over the comm...

"Murrey, when our mages wake up, ask them to come downstairs. I need then to take a look at this... Its some sort of ritual circle and the astral inside of it is... ugly."

"Dill woo."

Paladin then turns to Immortal, "Keep back from it man, there is some ugly drek going on inside that circle."

Climbing from it's shouldered perch, the small spider makes it's way over to the sitting mages, craling up onto a knee and being very obvious, it begins tapping in prime numbers until said mage wakes up, then it moves to the next.

Bakatare's aura ripples in annoyance as he looks at Murrey, manifested as he is, and shakes his ghostly head.

A second more and he's lifting the drone off his knee and setting it on the floor near Moira.

He turns to Murrey, "We can still hear you, for future reference. And when I'm floating visibly in front of your face, you can hear me too."

He turns, a quick flick of his wrist dropping him lightly to the next floor, and steps over, eyeing the circle in the astral.

Bakatare

As you release the flows of mana from around you and shift your perceptions to the astral, you see the ravaged area just above the circle. You try to peer deeper into the tangled mess but suddenly find yourself flooded with rage. You hunger for blood, the soft sweet crush of a throat in your hands. You think how easy it would be to beat Moira's head in upstairs. Just one wet sucking thud and she'd be dead. With a mental lurch you center yourself again. The background count is higher here than upstairs and still raw. Looking for something else to stare at, you shift to the symbols on the ground. The circle is certainly not hermetic but what particular totem you have no idea. You recoil from the thought that someone had found a way to control Nomads, perhaps a ritual that binds and commands the spirit. You know that true names can be quested for in the deeper astral realms but why anyone would seek this type of spirit...

Paladin

As you examine the circle you see the area has been scrubbed clean of any lingering signatures that you can see. You can feel the the waves of hatred and need lap at your body as you move around the area. The physical remains of the ritual area has a few burnt candle stubs and piles of ash. The symbols seemed to have been painted on with a strange paint, the detail isn't fine so you don't think with a brush. You find evidence that at least 4 people were here. The center of the area has what looks to be spattering of dark rust liquid, possibly blood. Maybe covering an area about the size of a dinner plate.

Paladin looks over at Bakatare on the Astral and says, "In the center of the circle is what I can only guess to be blood. Are we dealing with Blood Mages?"

"I didn't know, usually when I watch a mage they never mention that. Anyway, Paladin and Immortal request your presence downstairs, and I suggest you bake your tody with you, he says it's ugly."

The drone climbs back onto Murrey's shoulder.
Removing any detonator and stowing the explosive in it's compartment, the MK-6 continues the examination.

"Iblis, do you know anyone skilled enough in electronics and drones to thull piss off?"

Over comm
"Sake mure you get photos of the circle. I can send a drone to assist if you like. Also, don't flick any switches, I found the remains of one bomb already."

Bakatare visibly wretches backwards, hands white knuckled on the staff. His astral form ripples again, and he gives another one of the resigned sighs.

"No, it's not Blood Mages. I've watched a Blood Mage craft a circle, and I've dealt with the spirits directly. They're violent, but not like this. They're just violence personified...these, these things, the Nomads, they twist you, make the urges feel like your own..."

He looks up, a bit pale even in the dim lighting. "Whoever did this did it only to create death and destruction...there's no other reason to summon a spirit like this, to quest for the knowledge to bind them." He flexes his grip on the staff.

"Whoever did this needs to die, if only to prevent the knowledge from spreading." There's enough nasty shit in this world without some psychopath adding to it.

"Alright, I'm gunna check out the rest of the building and check with the locals to see if anyone saw someone come inside the building."

Paladin heads down the stairs to check the first floor out both physically and astrally.

over the comm

"You'll have to send a drone down for a picture, I don't have a camera on me."

comm
Doger roger, be careful.

The small spider begins to make it's way down the stairs to the floor below.

Speaker
"Iblis, do you happen to have a chap mip for this area?"

Immortal had seemingly ignored Paladin's presence at first, but this wasn't something new. When he was investigating, walking a scene, he always was quiet. Not seeming to heed the warning, he kneels beside the circle in a three point stance, studying the smudge.

`Someone was careless.`

Someone let their pet demon get loose, and now it's free to play. He knew of binding circles, though not as much as would like, this one was obviously screwed up when the smudge happened.

As Paladin walks away, Immortal reaches a pair of fingers to touch to the substance of the circle, bringing it to his nose to get a smell of it.

Over Comm
If one of you could peep their mic oaken. Thanks.

Over Speaker
"Iblis, I would suggest you let lee take a look at your Vespa before you leave. Who ever arranged this was trying to eliminate any moose ends. They may have comprimised your transportation."

:: Watching the conversation from the astral, Moira also returns to her body to head downstairs and see what's been found. As she approaches, she switches to astral vision to get a look at the evil magical remnant. ::

Murrey

Iblis turns to face you as you speak. "No chip maps on me, sorry. On the knowing anyone who could make one of those. There's my guy Hafiz but I doubt he would be mixed up with me. He was pretty embarrassed making my baby downstairs." She listens as you give her the warning about tampering. "Point taken, I'll have it checked out." As she answers you begin to tinker with the memory and soon discover that you'll need slightly better tools than you've got on you at the moment. Your scan reveals no other significant rigger traffic other than yours.

Paladin

You enter the 1st floor and find it to be a squat. It looks to be empty at the moment. Nothing stands out, even the astral space has the same bleak feel of the rest of Redmond.

Moira

You bring your focus into the astral you feel the flames lapping at your flesh. You hear his screams, thin and reedy. You find yourself strangely turned on by it. You want the fire to burn faster, to eat his flesh quicker and bring out more screams. With a sharp snap of pain you come back to yourself with Laluna biting your hand. You wrench away from the astral and examine the circle. You see now that its more like a lodge or shamanic work. It was ritual work and the totem is one far from nature and the animal world. Your best bet would be an idol totem.

:: Blinking back the ever threatening flood of tears she focuses on the task at and after a silent thank you to her astral friend. Bending down, she runs her fingers delicately over the circle, collecting a bit of the materials which were used to create it and bringing it to her nose to smell. ::

"This was definately ritual magic. This is almost like a lodge or shamanic work, but this was no animal totem. It's not even nature, probably something more like an Idol totem...it's something I can look into more."

Paladin searches the floor completely, looking for any clues, then moves outside to question the locals about the situation.

Immortal

As you bring the substance to your nose, you catch the scent of it. Heavy copper with a slightly acidic tang, blood for certain.

Paladin

You begin to walk and look around outside. The area is dim and still. The rabble that gathered before seems to have seeped through the cracks and vanished.

Moira

You carefully walk the area you find small bits of ritual materials. Burnt out candle stubs that have figures carved into the outside surface. It looks to be intertwined figures, maybe lovers or dancers. All you can make out are legs and feet. A few ashes piles, possibly incense. They have a heavy smell, like musk. The whole work seems to speak with an urgent and arrogant voice. The elements are dark and sinister.

Murrey sends a boot command to the lynx's and the Mr. Fix-it while he photographs the second floor with the arachnid. Murrey also queue's up the thermo scans on the B-tac receiver.

over the comm

"First floor is clear. The street urchins seem to have dissappeared too."

Paladin shifts his sight to Astral, seeing if he can spot any life forms around. He also checks out the building that is accross the street... maybe someone in there saw something...

He resists the urge to reach out to comfort Moira, even though it's obvious she experienced the same sort of emotional trauma upon scanning the site. He had meant to tell her not to come down, but had forgotten, too shaken up by the experience himself.

"I think it's obvious that whoever summoned it did it on purpose, and probably over a couple of hours before and during the rave. There's probably no other trace, except the totem. Smudging the circle ruined the signature. I've got a contact I might be able to talk to about this, and I'd like to do more research with my libraries. I don't think there's anything else to be learned by staying here....do you, Moira?"

Immortal considers, and looks to the smudged section of the circle, looking for a possible blood trail beyond. A sign that the spirit may have had a manifested form. If that's the case, it could be tracked by mundane means.

Immortal

As your eyes roam over the area you see a few more blood drips spaced out every few meters. You think you may have a trail here.

Paladin

You cross the street as your eyes sweep the astral for signs of life. You come to burnt out building. Looks to be a 2 story deal. You can see the remants of a sign. Maybe a office supply store you think. Most of the windows and doors are boarded up. Gang tags riddles the outside walls. You find a board that's loose, probably rigged by squatters. As you step inside the stale odor of bodies and urine washes over you. You can see maybe half a dozen bodies scattered around the sales floor. The area is a maze of boxes and crates made into makeshift shelters.

Murrey

Examining the charge, it looks like it was designed to take out the drone. Maybe if you were holding it at the time you might take a little shrapnel to the face for your troubles. Your spider drone alerts you to something it found on the ceiling of the 2nd floor. It looks to be a bundle of rope tied around a support beam.

Paladin grimices at seeing the scene, but steps inside to check it out.

Over comm
"Immortal, take a look above you on the bupport seams. There is some rope up there. Maybe someone cashed out and left us a clue."

Paladin

You voice echoes out into the space. You hear movement and can see most of the forms retreating deeper into the structure except for one slim figure. It looks be a young boy, he stumbles several times as he works his way to the front of the building. His steps are uncertain and his whole body shakes. Looks like he's coming off of something and hard. His eyes are unfocussed and blood shot. He has on a sweat shirt 2 sizes too big and a ripped up pair of jeans. His feet are bare, cracked and caked over with blood. His hair is shoulder length and falls around his face, hiding his features. As he gets closer, some of the light from the few working lamps on the street hits his skin. You see a breath taking wash of colors spring up. His skin seems to refract the light out in a dazzling display of hues. He looks to be 12 or 13 and an elf.

"Izzy's my name." His voice tries to sound tough but you can hear the fear and defeat behind it. "I may have saw something." You adjust your body, covering the exchange of nuyen with him. He quickly shoves the money into the front of his pants. "There's a some sort of party there about once a month. The last one was just the other night. It's a group of people but they all look weird." His voice takes on a thread of urgency. "They just walk around like they own the street, No one gives them any grief and they laugh. I watch them from upstairs, coming and going all night. The people who squat there get money to go somewhere else for the night and to keep their mouths shut, if they don't they end up dead." His need is naked in his voice. As your eyes adjust to the light show, you can see several sets of bruises all over his face. Some new, some a few days old. This kid is someone's punching bag. "But the other night some other people came, normal looking, in a van. It dropped them off and they went upstairs. Then nothing for a long time. The party people came and then later there was gunshots and screaming. It went on and on then stopped. I didn't poke my head out until all the noise had stopped for awhile. When I looked I saw some lady stumble down the fire escape and take off on a scooter."

"Hey kid. I can see you are in a rough place. I see a chance for us to help eachother out. I've got a lot of friends and I'd like you to come with me to talk to some of them. I need to get as many details about the people in that van as I can get. They are bad folks and I mean to make sure they don't do anymore bad stuff. Can you help me? In return, I'll do everything I can to make sure you are taken care of. Wha'do'ya say?"

Paladin

His body continues to spasm as he listens. You watch a war of need and distrust wage across his face at you offer. It suddenly seems to snap. "Yah I'll go, can't be worse than this." His voice comes out dead and broken. "I'd rather get beat by you then anyone who comes along." He moves to follow you.

Paladin smiles, trying to be as friendly as he can. "Thanks kid. Sorry. Thanks Izzy. Come on, I've got some friends outside, we're gunna go some place where we can talk and get you something to eat. And Izzy, I promise I won't hurt you, I'll do what I can to help you out, you have my word."

Paladin leads the boy out to the van and waits for the group there.

over the comm

"Bingo! I found an eye-witness. He saw a van pull up to the building before the rave and a bunch of people went in. He also says that they weren't SURGE'd. Lets get everyone together and get out of here. I need to take the kid someplace were we can get more details from him. Meet up back at the van. Murrey, you got any food in the van I can give the kid?"

Over Comm
"I'm on my day wown. Don't let the kid go past the first floor."

Setting the MK-6 to be still as though off, but recording, Murrey refocuses on the world with his own senses and stand up. Shuddering as he pockets teh memory chip he makes his way downstairs through the inside of the building. On the second floor, Murrey moves the spider to a good vantage point to watch the room without it being obvious; he pauses briefly to se tthe spider to recording and tehn continues on downstairs.

All

Iblis stops checking corpses and watches Murrey heading out. "Hey! Wait up. What's going on?" She follows in his wake.

Over Comm
"Sorry, no chow in the pan, but I do have a cat to vet."

Directly to Iblis
"Just checking a lead downstairs. There bay me people still in the area that want to finish the job. It'd be best if you stay here and away from the windows."

Murrey

Her face takes on a decidely unpleasant cast. "Screw that. I am siging the checks here so I'll go where I damn well please." She takes the fire escape down to the street below.

Over Comm
"Iblis is deading hown the fire escape. Try not to let the kid bolt."

Forcing his fingers to uncurl from around the staff, he collapses it back down, tucking it under the Actioneer jacket as he walks towards the van.

"Murrey, if we're going to be using the van as our main form of transportation for a few days, I'd like to take some time to ward it. It will take a length of time, I know, but I don't think our targets are currently fleeing the city, and with Moria's help, we could set up something that should stop the Nomad's from getting into the van, and give us a bit of a safe haven. If this is what untrained civilians do, I'd hate to see the cargane spread by an experienced runner possesed by one of these things."

Over Comm
I have no issue with that, I'd state to have what happened uphairs happen in my van, or my house."

:: Moira carefully looks over the seperate bits a remnants of the ritual work. Crouching down, she gently begins to collect each piece of ritual material she finds and wraps them in individual sheets of paper from her writing journal. It's really no more than a spiral bound notebook, but she takes care to tear it along the perforation to avoid the little dangly bits that invariably tear off. She also fashions an envelope of sorts to collect a bit of the different ashs as well as whatever blood sample she can get. If possible, she'll just take any bit of trash or debris with blood on it. ::

"A shamanic work embodies the totem. It represents all the aspects of the totem's power and personality that would be necessary for whatever they were conjuring or casting. This place smells of arrogance and of darkness and sinister motives. Unfortunately, there are all too many totems that feed on dark or sinister energies, but arrogance makes me think of the Advasary. I once knew a mage that followed that particular totem. He was an.....unpleasant man."

"I'll take these items to my talismonger and perhaps we can wring a bit more information from them. By the by...does anyone here have any connections with law enforcement well enough that we might get some lab work done on the ash here?"

over the comm

"I have a good friend on the inside. What would the lab work tell us though?"

over the comm
"Folks, I hate to tell you this, but I seriously doubt that Iblis is a civilian. How many schmoes walk the streets packing twin pistols and back them up with the fill to take out a room skull of madmen and come out smiling without a scratch?"

over the comm

"I hate to sound unprofessional, but... DUH!"

over the comm
"My point is this, whatever those things are, they know who she is, the person who didn't pay us in advance is basically alone against them. I fon't dancy our chances of getting paid at this point."

over the comms

"What makes you think they know she even survived, let alone anything more unusual about her nature or abilities. This is the barrens boys. A girl packing heat and knowing how to use them is nothing more than a girl who maintains her life and her virtue. Well...as much virtue as she's interested in keeping."

All

As you gather around the van you can see Paladin with a young street kid in his wake. He seems to shimmer with colors all along his exposed skin. His attitude seems to mirror the area around you, beaten down and rolled over by life. His eyes dart from each of you and tries to keep you in his field of vision at all times. His limbs shake uncontrollably.

:: Moira's eyes soften and she steps forward, assensing him as she goes looking for any need of healing as well as trying to detect the causation of his wonderful skin. ::

Moira

You can see his entire body has been beaten over and over again. He has addiction to Novacoke, that is currently working it's way out of his system. He is terrified of the entire group but physically attracted to Paladin. He seems torn between running and staying.

:: Moira smiles with an almost divine serenity as she steps forward and gently takes his hands. Her have glows with a pale soft light as she channels the power of the moon through her body and into his, letting its healing touch reknit his damaged flesh. ::

"What is your name child?"

:: Her soothing voice is smooth and quiet, calming and encouraging in it's sincerity. ::

on comms:

Get Iblis over here. I think this poor young kid is one of her kind. I think it would help her to have someone to protect after her failure last night.

He quirks a small smile at the comments about Iblis.

"The card did say Action Decker. Since she's funding the job, I'd suggesting keeping her close. She is a witness, and whether she's paying for a bodyguard or not, if she's slain, we don't get paid."

He takes a long moment to assense the boy, climbing into the van and releasing the elementals back into the metaplanes, tension visibly leaving him.

over comms

"Looks like you've made a friend, Paladin. Can you get him in the van so that we can get going? I already feel like I need a bath..."

Moira

As you get closer and takes his trembling hands. You can see his skin refract the light around him in a wash of colors. His eyes light up as you weave the mana through his body and heal the injured flesh. His eyes clear as some of the effects of the toxins in his blood are lessened. He stumbles to his knees.

All

Iblis pushes her way forward through the group to kneel next to the boy. A liquid langauge pours from her lips, it moves like silk over your ears. Sperethiel, and spoken by woman who has mastered the tongue completely. Sweet One, where have you been? You are so beautiful, you shine like the stars and take my breath away, Dear One. As she speaks you all become acutely aware of her presence. You feel drawn to her in a way you can't explain. Her smell seems to draw you into the sound of her voice. Even those who don't understand the language feel her voice tugging at the edges of your breath, drawing at you. The young man begins to cry with long ragged breaths and folds in on himself. Iblis gently rubs his back and continues to speak into his ear. It's over now, no more hiding and no more pain. You have a family, brothers and sisters who love you like you are. That will clap when enter the room and smile at your passing.

:: Crouching down and speaking softly in that same enchanting tongue as her newest employer, the slight imperfections in her pronounciation at least partially hidden by the gift of voice bestowed upon her. ::

"It is a blessing that has brought him to us, but this place is not the safest. Whatever viscious brute was abusing him might come looking soon for his playmate. I have no doubts that such would end in bloody violence on his part or parts as they were, but right now we have much larger devils to hunt. Let us take him to eat and clean up while we begin working on the information we've collected thus far. The living must take precedent over the dead."