Post by Jacob Archer on Feb 7, 2011 19:54:15 GMT -5
[Morning, Day One, 07:15]
The train shuddered as it rolled along the re-purposed tracks. Originally designed for trains traveling at half this speed, only the trains engineering kept it from flying off the tracks. Not that Jacob was noticing any of this at the moment. Instead, he was sifting through the files inside the non-descript manila folder. The Archer family had contacts, however limited, but above all else they excelled and dealing with information. It was the sort of skill a family of Scholars and archaeologists tended to pick up. Still, considering the short notice, the file he had was fairly robust.
The first few pages were maps of some province of Italy – whichever one the train was heading towards, he assumed, since the train ticket had been attached to the file. Across most of the maps was the name ‘Lucca’. On one, which appeared to be a city map, was a red X marking a location in what appeared to be some sort of residential area. The next several pages were article clippings and printouts, each page with an assortment of post-it notes to assist his rusty Italian in translating. They seemed to be local news articles, covering several strange deaths and disappearances. A few discussed the occasionally found and horribly mutilated body. Only one gave any suggestion as to what might have done it, talking about reports of ‘great black beasts.’
Those front two sections covered the ‘Where’ and the ‘what you were walking into’, Jacob mused, all that was left was the ‘what’ and the ‘why’. Both were covered by a small dossier about his uncle. Michael Archer, the younger brother of Jacob’s Father. Somewhat displeased due to the preferential treatment his brother received, he distanced himself from the main family. His last message had been from his workshop in Northern Italy over a week ago. He’d stopped responding to calls and emails, and had stopped sending messages to his usual contacts. The main family was worried that it could be connected to his research. His Uncle had always been more interested in impressing the clock tower association the most in the family and some were worried that something might have gotten out of hand.
The last section was more of an advisory then anything important. A collected and organized set of rumors from the church, detailing what was supposedly the sixth grail war. About the only thing they did agree on was where it was happening and that it was, in fact, happening. Every single other factor was up for grabs. There were rumors of Multiple new classes, multiples of the same class, A complete lack of any of the original classes, and even the rumor that the grail was actually hunting people. The only piece that was trustworthy was a scan of a copy of a transcript of a hundred year old text that outlined the basics of a grail war. Command seals, classes, and most importantly the summoning ritual. Jacob read over it a couple times before he heard the announcement that they had now arrived in Lucca. Grabbing his only back, he tucked away the file and stepped onto the platform.
It took him a couple hours to find, but eventually found his way to his uncle’s apartment hidden away in an obscure corner of the Residential district. It was situated on top of another apartment, with the only door being up a flight of external stairs squeezed between a wall and the main building. Jacob carefully made his way up the stairs, and he was soon glad that he had – the door was sitting ajar, and the lock seemed to have been broken from the outside. As quietly as possible, Jacob tip-toed into the apartment.
The main entry way opened up into a large living room on the right, with a dining room to the left. He could just barely make out a kitchen tucked away around a corner behind the dining room, not that it was being used as such. The entire room was a mess, with papers everywhere and aged and rusted artifacts were strewn about, many with their museum filing tags still attached, suggesting their original possessors. He idly picked up one item to examine it when he heard a crash.
He nearly dropped the ancient piece of masonry as he turned toward the other side of the room. Straight across from him, lining the back wall was a trio of doors. He started making his way toward them, looking down briefly as papers crunched under feet. Between the scattered sheets of paper, he thought he could see rusted red lines cris-crossing the wooden floor.
Another crash reverberated from behind a door, this time it was obvious it came from the middle door. Tentatively, Jacob opened the door.
What he saw almost made him sick. What was left of his uncle was lying in the middle of what was once a bedroom now covered in blood. Portions of his face and his arms were missing, and Jacob couldn’t see where his legs had gone. Around him were four… things. The looked like dogs, massive direwolf’s made of bones and spikes. And now they were all staring at him.
Jacob slammed the door shut, cursing. A sudden crash against the door nearly sent him flying. “Son of a…” Jacob struggled with the doorknob, the finicky locking mechanism only designed to be unlatched from this side. After a struggling with it for a time, he finally got it to catch. Taking a deep breath, Jacob focused on the lock before he began. “ Fod fel carreg... Jacob felt his body shift, as his energy began to flow out. “... cadarnle" The door shuttered slightly before stabilizing at its new strength. Jacob slowly backed away from the door, hoping that the strengthing spell had worked. The next crash proved it had. The spell, however, only extended to the door. The hardware that currently held it in place would not last long. It was time for him to leave.
Jacob scrambled across the floor, the near-death experience sending adrenaline corsing through his veins as he slipped on the papers and trash. He finally reached the front door and threw it open. Waiting to greet him was a pair of the bone wolves, barreling up the stairs. Jacob slammed the door shut as the beasts collided with the door. Jacob reatched over his sholder to lock the door, only to be greated with hot breath washing over his fingers. Where the lock had once been was now nothing but a hole, the collsion knocking it clean out. Jacob smacked his head against the wall, cursing repeatedly as splinters started to come of the doorframe. Jacob paled for a moment as the door opened a crack, causing him to kick futilely at the floor as he tried to close it again, sending papers across the room. It was then that he noticed the pattern on the floor again. Now that he could see more of it, he realized what it was. Thinking fast, Jacob hooked the nearest chair with his ankle, dragging it closer until he could wedge it under the door knob. Taking a deep breath, Jacob readied himself.
“One….two….three!” Jacob dove away from the door, futilely taking cover. After a moment to realize that the chair was holding, Jacob began to franticly clear off the floor until he could see the entire pattern.
A summoning circle.
Just like the one from the file, a summoning circle for bringing forth a servant, a hero from the past. And right now, Jacob could use a hero. Another crash, this time from the inside door. Jacob found his hand wrapping itself around a rusted sword handle. If Jacob had taken a moment to look at the tag, he might have noticed that it was on loan to a nearby university from the Archives Nationales in Paris. Jacob took a deep breath, Jacob focused himself. In his mind, he could imagine a pair of gears, locked together. With a thunderous crash, the gears shifted and his Magic Circuit activated. As the hounds pounded at the doors, he channeled his energy into the circle.
“Ye first, O silver, O iron” His blood felt like it was boiling, but he continued.
“O stone of the foundation, O Archduke of the Contract” He could see the inside doorframe beginning to give.
“Hear me in the name of our great teacher, the Archmagus Schweinorg
Let the descending winds be as a wall
let the gates in all directions be shut, rising above the crown, and let the three-forked roads to the Kingdom revolve.”
Lights flickered out as the room began to shake, the only light coming from the faint glow of the seal.
“Shut. Shut. Shut. Shut. Shut.
Five perfections for each repetition.
And now, let the filled sigils be annihilated in my stead!
Set.”
The Seal’s light grew even brighter as stabbing pain shot through his body. Jacob had never done anything close to this scale, and the pain was excruciating.
“Let thy body rest under my dominion; let my fate rest in thy blade.
If thou submittest to the call of the Holy Grail and if thou wilt obey this mind, this reason, then thou shalt respond.
I make my oath here.
I am that person who is to become the virtue of all Heavens!
I am that person who is covered with the evil of all Hades!”
The spell reached its apex, a typhoon pouring out as it started to prepare to connect to the throne of heroes.
“Thou seven heavens, clad in a trinity of words,
come past thy restraining rings, and be thou the hands that protect the balance-!”
A blinding flash of light filled the room as a massive gust blew out all the windows and sent Jacob flying. As the glow faded, the doors finally gave in and the beasts poured in.
The train shuddered as it rolled along the re-purposed tracks. Originally designed for trains traveling at half this speed, only the trains engineering kept it from flying off the tracks. Not that Jacob was noticing any of this at the moment. Instead, he was sifting through the files inside the non-descript manila folder. The Archer family had contacts, however limited, but above all else they excelled and dealing with information. It was the sort of skill a family of Scholars and archaeologists tended to pick up. Still, considering the short notice, the file he had was fairly robust.
The first few pages were maps of some province of Italy – whichever one the train was heading towards, he assumed, since the train ticket had been attached to the file. Across most of the maps was the name ‘Lucca’. On one, which appeared to be a city map, was a red X marking a location in what appeared to be some sort of residential area. The next several pages were article clippings and printouts, each page with an assortment of post-it notes to assist his rusty Italian in translating. They seemed to be local news articles, covering several strange deaths and disappearances. A few discussed the occasionally found and horribly mutilated body. Only one gave any suggestion as to what might have done it, talking about reports of ‘great black beasts.’
Those front two sections covered the ‘Where’ and the ‘what you were walking into’, Jacob mused, all that was left was the ‘what’ and the ‘why’. Both were covered by a small dossier about his uncle. Michael Archer, the younger brother of Jacob’s Father. Somewhat displeased due to the preferential treatment his brother received, he distanced himself from the main family. His last message had been from his workshop in Northern Italy over a week ago. He’d stopped responding to calls and emails, and had stopped sending messages to his usual contacts. The main family was worried that it could be connected to his research. His Uncle had always been more interested in impressing the clock tower association the most in the family and some were worried that something might have gotten out of hand.
The last section was more of an advisory then anything important. A collected and organized set of rumors from the church, detailing what was supposedly the sixth grail war. About the only thing they did agree on was where it was happening and that it was, in fact, happening. Every single other factor was up for grabs. There were rumors of Multiple new classes, multiples of the same class, A complete lack of any of the original classes, and even the rumor that the grail was actually hunting people. The only piece that was trustworthy was a scan of a copy of a transcript of a hundred year old text that outlined the basics of a grail war. Command seals, classes, and most importantly the summoning ritual. Jacob read over it a couple times before he heard the announcement that they had now arrived in Lucca. Grabbing his only back, he tucked away the file and stepped onto the platform.
It took him a couple hours to find, but eventually found his way to his uncle’s apartment hidden away in an obscure corner of the Residential district. It was situated on top of another apartment, with the only door being up a flight of external stairs squeezed between a wall and the main building. Jacob carefully made his way up the stairs, and he was soon glad that he had – the door was sitting ajar, and the lock seemed to have been broken from the outside. As quietly as possible, Jacob tip-toed into the apartment.
The main entry way opened up into a large living room on the right, with a dining room to the left. He could just barely make out a kitchen tucked away around a corner behind the dining room, not that it was being used as such. The entire room was a mess, with papers everywhere and aged and rusted artifacts were strewn about, many with their museum filing tags still attached, suggesting their original possessors. He idly picked up one item to examine it when he heard a crash.
He nearly dropped the ancient piece of masonry as he turned toward the other side of the room. Straight across from him, lining the back wall was a trio of doors. He started making his way toward them, looking down briefly as papers crunched under feet. Between the scattered sheets of paper, he thought he could see rusted red lines cris-crossing the wooden floor.
Another crash reverberated from behind a door, this time it was obvious it came from the middle door. Tentatively, Jacob opened the door.
What he saw almost made him sick. What was left of his uncle was lying in the middle of what was once a bedroom now covered in blood. Portions of his face and his arms were missing, and Jacob couldn’t see where his legs had gone. Around him were four… things. The looked like dogs, massive direwolf’s made of bones and spikes. And now they were all staring at him.
Jacob slammed the door shut, cursing. A sudden crash against the door nearly sent him flying. “Son of a…” Jacob struggled with the doorknob, the finicky locking mechanism only designed to be unlatched from this side. After a struggling with it for a time, he finally got it to catch. Taking a deep breath, Jacob focused on the lock before he began. “ Fod fel carreg... Jacob felt his body shift, as his energy began to flow out. “... cadarnle" The door shuttered slightly before stabilizing at its new strength. Jacob slowly backed away from the door, hoping that the strengthing spell had worked. The next crash proved it had. The spell, however, only extended to the door. The hardware that currently held it in place would not last long. It was time for him to leave.
Jacob scrambled across the floor, the near-death experience sending adrenaline corsing through his veins as he slipped on the papers and trash. He finally reached the front door and threw it open. Waiting to greet him was a pair of the bone wolves, barreling up the stairs. Jacob slammed the door shut as the beasts collided with the door. Jacob reatched over his sholder to lock the door, only to be greated with hot breath washing over his fingers. Where the lock had once been was now nothing but a hole, the collsion knocking it clean out. Jacob smacked his head against the wall, cursing repeatedly as splinters started to come of the doorframe. Jacob paled for a moment as the door opened a crack, causing him to kick futilely at the floor as he tried to close it again, sending papers across the room. It was then that he noticed the pattern on the floor again. Now that he could see more of it, he realized what it was. Thinking fast, Jacob hooked the nearest chair with his ankle, dragging it closer until he could wedge it under the door knob. Taking a deep breath, Jacob readied himself.
“One….two….three!” Jacob dove away from the door, futilely taking cover. After a moment to realize that the chair was holding, Jacob began to franticly clear off the floor until he could see the entire pattern.
A summoning circle.
Just like the one from the file, a summoning circle for bringing forth a servant, a hero from the past. And right now, Jacob could use a hero. Another crash, this time from the inside door. Jacob found his hand wrapping itself around a rusted sword handle. If Jacob had taken a moment to look at the tag, he might have noticed that it was on loan to a nearby university from the Archives Nationales in Paris. Jacob took a deep breath, Jacob focused himself. In his mind, he could imagine a pair of gears, locked together. With a thunderous crash, the gears shifted and his Magic Circuit activated. As the hounds pounded at the doors, he channeled his energy into the circle.
“Ye first, O silver, O iron” His blood felt like it was boiling, but he continued.
“O stone of the foundation, O Archduke of the Contract” He could see the inside doorframe beginning to give.
“Hear me in the name of our great teacher, the Archmagus Schweinorg
Let the descending winds be as a wall
let the gates in all directions be shut, rising above the crown, and let the three-forked roads to the Kingdom revolve.”
Lights flickered out as the room began to shake, the only light coming from the faint glow of the seal.
“Shut. Shut. Shut. Shut. Shut.
Five perfections for each repetition.
And now, let the filled sigils be annihilated in my stead!
Set.”
The Seal’s light grew even brighter as stabbing pain shot through his body. Jacob had never done anything close to this scale, and the pain was excruciating.
“Let thy body rest under my dominion; let my fate rest in thy blade.
If thou submittest to the call of the Holy Grail and if thou wilt obey this mind, this reason, then thou shalt respond.
I make my oath here.
I am that person who is to become the virtue of all Heavens!
I am that person who is covered with the evil of all Hades!”
The spell reached its apex, a typhoon pouring out as it started to prepare to connect to the throne of heroes.
“Thou seven heavens, clad in a trinity of words,
come past thy restraining rings, and be thou the hands that protect the balance-!”
A blinding flash of light filled the room as a massive gust blew out all the windows and sent Jacob flying. As the glow faded, the doors finally gave in and the beasts poured in.
