"The Committal is the last thing to be done. In this case with such a large funeral we go straight to the Final Commendation." The older priest sighed. "I think it is better if you give the Final Commendation. You met them, they knew you better." He offered Michael a parchment. "If you say the Final Commendation, I will provide the final blessing and end it for you. That way we dont get in trouble with the bishop."

Michael nodded and motioned for silence after everyone had gathered together at the graveyard and the caskets in place ready to be lowered. “I will be delivering the Final Commendation before the honored dead are lowered to their final resting place.”

The priest placed his hands together in prayer with the rosary between them.
“Go forth, Christian soul, from this world in the name of God the almighty Father, who created you, in the name of Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who suffered for you, in the name of the Holy Spirit, who was poured out upon you, go forth, faithful Christian.  May you live in peace this day, may your home be with God in Zion, with Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, with Joseph, and all the Angels and Saints.  God our Father, Your power brings us to birth, Your providence guides our lives, and by Your command, we return to dust.  Lord, those who die still live in Your presence, their lives change but do not end. I pray in hope for my family, relatives and friends, and for all the dead known to You alone.  In company with Christ, Who died and now lives, may they rejoice in Your kingdom, where all our tears are wiped away. Unite us together again in one family, to sing Your praise forever and ever. Amen.”

Hearing what Michael had to say, Hrafen was uneasy still, but didn't disagree. Don't argue with a mathematician when it came to math was a saying that applied well here. He trusted the man's judgement, so he stepped inside with everybody else when Michael did.

Nodding to Nefertiti's words, Hrafen was awkward in the dangerous quarters, but he was prepared if anything turned threatening. The problem would be defending the others. That would be difficult here.

 As the final prayers were said, three black humvees approached at speed, skidding to a halt in front of the parked vehicles.

OOC: Wits + Composure rolls for everyone to determine initiave. If you fail to get 1 success, you do not act this round (you're surprised). However, the difficulty is greatly reduced since you're expecting it and have advance warning (it went from 5 -> 3 -> 1).

12:20, Today: Michael rolled 3 successes using 7d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 2,9,6,7,5,10(+5),8.  Initiative .

Noah rapped with his cane on the car he came in. Containing Grey, Jitters, Mr. Wraith... yes they would have come along to give goodbyes to the kids... "I'm, I don't know what will happen if the angels activate. One does not use sledge hammers to swat mosquitoes." He stalked his way to the Mayor and his daughter, priming his anti collateral blast shields on the way.

3 successes
This message was last edited by the player at 18:07, Fri 30 Sept 2022.

In reply to Manofdusk (msg # 107):

14:03, Today: Nefertiti failed (no successes) using 7d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 1,2,2,5,7,3,2.  Wit + Comp.

16:15, Today: Hank rolled 3 successes using 8d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((4,1,10(+8),4,2,1,5,9)).

Seeing three humvees roll up, rudely, Hrafen knew better than to expect friendly behavior, and he shifted backwards quickly, vanishing into the surrounding woods, grabbing Nefertiti as he ran to drag her along, as she looked to be quite shocked, throwing her over his shoulder if necessary.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:28, Sat 01 Oct 2022.

Michael used his superior speed to sprint around to squat behind the black vehicles with Excalibur drawn. Anybody inside the vehicle would have to meet him face to face to get him within line of sight. Knowing typical Hunter tactics would be opening the doors using them as shields while raining down a hail of lead from assault rifles. Being behind them would keep him out of the line of fire and getting past the doors.

Ongoing Effects: -Forge Godsend (Duration: 12 Hours, -6 damage dealt to Michael)

-Forge Destiny (Duration: 12 hours, +2 on rolls to fulfill destiny, -2 on rolls to make Michael not fulfill destiny, protect those who wish to remain neutral during conflicts)

-Probable Cause combined with the Sybil’s Sight (Duration: 24 hours, 3 future rolls gain rote quality)

-Lucky Coin combined with Fortune’s Protection (Duration: 24 hours, 5 Armor, +5 equipment bonus on Excalibur)

-Sworn Oath (Protect those who wish to remain neutral in the conflict, gives chances to resist effects that would make Michael go against this oath)

-Fortitude of Saint George (+1 Stamina)

-True Sight of Saint Abel (See supernatural effects and auras)

Willpower 5/7
Essence of Mage breaker 3/13
Essence of Lantern 5/5
Michael’s Essence 13/13
This message was last edited by the player at 23:42, Fri 30 Sept 2022.

Mistral observed the new vehicles approaching at speed and skidding to a halt in front of the funeral procession.  She sighed, "How wasteful."  Attacking this place at this moment was foolish beyond credibility.  Suspiciously so.  She had to wonder what else may be afoot whilst this farce demanded attention.

20:53, Today: Mistral rolled 3 successes using 9d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 4,8,9,5,3,6,9,1,6.  Wits + Composure.

 The moment the humvees skidded to a stop, roughly a dozen people hopped out, fully armed, and started shooting. That said, other than noise and a couple of yelps of surprise, nothing came of it. The bullets were suspended in the air and those that had emerged were no longer able to move.

 Mistral felt the strain of reality objecting to her will-working but it was overruled by the mastery she now wielded. The guardians of the graveyard did not yet stir.

 Of those that had been brought along, it was Wraith that hopped out of the limo and approached the gang of heavily armed men. He sat in front of them and stared, judging them menacingly. There came a sound that could almost be mistaken for that of a motorcycle running but it was, instead, Wraith's feline growl as his fluffy tail twitched in agitation.


 However, from behind them came the simultaneous roars of all of the grave guardians. The coffins had been dropped as they were being lowered during the panic of the initial assault and now the 18ft statuary were stepping down from their pedestals. Seeing them move, Talion's first reaction was to leap into the nearest grave and open a coffin.

 When he climbed out, his eyes were burning red and the rumble of his footsteps could be felt over even that of the giant metal statues. "Empty. The coffins are EMPTY!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F01UTYg79KY

Sariel tilted his head as he pocketed the small doll memorial he was making for the youngest of the fallen. "Behold." He spoke aloud, "The wrath of a father. " He pulled free his weapon and edged forward. The once God tilted behind Necros and held up a hand. Necros was angry Sariel would support whatever needed to be done.

Likely starting by going after any threads.

The gunmen had made their intentions known. Worst of all was that apparently all the caskets were empty. Where were the bodies? What was the motive? Are they trying to make Talion don the iron mask again? This was a suicide mission whose only hope was to royally piss him off. Michael needed to help end this quickly. The Paladin ran up to one of the gunmen from behind and by supernatural luck he turned a grazing hit into a massive impale with Excalibur sticking out the man’s torso.

20:54, Today: Michael rolled 1 success using 4d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 1,3,8,1.  Rote on damage dice from weapon.

20:41, Today: Michael rolled 4 successes using 13d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 9,1,3,2,10(+4),8,7,9,3,3,3,6,1.  One use of luck to give roll rote quality.

20:40, Today: Michael rolled 3 successes using 15d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 6,1,6,2,7,7,5,2,10(+9),9,1,4,2,2,2.  All out attack half sword technique with Excalibur on gunman.

8+2 from Half sword= 10L to gunman

Ongoing Effects: -Forge Godsend (Duration: 12 Hours, -6 damage dealt to Michael)

-Forge Destiny (Duration: 12 hours, +2 on rolls to fulfill destiny, -2 on rolls to make Michael not fulfill destiny, protect those who wish to remain neutral during conflicts)

-Probable Cause combined with the Sybil’s Sight (Duration: 24 hours, 2 future rolls gain rote quality)

-Lucky Coin combined with Fortune’s Protection (Duration: 24 hours, 5 Armor, +5 equipment bonus on Excalibur)

-Sworn Oath (Protect those who wish to remain neutral in the conflict, gives chances to resist effects that would make Michael go against this oath)

-Fortitude of Saint George (+1 Stamina)

-True Sight of Saint Abel (See supernatural effects and auras)

Willpower 5/7
Essence of Mage breaker 3/13
Essence of Lantern 5/5
Michael’s Essence 13/13
This message was last edited by the player at 01:55, Sun 02 Oct 2022.

 Michael ran one of the gunmen through from behind. As he was already paralysed in a spatial field, he was not able to dodge and a kevlar vest does nearly nothing to stop a full force strike from a two handed sword.

 The man was dead by the time your hilt had touched his back.


 Talion seemed uninterested in the gunmen, instead following the guardians... who were also not interested in the gunmen and walked right past, kicking the humvees out of the way and swatting aside the people within the stasis field as though they were gnats.

 They landed outside of Mistral's zone of influence, stunned and struggling to stand.

Mistral looked on curiously at the gunmen as they were punted aside by the tremendous statues come alive.  She seemed unconcerned with the danger of the situation, nor with personally battling these mere puppets.  The others could handle that readily enough.  She had bigger fish to fry.

The black-veiled archmage stood impassively in the midst of the chaos, glaring through the puppets to see their puppet-masters, and the true danger that this was intended to distract them from...

Noah stuck with the mayor and his daughter to ensure their safety. He used the same map he was working on to verify just how big the kaboom would be and started projecting the path of the statues. If he could narrow down the path of travel it could help any attempt to scry. Using the graveyard as a source and the golems current position it should give him a line of action. That would be forwarded to the group message system.

Only one success on the projection.

Not liking the way this was going, at all, Hrafen quickly ducked, threw Nefertiti over his shoulder, and took off in the opposite direction from the statues and the humvees. He didn't know what the hell was happening right now, but with his blistering speed and power, he just made sure he didn't let Nefertiti get shot, or killed before they knew what was happening.

"I'll figure out what I can do to help Michael, but you don't need to be getting shot right now..." Hrafen explained to the Egyptian woman as he relocated her, shielding her from any errant bullets with his torso as he did so, "I will be back once I've ensured his safety as well."

Once he'd relocated her, he spun around, and crept quietly back in towards the humvees, ensuring he was close enough to Michael to help him if need be, keeping his eyes out for important targets to drop.




(To pick up Nefertiti and run) Str + Athletics : 23:48, Today: Hank rolled 4 successes using 6d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((10(+3),9,9,10(+5),7,5)).

(To Hide her and stay hidden while he observes the situation to find a way to help Michael) Stealth + Dex 23:49, Today: Hank rolled 4 successes using 9d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((9,8,4,6,9,3,10(+6),7,5)).

(To pick out threats that are valuable to take out for Michael) Wits and composure 23:49, Today: Hank rolled 7 successes using 8d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((3,9,9,8,10(+10,7),9,8,4)).

 Hank took Nefertiti and dashed away from the graveyard, leaping over the fence and hiding her behind a tree. However, by the time he'd done so, the gunmen seemed to be incapacitated and one of them was definitely dead (having been impaled from behind by Michael).

 Meanwhile, Noah was set to protect Amy and the mayor as Mistral tried to work out exactly what was going on behind the scenes.

 However, it proved nearly impossible to get any sort of trajectory on the statues. The moment they were past the road, a portal opened and they stepped through. Talion followed closely behind as a doozen people stared in shock and terror.

"Welp... I can't track through portals and Talion had to actively take down his anti tracking spells just so people could watch a moon cracking ritual. So we can at best throw darts at a map to figure it out unless someone has a lock on him."

"I am going to try to ping his tech. Reach deep everyone. He has enough magic on the golems to crack the planet. We get ahead of this or we start working an escape vector."

Michael cuts the head off another gunman who lay incapacitated on the ground. “I guarantee he is going after the children and walking right into a trap. Anybody able to determine where the children’s bodies are?”

OOC: figured it would be pointless to roll damage on a guy unable to defend himself from a sword.

Peering back through the forest towards the others, and seeing that the threat was virtually eradicated already, Hrafen was glad he hadn't taken a more active approach. Anybody can grab somebody and run, perhaps not as fast, or as easily, as he, but still... but his other talents... he couldn't have explained those away if needed.

Returning cautiously, and hearing conversation, Hrafen listened from the outskirts of the conversation, assuming Nefertiti would join him to listen, or in her case: probably speak.

"Throw darts at a map... Tch." Mistral scoffed quietly after the last of the statues strode through a spatial door to elsewhere.  After a brief silence the Mistral near the cabal gestured to a nearby gap between two of the great pedestals the guardians had just vacated.  The view beyond this gap was replaced with a view to another place, as incongruous as it was seamless.  Not a portal, but a commingling of localities that formed a freely-passable transition across whatever distance lay between.

On the other side of this rift stood the silhouette of another Mistral, who beckoned to the cabal from the other side, "Those who would follow come this way, si vous voulez."

"If only we hat someone highly skilled with tracking and space magic. Such people are so damn rare." He smiled at Mistral as he handed one of his dragon stones to Amy. "Keep your dad safe. This is a potent shield but its not perfect. Keep low, get to the car, get home. First step to being able to take action to fix things, is fixing the things well within your control."

With that he full run sprinted toward Mistral. They had to get ahead of this, as fast as can be.

 The portal led to an empty parking lot in front of an ornate, Egyptian styled, building with an army of statues surrounding it, ready to (literally) tear it apart while Talion looked on.

 Outside the parking lot were a few sleepers. They were gawking and had pulled out their phones.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:39, Sat 08 Oct 2022.

Nefertiti seemed to appeared next to the portal and then walked through.

Her eyes looked at the building with great distaste.  hmmmmmm, It seems that we may need to deal with that soul swapping bitch again. she calmly said as she looked to Talion.

"You do know that there may be some innocent people nearby.  Best to capture or deal with the true culprit and her followers. there was no lost love in the tone of her voice, it was surely filled with hatred.

When Hank arrived she stepped closer to him "This is the Temple of an lost Egyptian Goddess that may need to be spanked. a smirk came to her face.  "This is a place where those that are members of the Circle reside.