Oswald nodded, "Of course, M'lady. I shall begin scrying at once. In fact, unless you have a particular room for it that enhances scrying, this library shall suffice."

With that, unless there was indeed a scrying chamber, Oswald found himself a comfy chair and peered into the polished onyx orb that sat atop his cane. While it served as a knob for him to comfortably grasp his cane, it also served as a portable crystal ball of sorts, allowing him to scry wherever he went.

"I would suggest those of you with any magical midn talk to one of our cleric's downstairs or read from our tomes others I would suggest sspeaking to our armorer or  merely stealing yourselves for battle. But I must aid in the search for Arhiman I shall return if I have any news." And with and audible POP Brother Joshua dissapeared once  more into thin air.

  She smiled, and said simply "Thank you."  She then turned to the New Age Defenders and Dragon Fist.  "As Ahriman is a Demon, and a Major one, you will need blessed weapons to fight him effectively.  We can provide those.  What we need most, is to bind Ahriman.  Before he completes the Ritual of Ascendance."

Dragon Fist then began to read from the tomes that were present, getting more information about the demon known as Ahriman.

  The Tome spoke quietly to Ozzy.

"Binding? 'kay. Well, physical binding I think I can handle. I'm a rune mage who focuses on protective magic. If I can get close, or get him to attack one of my golems, I can essentially wrap him in iron. At the very least, that'll slow him down, yeah? Maybe... hmm... do you think that with the help of an artifact, like say the Tome of Orthos, I could stand a chance at blocking the demon's willpower for long enough to you guys to bind him? It'd be dangerous as all Hells, but I think it would work better, if it worked at all. And, by the way, do you think putting Scripture or something straight into his brain might stun or stall him?" asked Ozzy, pondering his options.

However, hearing the Tome speak to him, Ozzy pulled it out, saying, "Heh. Speak of the Tome, and it will speak back. What've you got for me, Orthos?"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:47, Sun 10 Oct 2010.

  The Tome opened, the pages flipping and flipping, until it held an elaborately runed diagram.  One that would require a great deal of patience, and take some time to draw.

The library was getting a little crowded but maybe someone would could help him figure something out. A voice pipes in the back of his head as he thinks and he gains the blank look of when he converses with his other self. "I think I may be able to do something Gate." Gate shocked at the statement and worried about Key forgets to keep the conversation just inside their head. The voices would be quiet and very fast but anyone listening really hard or with enhanced hearing could probobly pick it up.

"What! Key your powers not really suited to combat you know that. What do you think you could do?"
"Well when Ozzy said something about sealing his powers it got me thinking. I think I could lock the demon's power inside Andy's body."
"Thats a big stretch Key. I know our powers are supposed to work on a symbolic level but it would be really dangerous. I mean you have to touch him to use your power and you'd have to lock away a major demon."
"That was something the Gentlemen were going to try isn't it? It was in the book."
"Stop Key I told you not even to think about that."
"Well it is... anyway I think I may even be able to save Andy. After all the demon must have him locked up inside his own head. I should be able to let him free maybe he could do something then. It worked in the stories after all.""Its still too dangerous Key. How are you going to get close enough even to try? That thing could kill us with a flick of his hand and I can't use my powers while your in charge.""You should still ask them what they think."

In reply to Sister Janice (msg #23):

"All right Sister...direct us then....or could my newfound teachings grant me the Blessed weapon that we will need?"

  She pointed to Dragon Fist, and said "Pray for a weapon of Divine wrath to fight this Demon, and perhaps that will be granted."

Dragon Fist nodded at Sister Janice, and then bowed his head.

Reverently, he said "I beseech you for the strength to defeat this demon...the one known as Ahriman...not for my own glory, but to save us all...."

  He felt within his spirit, a light.  A shard of Chi that felt like it had a purpose.  Flowing, within him, from the Light that gave Souls birth, and then to his hand.  Crackling slowly into being, a sword of his own Chi.  Dazzling, azure-white.

The Champion of Light was in awe at the gift that was granted to him. A weapon of divine wrath had been granted to him to defeat the demon known as Ahriman.

Perhaps a higher power was indeed at work here. Perhaps the extraordinary ordeal of Lucas' life and death had begun yet another chapter. New techniques...new armor...a redefined purpose...

And perhaps even the means to defeat the demon. The one who boasted about being everything that the primitive people called demons and devils.

Ahriman.

Icepick, unsure of what to do next, went to the armorers and clerics.

"Um...hi...I'm with them outside. I can do ice and stuff...how can I help?"

Ozzy began memorizing the seal, tracing it on a spare sheet of scrap paper or something. He had to be able to get it perfect, or else it wouldn't work.

"So do I have to draw this on him, or do I put it on the ground like a trap and lure him into it?"

Iris didn't look up from the books, but spoke up anyway, "Um, Gate? Key? Whoever you are right now? The mindworms are a lot like babelfish from Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galexy. They feed off of transmitted brain-waves from others around you and transmit thoughts of others into understandable language. Completely harmless, like Earth. I'd think the worst you'd get is an echo." That being clarified, she added, "You lock and unlock stuff, right? Well, how's this for phrasing. The real Andy is being locked off from his mind so that this demon can have control. The demon needs to be locked off from his powers - or even Andy's body. I'm not sure how you work, so I don't know if you can force him out to lock him down. He also needs to be locked off from wherever it is he's getting his energy and/or backup from. I'm not sure how Gate can help with his thing, since opening a gate to hell and pushing Andy in would be effective, but also needlessly dangerous and really mean to poor Andy. And opening a gate in Andy, while likely also effective, would have similar consequences. Perhaps you could open a mental gate for Andy in his mind to regain access. I haven't had the chance to observe how your metaphorical locks and gates work, so I couldn't say for sure."
Shutting the book she was working on and pulling another, Iris continued, "Cutting Andy off from the mind-cycles may not be the best idea. From strategy, yes, but he's in there somewhere, and we all know that he's a good guy. We have worse people in on the loop. Andy's just this guy, y'know." Catching herself lapsing back into Hitchiker's Guide, Iris jumped topics, "At any rate, he is part of the team and would want to help us fight. He'd feel uber guilty when he got back if he thought that he allowed himself to do this and didn't fight it. We need to be able to tell him that he did to prevent any... well, I don't understand this emotional stuff, but Dr. W assures me that repeated failure result in despondancy, even if the failure is mearly a perception. Why don't we use the worm to call to Andy and encourage him to try to fight his way out from the inside. At least that way, we can tell him that he fought as hard as he could! I can recite some good battle-verses from him, like the trumpet knocking down the walls stuff, if you think it'll help. Honestly, I don't think they'll have a holy laser pointer and my experience with using actual weapons is limited - usually I just helped make them."
She returned that book and pulled another. Her voice had, the entire time, been uncomfortably fast. She was obviously trying to slow it down, so occasionally it slowed into the realm of comfort. She did manage to keep it from drifting into the realm of unintelligable.

Hearing Iris talk Gate snaps out of it and realizes what he had been doing. Well I guess the cats out of the bag. I wonder how much they heard though.

Then he really thinks about what Iris said. "Open a gate to his mind..." He knew that he could do other things with his power but could he really open a gate into someone's mind? How would you even start to do that. If he did it the normal way he would have to somehow believe that their mind... soul... was the same as his or someone elses or perhaps that it was the same as the area. This was really confusing. Maybe he could do it the quick way that had always felt weird when he used it for physical places maybe it would work for this. But how would he practice it? It was something he'd have to look into but it gave him a weird headache thinking about it.

"I still don't think its a good idea for Key to try anything. He has to touch the thing to use his power. How are you going to get him close enough to touch Andy without him getting killed? Besides I know he's strong but do you think he can really over power an archdemon? I mean he's never tried something like that before and I don't know if we could even practice it before we try." Gate actually was sure that Key could do what they were suggesting. Key had alwasy been able to do anything he though he could with his power so since Key believed he could then he probobly could. However Gate wasn't going to let him try unless he was sure he'd be safe. He rather just kill Andy and the demon with him than put Key at that sort of risk.

Iris looked up from her latest book long enough to fix Gate with a slightly offended look, "Dude, that's why you fall in with a team. Those old eighties TV flicks had one thing right - team-work will really up your chances." Returning to her book, Iris continued, "We can assume that the demon knows what Andy knows about us; it would be unsafe to assume anything else. I seriously doubt that he did any crazy research, and even if he did I think I'm really the only one that there's a lot of avaliable information about. Andy's not going to be thinking of you as a threat because nobody knows anything about you. You're the new guy. You can port. You're textbook 300.14. You weigh enough that, if he needed to, he could fly off with you. That's about it. However - and this is something we should all keep in mind - if anybody's got some weaknesses and Andy knows 'em, then the demon probably knows them as well."
Another switch of books and she advised, "We'll be a very, very good distraction with the right weapons. The liklihood of him bothering to notice you - unless you went armed to the teeth - is not high. Demons are prideful creatures by definition. Even if we sent you in without a distraction, you'd likely be fine. But we'd never do that. No, up the probability of success. That's the game here." She frowned at the book and then added, a little bit slower, "I'm not sure if I'll be a good distraction, now that I think about it. Maybe you want me to stick with you? I can get you in and out pretty fast. I think. How much do you weigh?"

  The Tome answered "Lay out the diagram, make sure it is perfect in every detail, and lure the Demon into the Seal."

"85 pounds but I saw how the battle was going before. He doesn't have to even notice me to kill me in that chaos. Plus how is the fact that he could fly off with me comforting? What if Key fails to seal him away and he decides to take us and leave?" Gate says in a heated voice. The problem wasn't so much that he disagreed with he assesment it was that it just went against his nature.

"Oh, Andy's still in there.  He just has the misfortune to be of a Fallen bloodline.  Megaira, bear in mind that faith can do things few other things can."  The woman who spoke looked just like Meg, but with green eyes.  She'd appeared without fanfare, then gave a nod to everyone, and vanished!

Ozzy grinned, "Don't worry about the sealing, Gate and Key. I've got that. Orthos here just gave me a doozy of a seal that'll definitely work. The only thing we need to worry about is whether or not we can lure Ahriman into the seal. Yo, Dragon Fist, you think you can push Andy into the seal?"

As he spoke, he continued practicing the seal, not wanting to have to constantly refer to the Tome when the time came to draw it for real.

  The tome repeated the diagram for him, giving him close-up views of the runes for the Seal.

Ozzy continued studying, though a concerned look did draw across his face.

Dragon Fist looked at the sword made of his chi. This would be the weapon to help stop the menace of Ahriman. He bowed to Lin after she appeared. She was one of the ones responsible for helping Lucas realize his potential.