A Game of Cat and Mouse (Vezina)

[dmronny]

Re: A Game of Cat and Mouse (Vezina)

"I am sure you have at least some passing knowledge of the rites and powers of the clan of death. Though you probably have little knowledge of the path of four humours used by Lamia like myself. The humours being blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. I know of a simple ritual that can provide us with an advantage in combat should things come down to such measures." Lysandra begins as she begins drawing a circle on the floor with chalk. She adds some mystical symbols and candles to perfect a basic magic circle.

"These four humours can be amplified and dulled within mortal and Cainite alike. The ritual I propose will amplify your power with one humour while dulling it's opposite. It's sort of a trade off of power as I receive your dulled portion while you receive my dulled portion. The humours exist on two axes you see: hot and cold, and dry and wet.

The ritual entails each of us making a small sacrifice of one of these humours and taking in the others sacrifice. You may become sickened for a small amount of time or feel some discomfort depending on the sacrifice and benefit. The aid is quite useful should we become separated though."

Spoiler

I didn't mean to brush you off when responding about how Mithras feeds his ghouls. You kind of found a plot hole in him being torporous and having an army of ghouls and it threw me for a loop.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: A Game of Cat and Mouse (Vezina)

"Passing knowledge, yes, but no practical experience," Vezina said, watching the drawing ritual with interest, tilting her head to follow the lines of the circle and the symbols. She knew that seeing what Lysandra did was only part of the ritual. The alterations in the blood of Caine were essential in making the rite work its potent magics, yet still she would enjoy being able to recognize these rites in the future.

Listening attentively, she nodded at the Lamia's explanation about the four humors, and what this ritual would entail.

"You give me some of your strength in return for me giving you some of mine. It is a worthy effort. What specifically did you wish to exchange with me, Lysandra?"

Spoiler

No worries. I guess it gives you something to think about.

 

[dmronny]

Re: A Game of Cat and Mouse (Vezina)

"I believe I will leave the choice up to you, Lady Vezina. I know not why but something tells me you will be the one to strike the most important blow this evening." Lysandra says as she finishes the circle and looks into Vezina's eyes with a smile.

"You will have to get close enough to use the power granted by the humour as it acts as sort of like a contact poison would. Phlegm will cause your foe to become lethargic, blood will cause them to bleed excessively from any wounds, black bile harms the foe directly, and yellow bile will make them melancholic and plagued with visions of their own death. I hasten to assure you that the ritual renders any blood sacrificed unable to bond the imbiber. Do you have any questions before you choose?"

Spoiler

That it does. The ritual basically gives you a one shot poison attack against any one or thing you touch. Phlegm lowers dice pool, blood increases the effectiveness of aggravated damage, black bile harms them outright, and yellow bile makes it more difficult to use will power for the enemy if they can't resist the attack.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: A Game of Cat and Mouse (Vezina)

"From my knowledge of the occult passed down from my sire, focus and determination are essential to the casting of magics and rituals. Since our enemy is such a will worker, it would behoove us to inflict misery and melancholy upon him, so as to interfere with his mysticism. I have made my choice. I choose the yellow bile."

Vezina moved toward Lysandra and waited for further instruction. She was not afraid, nor even repulsed. She had seen enough gutted animals in her mortal life, and several flayed humans since imbibing Caine's Gift, so the concept of using the four humors for rites did not make her flinch.

"Your assurance is noted and appreciated. Do what must be done, Lysandra."

 

[dmronny]

Re: A Game of Cat and Mouse (Vezina)

"As you wish. Please take a seat opposite of me beside the circle and we shall begin. Hopefully we shall some information to act on by the time the ritual is complete." Lysandra said as she stayed seated beside the circle.

Once Vezina had joined her she proceeded to light the candles, she chanted in a strange tongue. A strangely poetic, singing style of language that Vezina with all her knowledge was unfamiliar with. This chanting proceeded for quite a while though Vezina lost track of the time as she listened to the hypnotic chanting.

This state was hardly unnerving to Vezina as used to her heightened senses as she was. Eventually she began to feel a strange feeling of depression and pessimism overcome her as the chanting increased in pace. A trace of yellow ectoplasm slowly extended it's way from Lysandra toward Vezina while a similar red line of ectoplasm extended from Vezina to her partner. The chanting reached a crescendo as the yellow ectoplasm surrounded Vezina temporarily crushing her with it's melancholic feelings. Then just like that the feeling passed leaving Vezina with a lessened though distinct feeling of melancholy as she came out of the trance.

Spoiler

Vezina will feel a bit more melancholic and depressed until she uses the attack but it doesn't actually mean anything mechanically speaking. You also spent 1 BP as your sacrifice leaving you at 13/14.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: A Game of Cat and Mouse (Vezina)

As the ritual progressed, Vezina felt more and more the crushing weight of futility, self-doubt, and fatalism settle upon her like a crushing boulder, threatening to cave in her chest cavity. She doubled over and held her brow in her hands, pondering upon all the things that could - and would - go wrong.

They were walking into a trap. The questioning of the gargoyle servant had been too easy, as had been its capture. Would Abetorius, a member of a cabal that had up to this point been so successful in undermining the power of Cainites, be so foolish as to allow his minions to flit about, bringing the full weight of judgement down upon his haven? Surely not.

Malleus had been bait, and Vezina had taken it. Then she had brought the perfect types of Cainites to the sorcerer - Gangrel, Nosferatu, and herself. Lysandra's rituals would be extracted under dire torture, added to the blood mage's already extensive knowledge, no doubt. For Lysandra then, it would be death. For the other three, they would suffer a worse fate. They would be turned into slaves, stony thralls fit only to serve a hated enemy for eternity.

The mission was a farce and it would fail. It had to fail. They were doomed. Vezina you fool. You fool!

And then the miasma of despair passed, leaving with it only trace elements of doubt. Confidence returned, and the Tzimisce raised her head again, reassuring herself that Abetorius was in all liklihood an overconfident fool, and that the initial success of the Tremere would only foster mistakes once they believed themselves at an illusionary advantage.

"If that is the sort of haze I can expect our foe to experience, then that momentary discomfort is quite allowable." Vezina said, standing in the same breath. "And you? You are similarly augmented I expect?"

 

[dmronny]

Re: A Game of Cat and Mouse (Vezina)

The powerful crushing feelings having faded from the normally confident Vezina she looked up at Lysandra as she spoke. The Lamia was paler and more sickly looking than was normal and most horrifying of all was the trickles of blood running down from her eyes, ears, and nose. It wasn't enough of a blood loss to cause Vezina to worry overly so however as Lysandra smiled and nodded.

"The ritual has worked better than I expected in that case. The rigors we have gone through are but a taste of what our foes will have to deal with tonight. Perhaps it is the mixing of our varied bloods that made it so successful. I am similarly augmented but with the power of your blood. I thought that power to be useful in case we must fight more of those gargoyles. Hopefully our allies will have some news soon but not too soon. Rituals can be a bit exacting on the constitution and I would like a chance to rest if even for just a few minutes."

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: A Game of Cat and Mouse (Vezina)

Vezina strode to the window to look out into the moonlit countryside while gesturing for Lysandra to have a seat upon the edge of the nearby bed.

"Then we shall gather ourselves for a few minutes then while we await news from our companions. We should not stop our vigil though. If the gargoyles were watching, they would have seen any approach by night to the village and will investigate soon. I would prefer to be gathered with Aethelwulf and Richard again before the guardians descend upon us."

 

[dmronny]

Re: A Game of Cat and Mouse (Vezina)

"I cannot blame you for wishing for the safety of numbers. Something about this night keeps leaving me with a feeling of dread. Though perhaps it is merely the result of the ritual we just performed." Lysandra spoke as she rested on the edge of the bed taking care to wipe the blood from her face as best as possible. She was able to remove most of the substance while Vezina looked over the moonlit road and beyond that the village.

Vezina could see people moving through the village in a few different spots though she could discern few details from this distance. Perhaps they were Aethelwulf's troops already hard at work in the gathering of information or perhaps simply villagers. For now they would have to simply be patient.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: A Game of Cat and Mouse (Vezina)

No honest, god-fearing peasants would be up at this hour of the night, Vezina thought. Only scoundrels, drunks, the odd night's watchman, and servants of the usurpers would be awake now. That, and the allies she had brought with her. Even her heightened vision was not enough to make out more than shapes among the shadows.

The Tzimisce was restless. To stay still would be to invite thoughts of that melancholy that had nearly overwhelmed her during the brief ritual. She wished to remain convinced of her goals and to make progress. She paced around the room, thinking about what she might do in Abetorius' position. This was difficult because she was not privy to all the skills and machinations that the sorcerer was capable of. She did not know his methods beyond that of his stony guardians, of whom she did not desire to face one-on-one. Despite her zeal, she was not born nor bred for combat - it was not something that Gyulu wished of his bride. And yet, her mortal upbringing and her mindset at the moment of her first expiration was that of a young woman unafraid to get her hands dirty, for she had been dirty her whole life. She had walked with the earth stained upon the soles of her feat, smudged upon her cheek, embedded under her fingernails.

She was a trapper and a hunter and she masqueraded in the finery of a noble, for she had been indoctrinated into an afterlife that expected it of her. But she couldn't deny who she was at her core.

"It's the fear of the unknown," Vezina responded to her companion. "We hunt a prey of mysterious qualities. What we are unprepared for could mean an end to our immortality - or worse, for some of us."

 

[dmronny]

Re: A Game of Cat and Mouse (Vezina)

"No doubt." Lysandra said as she watched Vezina begin to pace back and forth before standing once more to put away her instruments and obscure the circle they had used to perform their magic. Her equipment away she took a look out the window herself as though to allay her own nervousness.

"For one so interested in the study of death I do not wish to open that door of knowledge just yet. I have yet to even see the great temple at Erciyes and it's vaunted library. It supposedly makes Rodger's paltry in comparison." Lysandra spoke from the window as the Tzimisce paced a rut into the floor of the room. Then Vezina heard it an incredibly faint scratching sound at the door, far fainter than any mortal might make.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: A Game of Cat and Mouse (Vezina)

"I would very much like to see that library as well, Lysandra. Perhaps one day we shall have the time to travel there. In the meantime, at least you have access to Rodger's books. As paltry as it might be in comparison to other libraries, it is --"

Vezina stopped pacing as soon as she heard the sound, glancing toward the door. Taking out her dagger, she immediately strode to the threshold and flung wide the portal, ready to fight immediately if need be.

 

[dmronny]

Re: A Game of Cat and Mouse (Vezina)

Lysandra turned away from the window to return to her bed but stopped and quickly drew forth her own weapon as Vezina had. She moved to Vezina's side ready for anything as the door was flung open to reveal a...fox, which immediately scurried away from the sudden opening of the door. Though it did stop after a few feet and looked back towards the open door.

There didn't seem to be anything out in the hall beside the small creature even with Vezina's keen senses. Lysandra peered from beside her carefully before whispering. "And what do we have here? A spy sent by our enemies or our friends perhaps?"

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: A Game of Cat and Mouse (Vezina)

Vezina locked eyes with the fox as it turned to look back at her. Then she communicated with it using her powers of animalism.

"From whence do you come, and for what purpose?" She asked of it, lowering her dagger. A fox would not be a creature of choice for attacking vampires, not when there were more suitable, stone-like minions available. Vezina was inclined to think that this must be some messenger, either from the Sheriff or the Warmaster. With luck, the fox might have good news for them - something to act upon.

She awaited its answer.

 

[dmronny]

Re: A Game of Cat and Mouse (Vezina)

The fox locked gazes with Vezina and slowly slinked forward as she asked her question. It stopped before her and held up a paw as if in answer to her question. A small note had been affixed to the leg of the creature which she quickly removed and unfurled.

"The village has been cleared by my men except for the church. No sign of our quarry as of yet. I have found a fordable place in the river not even a quarter mile further past the inn. If you wish to join me we may be able to check out the forest before dawn. -Aethelwulf-"

The fox had waited obediently while she read the letter under the watchful eye of her companion, Lysandra, who asked. "Richard or Aethelwulf?"

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: A Game of Cat and Mouse (Vezina)

"It is from the Warmaster," Vezina answered. "Somehow I think a messenger from Richard would be less appealing to the senses. We should meet him along the river bank, not far from the inn. The town has been cleared without any signs of the Tremere. The woods are our next destination and we shall join him in the search. All the better to complete our task before dawn, if possible."

Vezina gathered her items and then moved through the door. To the fox she made a gesture and spoke to it, saying: "Lead us to the one who gave you this note."

 

[dmronny]

Re: A Game of Cat and Mouse (Vezina)

Lysandra nodded and gathering her own bag set out with Vezina in the lead. Exiting from the inn they noticed the keeper was asleep at his desk all the better to prevent any unwanted questioning of their late activities. The fox lead the way scurrying up ahead of the pair of Cainites until they arrived at the designated spot.

The ford was the perfect spot to infiltrate the forest without being seen by any in the village, however it was also a perfect spot for an ambush. Though that pessimistic thought quickly faded as Aethelwulf and two of his men appeared from the brush as the fox runs off it's task now done. Aethelwulf nodded at the pair and began across the river. The water coming up no higher than his waist at any point after waving that they should follow.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: A Game of Cat and Mouse (Vezina)

Vezina did a quick sniff in the air, heightening her sense of smell at the riverbank, confirming Aethelwulf by the scent of his armor and other olfactory indications. On any other night, she might not have thought to bother, but the melancholy thoughts and the knowledge that they were up against witchcraft was enough to make her incredibly cautious.

After she had confirmed for herself that this was her ally, she waded into the water, lowering her senses back to their normal state. The river was bitingly cold, and had she still been mortal this would probably have distracted her a great deal. But her existence had been a cold one since the moment of her embrace, and the river was not as chilling to her deadened nerves.

"How do you wish to proceed, Warmaster?" Vezina said quietly as she drew level with him in the water. "Can these woods be searched quickly enough for our purposes? Or do the beasts of the forest have tale to tell of our quarry?"

 

[dmronny]

Re: A Game of Cat and Mouse (Vezina)

"The beasts of the forest seem to have little to tell of this forest, which in itself tells quite a bit. The forest is not overly large and we should be able to search it before day break if we split up. I realize the danger of this proposal but I feel the only edge we may have is surprise and we lose that edge the longer we stay in this village." Aethelwulf responds with a sniff of the air as he gazes into the darkened recesses of the forest, his eyes a deep glowing red.

"There is something old about this forest but I do not know what it could be. I am unsure how well a Tzimisce can handle such things but if there is any truth to the tales of the Carpathians you will do fine."

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: A Game of Cat and Mouse (Vezina)

Vezina scoffed.

"These woods do not scare me, Warmaster. I was born in the shadow of the Carpathians, where the land itself is a predator. Very well, we shall split our forces. How then shall we call to one another if one of us comes across our quarry?"