Mistral used her magic to transport herself and the group to a place near the blockade but not so near that they would be able to see the portal. The group then made their way toward the blockade.

 Several marines raised their weapons but a command came to lower their weapons. "They're our reinforcements."

 The man who approached was rough and grizzled with grey hair cut in a high and tight. He was dressed in customary BDUs with the sleeves rolled up way too high. He had both a semi-permanent frown and a rasp to his voice, likely from yelling at people who deserved it.

 When the group approached, the man looked appraisingly at Noah. "Command said we'd be getting a dragon as reinforcements... looks like I owe Phil 50 bucks. So, who's this with you?"


OOC: Include everything you have in your inventory in your first post. If it's not here, you don't have it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:26, Mon 05 Oct 2020.

Note from the person running the monster. No orange text. ALL ooc actions. ALL rolls are to remain hidden. Your roles are to be secret. OOC that would be orange is now PM to ST.

Michael took a step forward covered in weapons and a Kevlar vest. A quiver of many arrows was strapped to his back along with a compound bow. A bandolier of throwing knives was strapped to his left leg. Several wooden stakes were strapped to his right. He carried his six foot zweihander resting on his left shoulder. His right hand carried two extra quivers of arrows. A long ancient rosary hung around his neck. “My name’s Michael, a priest of the church and a Hunter. Some of us have tangled with some of the beasts in that building before. Some are werewolves. I have information that may be of some use to you in fighting them. I can also create an invisible perimeter to help keep them back from getting within range with their teeth and claws. Don’t worry. I’m a home grown human just like you. I just happen to be able to request blessings from the Lord in my battles.” The priest took a step back for someone else to present themselves.

Fate stepped forward with her sound sapphire around her neck and her new trench coat on her back. Tucked beneath her sleeves were her vambraces yet to be drawn and held in her hand was a survival rifle for which she carried extra ammunition in the pockets of her coat. "My name is Fate. I'm a human as well. Bounty hunter by trade and I'm just lucky enough that one of those beasts happens to be my mark. Don't underestimate me, however, I do have a few tricks up my sleeves." She backs away allowing the next person forward.

Sal was wearing the custom armor made by Noah, with the mask in full coverage mode, the googles Noah gave him on his forehead, and a tactical harness loaded with Cold Iron Throwing Knives, 2 clips of 7.62 Nato ammo (16 shots,) his Generic .40 S&W (loaded with 12 shots, silver), .40 FMJ ammo  (50 more shots,) a magic gun, a Box of "Emperor's Tears" spell bullets, a Telescopic Baton, 1 extra clip each of silver pistol and rifle ammo, 5 flashbangs, and 3 tear gas grenades. On his belt were two swords: a katana, and a cold iron estoc, slightly damaged by bandersnatch poison. Hanging from a shoulder strap, his custom survival rifle, chambered to 7.62 Nato, (loaded with 10 shots, silver) hung loosely, as his right hand kept the barrel pointed toward the ground.  "Sal. I'm just here for moral support," Sal said sarcastically.

Prior to departure for the mission, Mistral offered mission-goers to stow any gear that would be useful to the mission but impractical to carry on one's person.  She demonstrated the method on a full carton of fifty 1-liter water bottles, over which she performed a gesture that caused it to refract across dimensional membranes, seeming to fold in upon itself until it vanished.  She then unfurled one of the bottles out of nothingness until she held it in her hand.

Mistral vanished into the amethyst palace to prepare for the mission, and did not reappear until five minutes before the agreed upon departure time.  She appeared in a form-fitted, black tactical catsuit with low-profile waterproof sling-pack and utility belt, plus a long knife secured in a thigh sheath.  The suit was equipped with a cloth face-mask that was presently pulled down around her neck.  Her white-and-blue hair was normally bound only loosely, but was now secured with a distinctive ribbon into a tight bun.  Mistral looked to each of the others in turn, took stock of their readiness, then said, "It is time."  With a circular sweep of the hand she opened a large, round portal ringed in a spiral of glowing vapors and stepped through.

By the time the group approached the blockade and its commander, Mistral had raised her mask to become a featureless shade.  A part of the ambient gloom.  She remained in an unobtrusive position near to Noah as the commander hailed them, but did not offer to identify herself.  Instead she asked simply, "The situation, commander?"

Noah did indeed store something with Mistral. He designed a bomb similar to the one he used the first time. A set of ten mana crystals from a daily shedding, set to liquefy and spray out followed by a trigger to ignite the mana. It was a magical fuel-air explosive. Never mind that it was then put into a small drone that looked like a Bob-omb from Mario. It was a bomb that only Mistral could use as there was no timer so no chance of defusing it.

He did have his armor on which was styled to make him appear like a quad emergency defense unit of the personal protection synth line. The head of it coming apart and vanishing under his neck armor as he dragged a palm down his long face allowing him to Claw Palm. "What they mean to say is that they are not synthetics. You did call about battle synths after all. That being said the only Synth in the group is me. Im effectively a brain in a jar piloting a tank." A true Jar Head.

"The reference to monsters is our classification system. Mook, thug, bruiser, werewolf, demon, dragon, Demigod, and Monday. Monday being the worst as no one wants to deal with a Monday."

He smiled at the idea of a lost bet. "You may take a bit off that. Plasma breathing dragon, not a fire breathing dragon. Though it may help if you know I am Noah, from Ark Co."

He gestured to Mistral as she already asked for an update. It was always a wicked delight to see her in her battle gear.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:22, Tue 06 Oct 2020.

Nefertiti looked at the group as they eagerly stepped into the portal and exited somewhere in the city.  A place where things were happening and a lot of weird machines and men... human men in a militant form.  This was good to see, and if so then Apep hasn't done much damage to the world and is back in his crevice brooding.

When she stepped out she was dressed in normal clothing that she had been in with her Ankh in hand and her Egyptian Crosier also with an Ankh on the top.

She didn't have much items to carry with her for she didn't know much of the things out there.

Standing there she looked at the others as they introduced themselves but she and Mistral were the only two who didn't give their names. She wasn't used to giving such information when she remembered when people gave theirs to her first and she had sages to introduce her to those in an audience.

Looking around she wanted to see if she was able to notice anyone attempting to alter the fabric of reality.

 The man looked at each, waiting for them all to speak. When everyone was done, he spoke. "I am First Sergeant Caraway and if we're using your classifications then it seems we may be coming down with a case of the Mondays. We lost 40 marines in the initial assault. We are unsure of the number or nature of the enemy but they now have enough firepower to equip a small army. We've cordoned off the area but lack the manpower to keep it fully secure. It's only a matter of time before our target slips between a gap in our defenses at this rate.

 Are you sure you're all Talion's personal elite squad... because I'm gonna be honest. You all look a bit more like a bunch of LARPers to me."
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:15, Tue 06 Oct 2020.

Noah smiled wide, "We are not Talion's Elite squad. We are the Ark, the group of people that he asks to come in to handle things that he cant." A line he wouldn't have used if Mistral was out in the open rather than covered up. He leaned his head down to get eye level. "Any chance you had helm cam footage?"

 Caraway took them to a ruined building in which they had set up a command center. There, he ordered one of the marines to play the footage. In it, they could see the marines drive up in Humvees. Suddenly, the lead vehicle stopped. Soon after, they were all complaining that theirs wouldn't start.

 Then there was panicked screaming, gunfire, and a man shouting commands over the confusion. However, with the disorienting head movements, there was no clear view of the target they were hunting.

Nefertiti's body shook as if there were things crawling on her.  "This area is filled with tendrils of writhing black spiritual essence and spirit maggots. she watches the ground as if trying to step over the things but also watch as the move and slither under most peoples feet.

"Do you think it is wise to speak in such a corrupted area?  They could be listening and watching to relay such information to its foul master. she gave words of the wise in hope that they would be used.

Michael watched video feed and felt sorry for the soldiers that got slaughtered. He took a step back and knelt down. “Looks like I’m gonna need all my big guns for this one. I shall pray that the Lord lifts the veil from our eyes, so we may see the demons and monsters of this world for what they are. Do not startle Sergeant as what you see is real just hidden from you before.” He placed his sword down on the ground next to him and held the rosary in prayer. The prayers flowed with practiced grace as he asked for blessings from the various Saints including: George, Martin, Epipodius, and Abel. His muscles all over his body expanded with some uncomfortable sounding pops. Shimmering wings of light sprouted from his back and spectral armor overlaid on top of his form. A halo formed over his head, and his eyes glowed with an inner light. The others in the room could see the world around them ripple like the heat coming off the asphalt on a hot day. A simple acceptance and some resolve would all they need to see the world for what it really was. He rose from his prayers and stretched his wings. “I am ready now.”

Mistral smirked beneath her smartcloth mask at the First Sergeant's remark likening their motley band to LARPers.  She quietly went along to watch the disturbing footage of the previous massacre, which was consistent with her own observations of the interior.  She asked quietly, "Is there any indication of what l'ennemi intends?  Does it seek to escape, or is it otherwise engaged?"  She didn't expect that the Sergeant would have a true answer, but a report of its behavior might suffice to make useful inferences.

Nefertiti mentioned the corruption spirit worms, to which Mistral remarked, "I have seen these before, and the experience has not improved.  A moment..."  She began to quietly intone strange syllables, then performed a culminating gesture that forced the corruption spirits to recede in a large radius.  By then Michael had performed an impressive display to gather power of a very different kind.  Mistral looked on at the angelic wings and commented drily, "Subtil, mon ami.  Do you fly?"

Mistral then proceeded to fade into the background for a time as discussions progressed, as she performed some form of arcane examination of the area.

Noah walked up when Michale started casting some sort of ritual. It took him only a moment to identify the hunter's ritual and he then gripped both of Mich's hands and started shaking him enough to start interrupting the ritual on hand. He leaned in close enough that the blast furnace temperature of his breath huffed. "I can see the threads of what you are doing. Think about your teammates and what would happen if someone could see. How massive a breach of some of their social needs would be."

He wouldn't prevent Mich from casting his other rituals but if he tried to cast the true sight on a normal person when there was a dead woman, a vampire, and a dragon in the group... it would get interrupted as that much supernatural would frag someone's life when they tried to report it.

 Caraway looked from person to person as they spoke clearly confused about some of the more esoteric things they were talking about. Michael's wings were not visible to him, nor were any of the more overt of the things he did... and then, Noah began to shake Michael, interrupting the ritual that would have outed every supernatural present to the millitary.

 He took a deep breath as both Mistral and Michael are chanting. "What are you all doing?!? Wait... you know what, I don't want to know. So, you're saying you've seen this before? We can't tell what it wants. If you know anything, we would be very appreciative if you'd tell us."

 It seems he did not know she had been referring to the spirit maggots.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:38, Wed 07 Oct 2020.

Noah was not sure if Mistral wished to be in the spotlight so he errored on the side of caution. "A Monday class threat often goes for terrain alteration or destruction. If it is a Monday class it often has the power to do so. Dragon class has to take their time with it. If you have a really bad case of the Monday's you are dealing with up to Nanite class weapons. But there is tight control on that kind of tech."

"Last time was when they released a chemical agent, looked like raining blood but a bio lab found it to be a form of toxic plant life that we routed. After that, I think it was the bombing of Talions super boat."

Mistral realized that the First Sergeant had mistaken the meaning of her remark, although it reminded her that she had in fact encountered a similar entity before.  She answered, "I have encountered something that may be comparable to this, but I cannot be certain yet."  She let Noah speculate on the possibilities and give some context on past encounters.  Once he was finished she turned to Caraway and stated matter-of-factly, "First Sergeant, my recommendation is to consider this site a high-explosive zone dangereuse and prepare accordingly.  It may in fact come to that resolution."

Nefertiti noticed that the corruption from this area was removed but for how long.  Will it find a way to seep back into this area.  She didn't have the power or spell to cleanse the land but she watched closely as Mistral did.  Taking great consideration on what movements her hand did and the strange syllables.

Moving over to Mistral and speaking a bit low "What ritual did you preform to cleanse the area?

Again she listened to all this talk but still she knew very little about what they were speaking about. High-explosive zone.

 Caraway's mouth formed into a frown. "Detonating explosives inside of a friendly city is not something I can allow without explicit orders. It could cause panic and generate unwanted attention from the populace. Why does a civilian militia even have explosives anyway?"

Mistral didn’t flinch at the rebuke from the military man, and replied coolly, “Consider if the murderer of vos soldats were to escape to the nearest civilian population center.  Panic and public scrutiny would be rather greater for that, I suspect.”  Mistral made for a strange figure clad in head-to-toe black nano-weave, and she did not balk at speaking matter-of-factly to the Sergeant, “Such would be une mesure finale, used only in the greatest extremity of need.  May I remind that it was you who called Monsieur Talion, and he sent us.”

At Nefertiti’s question she answered quietly and simply, “It is a mobile repulsion ward attuned to corruption démoniaque.”

 Caraway nodded. "Fair enough. Now, if you don't mind, we're being charged for your services by the hour and you are very expensive."

 He took one hand and gestured toward the opening of the tent, as if inviting them to leave.

Noah smiled, "That is the kindest 'stop saying things I have to write down later' that I have ever heard." Noah stood up on all fours like a propper dragon and tilted his head side to side. "Time to clock in Ark Crew."