Baltimore, Maryland, Present Day...
Briggs arranged a team for each of the incursion tunnels with deft speed and confidence in his n. Finding they were going to be fighting sahaug on their own turf, his n were all eager to go at it.
That said, he was perfectly aware they had ears and would be sensitive to vibration. To cover the troops moving into the locations, he arranged for a couple extra trucks to go with them, and drive past them loudly, which would cover their footsteps when they breached.
Fred offered to place the explosives to seal the tunnel, being a great deal stealthier than any of his team, and Briggs agreed without batting an eye.
I stayed on Sleipner as he Rode the Shadow to where he needed to go with a radio-detonated wedge or two of plastic explosives. The tunnel ca up in an abandoned building nearby that should have been razed, the entry bored in from the sewers. Clearing it would be a stinky job.
He ca back by growing up out of Sleipners shadow, and swung back on as I waited calmly. I was annoyed that I wasnt more useful, but understood that it was going to take ti for that to happen.
The other tunnel was halfway around the harbor, and the team from the temple was already in place by the ti we drove up.
This tunnel was actually coming up under a secluded and walled-in ho about a quarter-mile from the water in a decent neighborhood. From the outside, nothing looked amiss, but Fred reiterated that the city didnt like what was going on here, and quickly hooked his Vaccine into the assault teams coms.
I told them I would cover them, and I would have healing if anyone needed it. They started to say sothing, shut up when my Shards spun up, crackling with thin red flas that were Bane to Aquatic Humanoids.
A thermyte charge lted through the lock on the gate, and the team charged in silently. I was covering and following; not afraid, but not about to get in front of them.
Jinxing the caras wasnt hard, nor was Detecting them. The team moved swift and sure up toward the house, with the quicker mbers breaking to cover the back and sides just in case. There wasnt much cover, so if anything ca out of the house, it was going to have a bad day.
Motion! Blow the charges! a man called out over the coms, and a second later there was a definite rumble through the ground from below.
Nobody charged in, keeping down and in cover, looking for any sign of windows opening or sothing gaining line of sight.
The reason for that was that a Senior Warlock was coming up from below...
A flicker of motion up high. Attic! I noted for the shooters around , as a window opened, sothing was aid... and a volley of automatic fire blew the window and anything around it to complete shit.
If you dont want to co up from below, theres a window access here, I /ssaged to Fred. I got a soft click in response, wondered what was going on below, and shrugged.
The explosion of golden fire punching through two floors and exiting through the roof a minute later was proof he was being busy.
Windows and doors exploded as scaled forms ca leaping and running out through them. They were moving awkwardly, their movents rippling and strong, but erratic and jerky without water providing the resistance they were used to using. Barbed bolts and hurled javelins were shooting out... and the team opened up without rcy on everything, including the living humans in robes and odd garb shooting at them desperately.
It was pretty much a slaughter, until a shark-faced female with a lot of shells and teeth on necklaces ca out, a shield of force in front of her dealing with all the incoming fire as she gestured, and all the teeth she was wearing started to rise...
My Shards slamd into her, tore off an arm, and sent her flying back into the house, the floating teeth scattering in all directions as the magic was interrupted. Her bodyguards turned to look at , bellowed strangely hollow cries in rage, and raced in my direction.
They got about five steps before the concentrated automatic fire reduced them to chunks of dead at.
There were golden flashes from inside the house, but his Silenced Grit didnt roar to announce him, we could just see the results as the flas exploded through the house and chased out everything inside to the withering fire outside. Anything tough enough to stay inside was just going to inherit a very heavy grain bullet.
The fires faded away as rapidly as theyd begun, and even the residual burns died away as Fred pulled back his Wrath.
He tossed the dead priestess out the biggest window casually, and waved the team in. The leader waved one of the n to report, while the support trucks ca rumbling in the gates, ready to collect the bodies and any evidence of malfeasance of the aquatic sort.
---
Fred ca out a few minutes later, finding leaning on Sleipner. Id basically only had to treat one guy winged by a lucky shot, and had nothing else to do.
SO GOLD STUFF AND TRINKETS. THERES A SHRINE TO CARCADOS IN A SUB-BASENT, AND EVIDENCE OF SACRIFICES TO IT.
This city really needs so Citybound, I noted, as he glanced at the strings of teeth from sharks and more exotic and unnatural stuff in my hand. Mana fuel, I said calmly. He nodded.
YOUR PLACE?, the fires above his shoulder asked.
Sure, I sighed, eying the setting sun. Im so looking forwards to it. I glanced down at the fishy head of the Sahaugh Priestess burning its flesh away in my hand, in preparation to becoming a Baneskull in the future, and wondered how long it was going to be.
------
Renewal...
The rushing power of darkness ca in as the light receded, sweeping over and past as we motored along shadowed streets on the edge of the Veil.
Ding! Ding!
*& *^$&@*0!!
Resigned, I tossed up the Assay and took a look at what my Bloodline had purchased for .
Inquisitor/1. Inquisitor? Inquisitor!
I frowned. A religious investigator? Searching for enemies of the faith? Since when did I qualify as...
Well, if you counted my desire to totally obliterate these undead, and searching out these minor problems, and investigating my background, and helping pop so Hellbound... right. Inquisitor...
Inquisitors were an Advanced Class on Terra-Luna, and fairly rare. The only common ones were those of Harse... or the zealots of Imprus and Huul who profaned the na of them with their accusations of heresy against anyone not mbers of their churches.
And they were Wisdom-based spontaneous Casters...
I narrowed my eyes. Was this arrangent forcing to get multi-Stat bonuses for both Casting styles?
Whatever...
D8, saves, profs, all irrelevant. I did get to pick two Spells Known from the Inquisitor List, which was an abbreviated version of the Ur-Priest List, and four Orison/Cantrips, too.
Wonderful. Sift, Elental Orb 0, Light, and Stabilize for the Cantrips, and True Seeking and True Dodge as the Spells Known. Gave my Wisdom bonus in Spell Slots...so, 1 per day. Wahoo? Well, I suppose in the long term it was important...
Domain... I get to pick the Domain? I blinked, and filled in Good instantly. Well, didnt that work out well for once?
1 Caster Level to all Good spells, d6 to Sanctified Spell... which was now maxed out at 3d6. What was not to love?
It had pre-chosen the Feat... Beyond Law and Chaos?
Well. I definitely wanted that Feat, as it was an incredible defensive tool, removing yourself from the dominion of luck and predestiny... and knuckleheads playing prescience gas. I suppose it was a counterpart to Beyond Good and Evil, although the chanics were very different. Combined, the two were very effective at removing a wide set of tools from the arsenals of many Casters... and since I was already playing Alignnt gas and futzing with divine prerogatives, this was simply a continuation of the.
But I got to choose the Mastery again, finally? I picked Shard Mastery/2, which let assign an Elental Damage type to my Shards... which could co in all types of useful for doing additional damage to enemies, or stacking on other effects...
It also ca with a reactive Shield 1/day I could cast in response to an attack... which wasnt a lot, but was a lot better than nothing.
Skills... it filled up the last Ranks I needed in Spellcraft and Stealth, and then gave a 1 each to four Lore skills: Religion, Mythos, Planar, and Arcane. There were a lot more, of course, but a surfeit of Skill points. The sudden knowledge gained focused heavily on identifying local monsters, which dovetailed with an Inquisitors interest in knowing their enemies.
Without much thought, I threw this set of non-vital Skills into Einz.
This effectively moved them from my mory into that of the Ring, a unique ability for an Item Familiar. For every 3 Ranks held in the Ring, I got a 1 typeless bonus to a Skill NOT in Einz.
4 Ranks, so 1. I placed it on Stealth for now, as avoiding being seen was a great way to survive being Level One.
I flicked a Light up on my palm, and glowered at the ball of black fla wound about with a silver light, shedding illumination. No, no, that wouldnt be all kinds of strange to people to see...
It appeared my magic was undergoing Spell Thematics, whether I liked it or not. I sighed and returned to my duly appointed intellectual dread of what was coming.
-------
Her condominium was located in a small subdivision of gathered houses sharing a common parking lot. Sleipner pulled in to one of the empty places close to the door, while I glanced at the common mailbox, sighed, and made my way over to it, followed by Fred.
No key, I told him, which didnt seem to bother him in the slightest. He pulled sothing out of his vest, golden light flowed into it, and he inserted it into the appropriate lock. There was a click, and the box opened up.
I barely caught the first envelopes that wanted to tumble out. Muttering to myself, I picked up the collection of envelopes and magazines and fliers (apparently even the Haze couldnt stop mass marketing), and with them bundled in my arms, we headed for the door to my unit.
There didnt seem to be anything particularly wrong about the place, a stand-alone townhouse condo lined up next to its neighbors. Still, I took nothing for granted, and scanned it three ways...
Soone laid a Ward on the door, I murmured, stepping back, and his nonesuch eyes narrowed. Focusing, he brought up his Wrath, and sent it against the magic on the door, once, twice, and there were sparks as the magic was Devoured.
He tried the door, found it locked, and his magic lockpick made short work of it. His hand was near his Blade as he pushed the door open, and looked inside.
Gouges from energy attacks marred a couple of the walls, had torn a sofa apart, and a table in the kitchen had been reduced to splinters. There was blood on a wall and floor in the entry hall, too.
No pets ca running up for attention, so that was sothing not to feel guilty about.
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