blood. Such was its strength that with every step down the spire he became more and light headed. Ilya had never been so cold.

When he reached the deck Ilya looked around and saw nothing but darkness beyond the pale gold light of the ship's aegis. He realized, with both fear and excitement, that he was out there, beyond the Meridian, on uncharted ice. The Karamzina was proceeding through the darkness, cutting through the surface of the ice like a blade. The sound of the ark shearing through the frost was all-encompassing, but there was no life aboard the deck. It was as if he was the only soul on the Karamzina. 

Suddenly, Ilya glimpsed a shape in the dark, standing near the edge of the ship.

It was Father Ragnar.

The young man turned to Ilya and smiled sadly. His pale violet eyes were sunken and the beginnings of a beard shadowed his jaw.

"I'm sorry," Ragnar whispered, his voice breaking.

It was then that Ilya woke up and found himself back where he was, standing before the doors of the Scarlet Shrine with the rest of Warband Leviathan.

"She was floating on a boundless blue ocean. The waves carried her gently as radiant white birds soared through the endless blue expanse above her. White clouds slowly trailed across it, casting soft shadows on the gentle waves below. She felt... something. A pleasant warmness touching her skin. She saw a halo of light shining down at her from high above but had to turn away when its radiance began to blind her. She marveled at it with squinting eyes, for she had never seen the sun as it wa. All her life she could only glimpse its vague presence shrouded behind the white Varyan sky. But in this place it had revealed itself, shining down proudly upon the world in all its splendor.

There, in that impossible ocean, where the frost that had imprisoned her world was nonexistent, she felt at peace. There was nothing but her, the sea and the birds.

It was then that she noticed it. An ornate blue circle on her chest. It seemed to be branded directly onto her skin, and when she traced her fingertips across it she could feel the strange brand growing frigid within her chest. It was as if someone had suddenly filled her heart with ice. Viveca began to cough. Frigid air escaped her lungs. There was something in her, something cold that was spreading to every inch of her body. 

She was still shivering when she opened her eyes. She still felt it. The cold unlike any other."
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