2020.08.10: The Attic Pt. 2

The Attic Pt. 2
It's time to deal with the demonic idol in the attic. After teaching the cat some discipline, the pair head down to the sanctum to deal with the threat.
IC Date	August 10th, 2020
Players	Rick Katie
Location	Overgrown Victorian
Theme Song	Gunship - Cthulhu https://youtu.be/Jo4-Bc85bF4

After some catch up sleep, Katie can be found downstairs in the living room, sitting on the couch and leaning forward with Soggy in front of her. She has a pack of kitty treats sitting next to her, which the cat is trying to reach, but she pulls it away and out of reach. "Noooo. Sit down there first..", reaching out to pat the floor in front of her, ".. go on. You sit there you get treats!", she smiles. Soggy looks at her as if it might leap, tear at her throat and take the treats from her dead body, but it reluctantly retreats and sits down again in front of her.

"You are /so/ good!", she smiles, pulling out one of the treats to give the cat, who quickly munches it down. Taking advantage while it's distracted too, she gives it a gentle stroke along his back which even gets a soft purr, before Soggy realises he's being cheated and hisses, rushing back a few feet. There are more treats, though, and it approaches again but outside of arms reach. "You are going to take some work..", Katie sighs, but can't help but smile at the stubborn cat.

Rick comes down the stairs after a decently long nap, rubbing his eyes a bit and covering his mouth to yawn. "I'm still sleepy.." he mutters to himself, and makes his way into the kichen "Want some coffee?" He calls out. He starts making a pot, and as he waits for it to brew he leans on the doorframe to watch you and Soggy. "He's an aggressive cat, probably from living on the streets as a stray. We need to go get him fixed, he's probably old enough now, because we dont want him and Lucky making more kittens." He chuffs a bit at that, then stifles another yawn.

Hearing the footsteps on the stairs, Katie glances up and watches you move toward the kitchen until you drop out of sight. "Yes please!", she calls back about the coffee. Looking up again when you appear in the doorframe, Katie somehow has the cat eating the treat out of her hand, which has Soggy licking her hand to try and pick it up. It tickles a bit but she manages not to giggle. "He's very defensive which I understand.. like, I lived on the streets, but my defense was not so visible. I used to read minds all the time, like /all/ the time. If anyone approached me I wanted to know why.". Turning her gaze back to the cat, she gives it a little smile as it drags the treat down to the floor to eat. "Soggy doesn't have that, he had to fight or run. He'll get better, he needs love and care is all.", she nods.

"It worked for me.", looking up at you with an affectionate smile. The mention of kittens has her wrinkle her nose, "Oh no, not with poor Lucky, she's not even old enough yet.". Hearing her name, Lucky, who is sitting behind her on the couch, lifts her head, sniffs the air, then lays her head back down again. "We should probably have them both done, Lucky will be wanting to wander the neighborhood soon.", she nods.

Rick smiles as he spots Soggy getting some treats out of her palm, and he moves forward towards you two, extending his hand towards the kitten. Soggy doesn't like this at all, and takes a quick swipe at Rick, drawing a little bit of blood. "OUCH!" he exclaims, pulling his hand back and shaking it a few times "He just clawed me..." He licks the back of the hand where he was clawed and wrinkles his nose. "I think you are now his favorate, and I'm dirt."

"Yeah, I can make an appointment with the local vet and it will be the ol' snip snip for him. She's gonna have to wear the cone of shame for a few days though, poor little girl." Lucky looks up and peers at Rick with those eyes of hers, as if somewhat udnerstanding what he was saying. "So I was thinking about that room upstairs. I can't find a way in from my scrying, but what I might be able to do is try to get in through the near Astral..commonly called the panumbra."

Once the claw hits you, Katie reacts quickly, reaching out and clapping her hands loudly in front of Soggy. The cat jumps in surprise and backs away, not looking impressed, but also seeming to realise something is wrong. "Ignore him..", she says softly, looking away and leaving the cat to understand what it might have done wrong. "Cats are weird, like, you can train them, but it's not as easy as dogs. He'll realise he's done wrong in a minute.", she nods.

It does seem she knows animals, perhaps from her time being able to talk to them and teach them tricks as a psychic; Soggy waits for a few seconds then walks over and rubs itself against your leg before walking off and heading into the kitchen. "You managed to look in before.", she shrugs. "There must be a way in, like, whoever lived here before and made it, they were able to lock it closed like that, so it must be able to be opened.", she shrugs. "I don't know. Maybe Kabin will know a trick.", she smiles.

Rick ignores the cat as directed, then looks down after a few moments as it rubs against his leg. He smiles to Katie and gives her a nod of thanks. "I didn't think we could train cats. I always thought it was the other way around. You really are good at that."

"Well, I mean, i can try to brute force my way in. Wards are only as strong as the caster, and they diminish with time. I'm more concerned what might be sealed in there." He hmmms a bit as he reviews the writings on the walls, floors, and the object in the center of the room "And if the ward is starting to fail, we would want to take care of it on our terms, not its term."

Soggy reaches the door and flicks its tail up in the air, giving a silent 'whatever!' gesture on his way to the kitchen, not accepting defeat just yet. "He'll come around, he has old habits.", Katie nods. "I know that too, using my magic all the time was an old habit..".

Gathering up the kitty treats, she takes one out to give as a freebie to Lucky, the spoilt little kitty, then seals it back up and places it aside. "If it's been protected like that, we probably don't want to go running in there..", she agrees, ".. like, we don't know what that thing can do. It's already started breaking its way out, it must have /some/ power.", wrinkling her nose. "This is /so/ weird. I wonder who owned this place and made that.".

Rick watches the cat well...be a cat. He shakes hs head, then licks his wounded hand again. Just like a cat would do. Perhaps the kittens are rubbing off on him. "Well, before I go unsealing whatever is in there we should probably do some research. Land ownership records and all that. Might get some ideas of who did it and when. But the entity in there was not very friendly seeming. I don't want an angry spirit living in _my_ house. Imagine if it broke out while we were sleeping, or had guests over. That could be _bad_."

He goes into the kitchen, pours two cups of coffee, then comes back out and plops next to you on the couch. He hauls out his laptop, and spends some time browsing land records, then googling the owners and generally doing some research.

Sliding forward, Katie leaves the couch and drops her bottom onto the floor, resting her back against the couch instead. Reaching up as you return, she takes the coffee with a soft, "Thank you!", holding it in both her small hands, the warmth against her palms, a small sip taken. "Mmm, that's nice.", she nods, briefly inhaling the coffee scent.

"Maybe we can send it far away, like, drop it in the ocean or something..", she chuckles, ".. or blast it so it breaks.", tilting her head at those thoughts. She doesn't rush in anymore. "It might be really powerful though, like, dropping it in the ocean might make things worse. And what if it breaks and the spirit escapes?", a gentle nibble on her lower lip. Lots of 'what ifs'. "Are you finding anything?", she asks, peeking over at the laptop screen.

Rick taps for a little while, then frowns and tilts his head "odd. A record of ownership is missing, from this time period to this time period. Very odd." He sighs a bit and looks to you "Well, that was a dead end. All i know is someone tried to hide something, but I can't see what it is." He rubs his face, then has some of his rapidly cooling coffee. "You are right about ignoring it or dumping it in the ocean. That would do more harm than good. We would need to banish it back to where it came from. But first I need to find out _what_ it is." He rises from the couch, taking his coffee with him "To the basement we go! Time for some ritual."

While you're busy, Katie lightly sips at her coffee, her shoulders noticably relaxing as she goes through the otherwise normal ritual of enjoying a hot coffee, a content sigh escaping. "You've got /real/ good at making coffee.", she smiles, glancing over her shoulder at you, a twinkle in her lovely large blue eyes.

Turning around, she rises up onto her knees to face you, "That's okay. As much as I like to think so, you can't do everything.", she grins. A little push back and she eases from her knees to full height with almost no effort. "What are you going to do?", she asks. "See you later!", she chirps, reaching over to give Lucky a soft scritch and a stroke, then she's following alongside you.

Rick laughs at the comment about his coffee "I have mastered coffee and hot dogs, thats about it." He reaches down to give Lucky some scritches, then opens the door to the basement "Well, I'm going to scry into the room again, this time using spirit magick as well to take a look at it from the other side. I want to identify the warding around the statue, as that often times gives names and attributes of the entity involved. If i can, I want to take a close look at it as well. But I will also be putting wards around myself, so it can't attack me." He looks back at you and says "This might take a while. You might want to bring a book with you while I do the preperation work."

With that, he's in the basement, having moved into the inner sanctum."

Rick takes about twenty minutes of effort to draw various hermetic sigils, seals and words in latin and hebrew on the floor in chalk. Once he finishes those drawings he picks up a black box, made of a dense wood, and starts to chant softly. He walks around the seals, then opens the box, withdrawing a handfull of salt. He makes a circle around the seals with the salt, making sure that it is continuous and unbroken. Finally, he steps into the center of the circle, plops his butt down on the central seal and looks to you "Alright. Now the fun part."

"I'll make the barbeque burgers then." Katie chuckles, following you down into the basement, though starting to look a little uncomfortable as the issue of magic rises again. It's not only her at danger, but the one she loves too. "Be /really/ careful, okay? Like, I'm serious.", giving you an equally serious gaze while you start to work on the ritual. Sitting herself down on a stool, she cradles her coffee to her chest and takes the occasional sip as she watches.

The last of the coffee is gone long before the ritual is finished, so she places the empty mug aside, clasps her hands together and pushes them between her knees, her gaze tracking your movements and actions.

The image on the wall appears once again, feeding what you're seeing so that Katie can watch. Your sight travels upwards, passing through the basement floor and into the living room, where a sleeping Lucky still resides. Up further into the guest bedroom and then upwards again into the attic. It's again like pushing through sludge, fighting to get through, but after some focus your vision appears out of the other side. Inside the attic, the sigils and glyphs, appearing lifeless through normal vision, now glow with magic. It's not powerful magic, not that of a Mage, likely that of a high powered sorcerer. The magical circle is still as it was, a break through the design ceasing all magic that was in effect, and but the glass case surrounding the idol has cracked a little more, a single piece about an inch long having broken free and shattered on the ground after falling.

The idol itself, viewed through the spirit realm, contains a demonic entity. It constantly writhes and rolls, maddened by anger and entrapment it constantly lashes out but lacks enough power to do anything serious to its surroundings. After years and years it's managed to break a tiny section of its prison, managed to break the circle that held it hidden, but it's still unable to escape.

Rick is concentrating intently on what he's doing, sitting crosslegged in the circle. Indeed, without even realizing he's done it, he's managed to float about two feet off the air to hover above the circle, but safely in its protective sphere. He's not able to speak at this time to Katie, being in the middle of a ritual, but he _is_ able to speak to the entity "I, Adept Rick Richard Januii Young, bani Quaesator, Rider of Flame, Banisher of untruths, Seeker of Ma'at, and Warden of the Sacred Geese do order and command you, spirit, to tell me your name. I do this in the name of...." he intones these names instead of speaking them "Raphael.....Uriel...Michiael..." Back to speaking forcefully now "You are bound and commanded, oh spirit, to reveal your name to me." He then _very_ forcefully says something in True Enochian. It is a word of power.

Once the image appears, Katie leaves her spot and walks closer, sitting down on the floor with her legs crossed so she's able to keep a careful watch on both you and the image. The demonic entity strikes its spirit out at the glass again and again, but trapped inside this idol it's unable to create an effect. It /can/, it already has, but it's not easy.

Hearing the voice the demon stops writhing and focuses its attention on you, the entire idol twisting as it hovers in mid-air, glowing red eyes also turning to face you. It's voice comes in angry tones, multiple voices echoing over each other. "You will not command me, Mage! I will not succumb to..", it twists as if in pain as the demand continues, ".. to your..", an echoing scream, a high pitched female voice interlaced with a deep, demonic tone. The word of power returns a single word, "Zepar. Nooo!". The demon starts writhing again, throwing its spirit as far out as it can against the glass, but nothing happens, the beast is firmly held.

Rick is a creature of Will, a mage in the Order of Hermes. Trained in the mystic arts. But yeah...this is a pretty significant demon. Rick manages to keep his concentration, and his face remains calm and clear. Though he does move downwards a bit in his levitation. Energy crackles around him however, pure quintessence that makes Katie's hair stand on end. On the wall the projection intensifies.

"Zepar kal Malus, kal nostra, kal incus...hear thy true name and obey! I bind thee, foul creature, and cast thee out!" A new sigil forms around the old sorcerer sigil, this one fueled entirely of quintessence, formed perfectly in the spirit, all his aspects marked and engraved. "I cast you down, creature of the night. I send you back to that pit from which you crawled. Be you never to return to this place again, by the holy names of... More intonement "...Sandalfron...Metatron..."

The quintessence sparking around her causes Katie to pull back, shuffling backwards while still on the ground, putting some distance between her and the source. Her eyes are mostly focused on the projected image, but the amount of love and pride she feels for Rick, for what he's doing, can almost be felt. "You are /so/ awesome.", she whispers, though his hearing is up in the attic so he can't hear it.

The spirit of the demon whips angrily around the idol, trying to break free before it's forced free, the echoing cries of anger, multiple tones of voice all screaming at once, starting to break free of the attic and into the building beyond. This demon wants its freedom, it was fighting for it for decades, trapped in this idol, in this place, but it wanted freedom on its own terms, not those of a Mage that demand it never return.

A final angry scream shatters the glass of its cage, sending shards in all directions, and the beast is sucked downwards into a empty black void that appears beneath the idol, visible only in the spirit world. Whispers and screams come from within, a direct portal back to Hell itself, but as the beast is pulled away so the void closes and silence returns.

The now empty idol, once floating, drops like a stone and clanks noisily into the pile of shattered glass.

Rick, once floating, drops like a stone and thumps noisily into a pile on the floor, exhausted by his magickal labours. And yeah, his nosebleed has returned, this time both nostrils gushing blood. He lays there on the floor, still for a moment, then pinches his nose shut "Oh God, I feel like I just ran a marathon..." he gasps.

Katie came prepared this time, quickly hopping to her feet and rushing over once you return, reaching into the back pocket of her jeans to pull out a handkerchief which she quickly puts to your nose. "Hold that there.", she says softly, a hand affectionately brushing back through your white hair, a loving gaze. "You banished it! I'm /so/ impressed, that was amazing.", she smiles, leaning in to touch a kiss to your forehead. "Was that seriously Zepar? Like, I read about that, the demon who deals with love and lust."

Rick sits up and nods "Yeth...that was him. I've heard a little bit about him..." Thats a little bit of understatement. "He's not a nice entity, though none of them are. But he's gone, and he's going to stay gone." But yeah, Rick really does look exhausted by what he just did. "I...i think I need to lie down for a little bit outside..ugh, I feel like I just got done with a three day long bender."

"That sounds nice." Katie teases, she hasn't had a drink since she returned, and she did like to party. Though maybe it's simply not her anymore. Pushing herself to her feet, she holds her hand out to help you up, "Let's go out into the garden, get you some fresh air.", she suggests. "You banished a demon! You're allowed to be exhausted.", she chuckles.