World of Darkness: Attrition - The Fourth Test: Purity [Fin]

[Sarah Dead-Wolf]

Sarah had watched, carefully, all the while that she was shifting, trying to find the pattern in this thing's movements and attacks. Finally, she saw it. Pushing more vitae to her muscles - and half-wondering why she didn't feel diminished for it - she dashed in to rake with her own cruel claws.

Click to reveal..

1 Vitae spent to boost Strength by 2. Total claw pool is 9. TP's defence is 6, -2 for Rorx & Amber's attacks, -1 for FS:Tooth&Claw. Effective attack pool is 6.

(06:40:07) ChatBot: (Sarah_Dead-Wolf) rolls 6d10 and gets 6,4,4,9,8,3.

Two aggravated damage to TP.

[SalmonMax]

Ariel draws back and roars; a sound more of defiance and fury than of pain. Bones jut out from the ruined pulp of her claws, making an ivory scaffolding that new flesh can grow out along. She doesn't wait for the healing to be complete though before resuming the attack...this time she lunges at it with jaws gaping wide, intending to rip out its throat with her teeth!

(Bitey pool is 10 dice. It has defense of 6 apparently, so I want to use a Willpower point. That gives me a pool of 7. I'm also spending 1 Essence to heal an extra damage point this round, for a total of 2.)

(06:49:30) ChatBot: (SalmonMax) rolls 7d10 and gets 7,3,4,7,3,2,8.

1 succ

[Rorx]

Moss struck again at the Ghostwolf, desperate to put it down as fast as possible following the damage that it had done to them in the previous fight.

Click to reveal..

claw attack vs Defence of 6! = 3 dice +3 Willpower = 6 dice

(22:35:55) ChatBot: (Moss) rolls 6d10 and gets 8,9,6,6,4,7.

2 sux = 2 Lethal

[z-Amber Wren]

Growling fiercely, Amber jigged to the side, trying to surprise and throw her opponent off. It only partially worked; when she lunged back toward the enemy, it had followed her intent and sidestepped her. But not completely; her teeth closed on flesh and rent fur and meat.

Click to reveal..

Amber's attack (-5 Defense): 1 sux, 1 Lethal

3,1,2,4,9

[Sarah Dead-Wolf]

The Dead-Wolf meanwhile had seen her fellow's methods, and the openings they created in concert with the retaliations of Tipishkau-pishum. A momentum was building, the creature increasingly uncertain and desperate, and Sarah decided - with Lucien's call to hurry urging her on - that this was the moment to drive that advantage home.

Putting everything she had into it, claws that were far sharper than they had any right to be tore wickedly through the hateful monstrosity, leaving gaping chasms of oozing flesh behind.

Click to reveal..

1 Vitae spent to boost Strength by 2. Spending 1 Willpower to increase pool by 3. Total claw pool is 12. TP's defence is 6, -2 for Rorx & Amber's attacks, -1 for FS:Tooth&Claw. Effective attack pool is 9.

(21:52:51) ChatBot: (Sarah_Dead-Wolf) rolls 9d10 and gets 6,8,8,1,10,3,7,8,6.

(21:52:59) ChatBot: (Sarah_Dead-Wolf) rolls 1d10 and gets 9.

Five aggravated damage to TP!

[Sarah Dead-Wolf]

In the wake of that final, desperate strike, something happened. All of those present had been in fights of one sort or another before, had seen enemies fall. But as the last bit of whatever it was that had kept Tipishkau-pishum clinging to the world finally gave way, it didn't fall. It - along with everything else around the group - simply changed.

Swara-ann's human body was no longer hanging, but instead huddled on the floor near the foot of the cross. The girl hadn't fallen there; she simply became there. In place of the rope, a thin cord still hung around her neck, the pendant that it once bore crumbling away to black power.

As the five watched, steel bars fell away in threads of lost thought and the massive white wolf was freed from its cage. For one terrible moment, it looked as though the beast, freedom showing bright in golden eyes, would leap to the attack. Instead, it paced over to the huddled girl, lying down with its fur pressed soft and warm against her bare skin.

A slight movement in the air was followed by night sounds, and almost as one, the "pack" looked up. While the walls and glorious windows of this chapel remained, the ceiling and roof were finishing a passage into wherever dreams go when they fade away. Grey sky shifted to starry night, and as a glowing cloud drifted out of her way, Luna's silvery light shown down upon the gathered souls, soft luminescence catching the white skin and fur that comprised the two halves of Swara-Ann.

[Dave ST]

The chill remained in the air and all could sense it. As the silvery-white wolf whined and nudged its unconscious other half the 'pack' all turned to face the source of the oppressive evil presence.

A splotch of darkness oozed up from the floor and slowly shaped itself into something vaguely humanoid once more. It staggered and they could tell it had been weakened. Like a grizzly, although it knew it was defeated it refused to surrender.

"You can not win... here I am eternal. I..." It choked and staggered once more, trying to find the energy to shape its body back into a weapon of some sort.

Mana crackled through out the dream scape. Opinski had begun the Ritual of Binding and now it was the packs responsibility to complete it. The walls of the cathedral crumbled away and surges of white and blueish mana danced along the bodies of the pack like stray electricity caressing them in an odd, violent surge of power akin to their own essence stores or vitae and yet so different, a vivid reminder of how alike they all were but their sources of power were so completely alien to one another.

"Tipishkau-pishum." Lucien said sternly. "As a Scion of the Watchtower of the Iron Gauntlet in the Realm of Pandemonium, Kingdom of Nightmares and Abode of Demons, I do hereby recognize that you have transgressed upon my domain and are hereby banished," he let the moment linger so all present could understand the gravity of the sentence the Mage was about to impose. "From existence."

Mana-boourne shackles rose up from the realms floor and bound his wrists and neck. The beast fought but the more it struggled the more the ritual tightened its hold upon him. It roared and shrieked with pangs of agony unlike any had ever heard as the mana seared its flesh and burned away at the darkness that coated its spiritual skin like an inky armor.

"All that you were, all that you've become." The Mage looked into the beast's eyes as best he could. "Will be forgotten. Such is the price one pays for the crimes you've committed. Let the rage and anger the burns in your breast be quenched! Let the strength of Luna's favor forever be out of your reach. May the very spirits that in days of yore allied with you and gave you might forever forget your Glory and your deeds. May your name be stricken from the minds and histories from the Shadow, to the Supernal, to the Twilight! Tipishkau-pishum! your soul is bound to the realm between realms!"

Claws of mana launched up from the earth and punched their way into the once great warrior's chest and tore from it a shimmering, crystalline glyph that represented all the ancient renowns that the great wolf had accrued in life. Even Lucien and Sarah, for this fleeting moment, could interpret what the demon had just lost: everything it ever was and everything that had ever given it purpose.

Lucien lowered his head as a tear ran down each cheek. "May the Gods forgive me." He muttered. With his arm outstretched to control the flow of mana his palm open and his fingers opened wide the glyph shattered into powder and the deafening wail that followed tore into the very hearts and minds of all present.

So this is what it was like to lose your soul. Would be a statement that would haunt them for eternity.

"May his Glory go to Amber. Powerful and valiant, may her maternal heart calm the dark rage of the spirits loss." Lucien looked to Amber and the floating powder of crystal swarmed her and fused with her arm burning a brand in the shape of an unknown sigil into her bicep.

"May his Honor go to Ariel. Altruistic and just, may her temperance be a guide upon the road of duty." Once again the powdered crystal swarmed Ariel's body and for a moment a searing sting was felt as a brand formed upon her back between her shoulders.

"May his Wisdom go to No-Moss. With the demon bound let his acumen bring balance and sanity back to the tortured mind and restore upon it the path of Harmony." Dwindling in quantity the powdered crystal swarmed off and entwined around No-Moss burning the brand upon his chest, just over the heart.

"May his Cunning go to Sarah. Forever alone, forever an outcast. From the worlds most evolved huntress may the value of the hunt bring the Wolf back from the ashes of carnage and misery." With a wink from her beloved the brand seared into the palm her right hand leaving only a small quantity left.

Only a single renown remained and Lucien, compassion still gripping his heart tightly at the deed he was performing, sent the last of the powdered crystal sailing off to the young, unconscious woman not far from them. "May his Purity, what little of it remains, go to Swara-Ann. With hope, may her walk upon the path of Harmony restore her acceptance and faith not only in herself, but in others close to her heart. May the darkness learn from her example that there is always a way back to the light." And with the last of the powder circling the silvery white wolf its perfect snow-white coat was blemished with a spot of black fur upon its forehead that ran down the muzzle. It looked like a "Y" or a wishbone.

"We are finished here." The mage said as the world they were visting in melted away around them...

Back in Reality...

Each awoke with a start (save Sarah, who was slumbering upstairs) like leaping up in bed from a nightmare. Opinsky and Rosalind quickly did their best assure everyone that things were fine and help them regain their balance and perceptions. Gathering themselves they looked around trying to make heads or tails of one hell of a wild ride. Color had already returned to Swara-Ann's face and body, but her malnourished body and gaunt frame would take her weeks to recuperate from. One thing they all knew they could be sure of was that Swara-Ann was free from the demon's taint.

"Well," Opinski's accented voice broke the recuperative silence. "You five sure know how to deliver eviction papers, that much is for damn sure!"

[Sarah Dead-Wolf]

Within Sarah's topor-ridden mind, a distinct change took place. Gone were the dreams of stakes and beheadings and endless torment at the hands of all those who knew her.

Instead, her unconscious wanderings shifted to a positive light - at least, what passed for positive with the Dead-Wolf. Dreams of scouting around the edge of enemy holdings, dreams of battles where she made sudden and unexpected moves to bring down a foe, dreams of seeking out snippets of hidden lore so long denied her. And through them, two threads held common and true. Others were there, friends and allies, willing to act by her side. And from her right hand came the faint silver glow of something she had tried so hard to kindle into being over her benighted life: hope.

[SalmonMax]

The final cry of the demon wolf-spirit chased Ariel out of the dream world as she woke up with a start, inhaling to scream or say something or...she wasn't sure. She'd borne witness to something amazing and terrible and though it had ended as well as it could have, she still felt a nibbling gnaw that such a sentence had been necessary. Could the demon have been redeemed?

Not everything corrupt finds its way back.

Ariel looked down at her hands. They were whole here, though she could still feel them tingling, and the phantom pain of them being pulped like so much hamburger. Gone too was the horrifying, glorious rage, though she could still feel it caged in her heart; pacing and growling like a tiger at the zoo.

She'd never really been a werewolf until now, she realized dully. She'd tried so hard to convince herself she was 'human with a difference.' She'd even succeeded for a bit. Now she understood though...and there was no going back.

With a grunt Ariel got to her feet and went over to look at Swara-Ann.

"We're going to need to take care of her," she said softly. "Hospital's probably a bad idea, with how fast she'll recover once she's got some food and water in her.

She looked up at Lucien. There was a little wariness in her...she'd seen him banish a soul into something that might very well be worse than Hell. She couldn't unsee that now, she couldn't pretend Lucien was just what he pretended to be anymore than she could do that for herself. But mostly what she felt was gratitude.

"We couldn't have done this without you. I don't know what to say besides thank you...and if I can ever do anything to help you in return...just ask."

[Rorx]

Moss got stiffly to his feet and started stretching and twisting to get the blood moving again. As he straightened up he calls over to Ariel, "If she needs it, I've basically got the run of an empty house with all utilities intact. She can have as much rest as likes there and one or more of us can keep an eye on her without any problem."

That said he turns and gives Lucien a martial arts style bow, "I'd already said I'd help you out with anything if you needed it, but I agree with Ariel, that was beyond what friendship would have required. So you just let me know what you need and I'll be there."

[Lucien Hunt]

The playboy smiled at the compliments, indeed he may have even blushed for a moment, but he looked to Swara-Ann still resting on the makeshift table. "That's very thoughtful, both of you, but knowing she's fine now is all I could really ask for. I simply did what needed to be done: the right thing. When someone needs help, we help them, that's what these powers are for, at least, that's what I believe."

He huffed a slight laugh. "Besides, you guys did all the work, I just gave a sermon. This day is yours, bask in its glory. When next you see Swara-Ann, up and about, living her life as best she can, take a good look and moment to say to yourself 'I did that' and revel in the gift you have given her."