C.O.A.S.T., occult secret agents against the supernatural, main thread

Vehicle Bay

At this point Kat wasn't a stranger to being transported in trucks with people she barely knew. College students could get into some wild parties to blow off steam and she often found herself unable to turn down an invitation. Luckily, there would be a lot less alcohol involved.

"Fancy," she muttered. The low-profile practicality of their transport was understandable, if a bit disappointing. "I feel like I'm in college again."

She produced her eyedrops from her pocket and started administering the medicine in her eyes before getting on the truck.

The vehicle bay

"B-but talking to people who don't even know anything is just creating a leak where there wasn't any before! And it's not our job!" Chuck said, clearly perplexed by Spider's continued insistence. Then he noticed Kat's arrival, and checked his list again. "Well, that's everyone, and we have our orders, so let's go," he stated, and hopped into the driver's seat. Once he was sure everyone was buckled in, he got the clearance to roll out, and they headed on their way, out into the rain.

Approximately 38 minutes later, now 9:27AM local time, Seattle outskirts

As Chuck drove down the road relatively slowly, that same abandoned factory from the live stream was visible up ahead and on their right. He was holding a laser range finder in hand, checking the distance to the factory, then finally pulled over onto the shoulder. "Alright, as per Coast regulations I've gotta keep this thing a little distant in case that Bump has a wider roaming range than expected" Chuck said, noting that the factory was just over a hundred yards away now. With that, he headed over to the back of the truck, and started opening up the boxes that had been stored in the back.

"So, team, here's what I've got for you. First, small radios for everyone, waterproof of course." Chuck started by placing out a set of small radios that could be easily clipped on their clothes somewhere. Then next, he lined up five camcorders; three of them had a piece of tape on the top of them, not covering anything important, just seemingly to mark them as different. "We think it's possible that the Bump is invisible to the naked eye, so I got you these, also waterproof. Two are on normal settings as like a control group, but those three I went ahead and put on a high contrast setting; that's how our guys found it in the stream so hopefully that should let you see it." Next he laid out what were like jewelry boxes. "Various holy symbols that will maybe keep it at bay; since we don't have a clear identification I just covered the basics, so two each of Catholic crucifixes, Jewish Stars of David, and two Islamic Crescent and Stars. Oh, and two peace symbols with a generic warding enchantment." Then he opened a box with candles, markers, and incense sticks. "Then some incense sticks and other ritual supplies, in case-"

"I have my own ritual supplies," Tom interrupted, patting a large metal briefcase he'd taken from beneath his feet at the passenger seat.

"Right, well the incense sticks might still be handy," Chuck continued, a bit embarrassed. "Anyway, that's all the main stuff, but I made sure to bring some other things, just in case. We're not expecting any of it to matter since the Bump could just be incorporeal, but I figured to bring them anyway." As he explained, he set out small collection of weapons. One each of a metal baseball bat, woodcutting axe, and hunting knife, each with a silver coating. Then also a single Glock 9mm pistol, with one magazine of regular rounds and two magazines of special C.O.A.S.T. salt rounds. Lastly, a flare gun. Chuck looked at the arrangement for a moment, then after a realization, he grabbed the flare gun. "Oh, actually this one's for me, in case of trouble back here," Chuck muttered, and gave a nervous chuckle.

Martin got into the truck, helping Diego in. The Bump-disguised-as-a-dog curled up at Martin's feet and Martin stroked the dog gently as the truck went underway.

Martin nodded.

"Understood," he said, standing with Diego and walking up to take the radio. He clipped it to the outside of his jacket, then took a camcorder, holding it gingerly.

Finally, he examined the boxes of holy symbols. He had been briefed on the power of holy symbols during his training.

"And if none of these work on this Bump? We just ask it nicely to turn?" Martin joked, partially as a way to dispel the tension. He was still uncomfortable about ghosts. He took the silver-tipped knife and put it in his jacket. Diego stopped to sniff the incense sticks, then recoiled at the smell before sitting at Martin's side and looking up at his master.

Supplies all gathered, Martin put a hand on his hip.

"Let's hope you don't have to use it. We ready?" he asked.

Edited by AllHailThrall on Oct 17th 2021 at 8:00:43 AM

Seattle outskirts

Zoya takes her share of the supplies, including the holy symbols! She does take the ritual supplies but mentally notes that these don't work on onryo (That is what spider is) if her memory is correct. She clips the radio onto her shirt and takes a camcorder. Spider looks at the supplies and is focusing on the woodcutting axe and the baseball bat. Then she picks up the baseball bat since that is more practical overall. Being that she's not weak to silver this is not an issue for Spider. Though Spider DOES stay away from the holy symbols.

"I still think that the bump is incorporeal. If anything, I should be able to see it just find unlike you mortals. Though the theory on it being visible on camera IS a good one all things considered."

"Also I am wearing a holy symbol already. It's blessed already."

The necklace with a case attached and covering it? Zoya removes the case that covers the blessed silver cross. Said case is still attached to the necklace but with it exposed that should be an extra layer of protection. Spider gives the baseball bat to Zoya who carries it in her left hand.

"Did you remember the salt rounds for your guns Zoya?"

She has a bump with her at all times, this tends to attract other bumps. So she needs the unusual rounds to deal with the hostile ones that come to find Spider.

"I would have brought the blessed rounds but those are hard to get! I have the salt and silver ones. Silver is easier to get. For both guns."

"I might need a gun later to shoot that bump. Though the dog does need to find where the dead body is. Probably a human corpse. That and I know what that smells like."

Edited by sci300768 on Oct 17th 2021 at 4:16:09 AM

Gene looks at all the symbols, before he decides to grab the axe. He really wasn't planning to take the gun as he wasn't all that good of a shot. He clips the radio to his shirt.

"We really need to keep our eyes open for these things. Last thing we need is having our back turned and then getting grabbed by them," he says, now feeling a little paranoid, thinking he might end up having a vision of one of them coming after them.

"Ready when you are, boss."

Seattle Outskirts

After a slow ride, the delta team finally reached their destination. Chuck had prepared a lot of things for them already, from cameras to check the Bump's location to ingredients for rituals and religious symbols. Now everything was on their hands.

"I'll take a normal camera, I can probably see it fine." Kat said. She suddenly took a strange pride in her abilities probably because Spider had wasted no time pointing out humans' shortcomings. "Mortals have a lot of tricks up their sleeve."

Chuck had also prepared weapons for everyone which wasn't really unusual even if Kat still found them notable. But everyone else had already picked something to defend themselves with and being a burden somehow felt worse than being caught without defenses against a violent aparition.

"Well, when in Rome..." she picked the baseball bat and swung it around to felt its weight. Definitely harder and heavier than any she had used back in highschool.

Seattle outskirts

As the others talked, Tom silently took one of the radios and clipped it to the inside of his suit, then took one of the high contrast camcorders. Apparently ready, Tom unfolded his umbrella- it was raining after all- and started walking towards the abandoned factory, and didn't seem inclined to be sharing his umbrella on the way either.

Chuck looked at Gene and blinked a few times. "Who's 'boss'... Me?" Chuck asked, pointing to himself. "I'm not your boss, I'm your logistics agent. Plus I'm not going in there; I can't fight Bumps," Chuck explained, and gave a nervous chuckle. "But I'll be on the radio, running some intelligence for you guys! So let me know if there's anything you want me to look up!" he added more enthusiastically, and motioned to the laptop. When Kat went for the baseball bat but Zoya got it first, Chuck rubbed the back of his head. "Uh, sorry, I only had one of each packed; but they were just in case anyway, since we're not expecting a physical fight, I think," he mentioned to Kat.

"Anyway, as soon as you're all ready, you should get... Where'd agent Pensow go?" Chuck looked around, having missed Tom leaving the truck.

"Soon as you're all ready, chaps!" Tom called back with some of that typical British sarcastic enthusiasm, while still walking towards the building.

Once they did start moving towards the building, as they approached there were things they were becoming aware of.

First was Kat, starting to see those glowing symbols around the building, at first nearly invisible, but fading into view and becoming more clear as she got closer. The arcane meaning behind the symbols, they didn't tell her anything about the Bump possibly inside, but it did tell her something important. Something had happened at this building, that wasn't just any supernatural effect, but something specific. Magic, with a capital M; someone or something, maybe the Bump itself, had cast a ritual upon at least part of the building. Unfortunately, she couldn't tell from out here what the ritual was for, or what it did.

Gene was having a vision like premonition, though it felt almost like a dream. He saw himself walking in that same upper floor hallway that the teenage boys had been walking in earlier. He couldn't see the Bump, but he knew that it was right in front of him, and he could hear a heavy, thumping heartbeat. Gene also knew that the Bump was reaching its hands into his chest, trying to grab at his heart, yet, it could not touch him. It was then he realized that the heartbeat was not his own, but was instead coming from beneath him, from a lower floor of the building...

Diego's sensitive nose was picking up a stench even from outside, the stench of the flesh of something that should by the laws of nature be dead, and yet moves regardless. It was not the body of a human, or of any regular animal.

With her affinity to eat raw meat, Spider was picking the smell up a bit too. What she could tell was that whatever it was was so necrotic and rotted to be unfit for even her own consumption. She could also tell that it wasn't a human body, or any animal that she was familiar with. It would oddly enough remind her of the graveyard where she met Zoya all those years ago.

Tom stopped, still a little away from the factory, put his briefcase down, and then checked around with the camcorder. "I'm not seeing anything out of the ordinary from here," Tom remarked, even briefly looking around outside of the factory and behind them.

. . . Spider sniffs the air and then covers her nose for a second since the smell of that flesh is to foul even for herself. Whatever it is, that is not edible even by HER standards! And she lived in a graveyard for a long time... heck it smells like one to her. Whatever it it, that is NOT human or any animal that exists! She knows what that smells and tastes like.

"I smell flesh, and it's not human. It's too foul to eat for me. So I'm going to bet that is the bump in question. Something that physically exists. An undead is possible and likely. And it reminds me of a graveyard, so something undead is what I'm assuming. The exact location I don't know, but presumably still inside the building."

"Some quick scouting?

"I am going to need a gun for this. Because if it exists physically it can be shot, so you keep the bat. Keep it ready."

Spider shrugs, and then takes one of Zoya's pistols and the clips for it. Salt, normal, and Silver ones. She places the clips and gun in discreet pockets that are in the cloak she wears and then thinks about where something would hide. And then she takes off, going into the building first. Then she checks any dark corners and isolated areas... that includes the lower floors. She just goes though the walls at rather fast speeds. And ready to get the gun (Which is loaded!) out if needed.

Zoya then keeps the bat in her right hand ready and alert. And stays closer to Diego and his herold since her own bump is not here with her.

Edited by sci300768 on Oct 18th 2021 at 9:34:43 AM

As Martin and Diego moved to approach the building, Diego perked up, sniffing the air. He narrowed his eyes, his back arching as he let out a low growl. Then he barked a few times.

"What is it, Diego? You smell something?" Martin asked. Diego responded with another growl and a bark, pointing directly at the scent. It moved lower to the ground, walking to try and follow the scent.

"I think Diego's caught a scent!" Martin exclaimed, holding onto the leash that he held the chupacabras by. "Something off." He turned towards Zoya, who sent off her own Bump to scout ahead.

"Ah, I see," he muttered. He brandished his knife, holding it close with one hand while the other hand gripped Diego's leash tightly. "Stay alert, everyone..."

Gene stood there, not moving as he envisioned the Bump coming for him, listening for the heartbeat. He saw it trying to go for his chest, but nothing coming out of it. He kept on listening to the heartbeat, before realizing it was coming from a lower floor.

He shook off his still stupor before addressing the others.

"Guys... I think there's something below us, in one of the lower floors. I heard it.... or something. I think we should investigate below."

"Can Diego find Spider? Probably not. Unless he can track the scent of the gun? I really wish I gave Spider a radio now. She's scouting the entire building. And I know her well enough that she would check any dark places... including the lower floors. That and if we hear gunshots it's her."

Spider did in fact, proceed to check the lower floors. With the gun in her left hand ready and loaded, she searches the room and tracks where the foul odor gets stronger.

"I really should have grabbed a radio from the truck."

Seattle Outskirts

Kat started recording everything she saw, which was mostly a boring old building. Of course, if it were any notable from the outside, they wouldn't be out here dicking around in the rain. The strangeness of the place soon became more evident however, as part of the building was under the effect of a ritual Kat's eyes couldn't quite identify.

Everyone had picked up on something being out of place in the building for that matter. Zoya had sent her herald to explore the building under Gene's suggestion that something underground was of importance.

"Wait, maybe we are getting ahead of ourselves" she said "This part looks different. It's like someone cast a ritual of some kind. Something very strong, anyway"

Inside the factory

Going inside, Spider quickly ran into a peculiar problem: She couldn't go downstairs. When she tried to use her ghostly ability to go through solid objects through the floor, she just couldn't; the rest of the building was not providing this same resistance, and it seemed she could go wherever else she pleased in it, but not the basement. Even going over to the staircase, which was just open so there wasn't even a physical barrier, she still could not go down there no matter how hard she tried. Some kind of force was keeping her at bay, and she couldn't overpower it. At the staircase was also where the smell was the strongest, definitely coming from down in the basement.

Factory front entrance

Tom rolled his eyes when Spider went ahead on her own, but then something Zoya said got him to wheel around and look at her with an incredulous and very frustrated expression. "'If we hear gunshots'? Does she not know that we're not here looking for a fight?!" After berating Zoya, Tom let out a frustrated sigh. "Bloody hell, even the dead Americans are like trigger happy cowboys, unbelievable." Tom moved just inside the front entrance, setting his briefcase down and activating the camcorder's built in flashlight (That they thankfully had despite previous lack of mention.) to take a look around the wide open first floor.

Since nobody else seemed inclined to, Tom tapped his radio to call back to Agent Ruskin. "Agent Ruskin be advised; the Heralds' Bumps are apparently smelling a physical, undead body," Tom relayed. Their radios crackled with a quick reply.

"Hmm, then either this Bump we're after is less incorporeal than we thought, or... Maybe there's more than one here."

That was about when Kat brought up the fact that there was something else going on with the building, which got Tom's quick attention. "What? 'Like' someone cast a ritual, or is it actually a ritual?" Tom asked in a very serious tone. "We shouldn't go further in until we know more about this," he suggested to the others, and added to Zoya in particular, "if you've got some way to get your ghost back here, I suggest you do it now."

Now that they were closer, Kat could tell it was definitely a ritual, not just like a ritual. The symbols still weren't telling her what it did exactly, but she could tell where it was: The basement. The rest of the building was normal, at least as far as abandoned factories went.

Cue Spider SPEEDING back to join Zoya and the humans. First she flies past them and grabs a radio from the truck. They just see a gray blur pass by and stop in front of them, who now has a radio clipped to her cloak collar.

"The basement is warded somehow! I can't enter it no matter what. Can't go though the walls of it, and the smell is strongest from the basement as well! The bump is there and something is keeping it in or us out. Maybe both. I saw nothing else worth mentioning otherwise. The basement is where we need to go. It's more like a force that I can't overpower and I just CAN'T enter the basement. There are no physical barriers that I saw. The entrance is just some stairs. Some other powerful bump or bumps may be behind the force."

She said this REALLY fast forgetting that humans don't understand sped up speech... she knew for sure that a bump is there and Zoya caught on.

"Slow down and say that one again. I heard every 5th word of that. Spider saw something for sure."

After spider repeats what she said at NORMAL human speeds, she waits.

". . . So what's the next move? We know where to go now."

"I wish we took the blessed rounds with us now."

"Agreed."

Edited by sci300768 on Oct 19th 2021 at 11:37:39 AM

Tom contacted Agent Ruskin and suggested the group stay back until they knew more. Martin held the leash tight and whistled.

"Diego! Ven aquí!" he commanded, and Diego, still growling and staying lower to the ground, backed up towards Martin, staying by his feet, still on edge.

"Roger," Martin responded into his own radio, now that Diego was mostly under control. "Awaiting further orders."

Secretly, he was somewhat relieved that they were holding back, but Diego was chomping at the bit to go forth.

Factory front entrance

"Alright, I've contacted command. They're sending over some more help; apparently one of Delta Team's late transfers just showed up, and they happen to be well equipped for fighting any physical Bumps. Command suggests not going any further into unknown territory until our backup arrives. ETA about fifteen minutes."

Tom sighed. "Let me guess, a Null?" Tom asked, a bit exasperated.

"Actually they're technically a Herald apparently, though not a usual one."

"An 'unusual' Herald? They're all unusual; it's like saying there's a shade of blue that isn't blue," Tom said, then glanced over at Martin and gave a somewhat half hearted sounding, "no offense."

As they then waited, Tom asked Kat to document what she could tell in the meantime from where they were. He then went about setting up a ritual circle of some basic protection.

Some fifteen-ish minutes later

With the rain still pouring outside, the sound of an approaching, small helicopter wasn't as noticeable until it was relatively close. Under the guise of a helicopter used by a flight school for trainee pilots, the little thing touched down in the empty lot not far from the U-Haul truck. It deposited a single person, then quickly took back off and went back towards their HQ.

Without getting closer, there was only so much more Kat learned in the meantime, but she figured out the ritual affecting the basement was some kind of warding ritual, to keep some form of spirits from entering the basement. If that included the Bump from the live stream that they were sent to find, then it couldn't even be down there...

Cordon brushed back his hair, then double checked to see he had all the standard gear they'd assigned him. Lastly, he checked either leather sheath, making sure they were well attached.

He was cold, and getting damp in the rain.

He talked into his radio as he briskly moved towards the building, drawing his left knife with his free hand. "This is Cordon, reporting in. HQ said, in essence, you want me to stab a Beast— sorry, Bump— 'till it stops moving. Until such time as things need stabbing, me and my Blades are here to watch everyone's backs."

He put away his radio, pulled out a flash light, and made his way into the factory, feeling that familiar mixture of trepidation and slightly feral excitement, mixed with a new feeling: the knowledge that he had other folks watching out for him in the field.

He was the Huntsman. And he was on a Hunt.

Factory

"Uh, agent Cordon, you said? This is logistics agent Ruskin; at this time we are still determining the exact nature of the situation at hand. Current operational parameters are to to not engage in combat unless we're met with aggression."

After Ruskin's voice responded over the radio, Tom tapped his own radio again. "We're right inside the factory's front entrance. Please group up with us here," Tom said, then tapped it off again.

Spider is er... somewhere in the factory... still looking around. And has no radio. One can infer what Zoya is thinking.

"We need to go in, I can't find spider and she has no radio."

Cue Zoya going to the truck and grabbing an extra radio, then rejoining the group.

"But she is probably... looking around. So we should head in, and see what she learned. Fast. Because she might attack the bump or bumps in question later on her own at this rate."

She sighs and shakes her head.

ON SPIDER'S END...

She gave up on trying to enter the basement and curses herself for forgetting to bring a radio, nonetheless she keeps checking the rest of the factory for any signs of other bumps/rituals/not normal things.

"I forgot a radio."

She then curses herself for that.

Factory front entrance

After informing the team of the ritual's location and what it could mean, Kat spent the tying to figure out just what she was seeing. She had spent quite a while perfecting her control of her abilities under C.O.A.S.T.'s tutelage but most of that time was spent teaching her not to freak out over her shattered sense of reality—there was a reason the last couple of years felt like a blur to her. All in all, she was still a novice.

But with reinforcements incoming and Thomas helping set a ward, it was a good time as any to continue that training. Maybe it was the soothing sound of the rain or just her natural curiosity tackling an interesting challenge but soon everything around Kat disappeared from her mind. It was just her and the glyphs and symbols the basement so happily threw in her direction, like small puzzle pieces she could not stop counting.

And soon the answer finally hit her. Well, most of it anyway.

"There's something really strange going on here. The basement is under a warding ritual to keep ghosts out. I'm not sure the Bump we are looking for counts as one, but why would it even set up a ward like that if it didn't?" she entertained the notion that maybe the Bump thought they were the real monsters. Like if this was some kind of a Twilight Zone episode she distinctly remembered watching between cramming months of work into a single night. But there was most likely no moral lesson attached to this. "I don't suppose there are any rogue agents we should be worrying about, right?" She wondered aloud.

With so much time focused on the task at hand, Kat nearly missed the new member of Delta Team. He was intimidating to say the least

"...hi"

Cordon strapped his flashlight to his side for a moment and waved hello, smiling while glancing around, giving off a vibe of constant vigilant jittery energy. "Hi, Agent Munroe. I'm Lenny Cordon, the Herald of the Hunt, Slayer of Vile Beasts,and all that sort of pompous stuff." He held up the knife he had drawn to the air, showing it's wooden, rune-covered nature. "I'm, in layman's terms, which I prefer, a man with two real magical knives who likes to help people and hurt monsters."

He scratched his chin, eyes darting to a shadow, darting back to Munroe, then darting away as he spoke. " You seem like a good sort, even despite you having this world-weary, cursed-with-knowledge energy. I'm lucky. I don't think too deeply about the world if I can avoid it."

He turned and spoke to the room. " Hey everybody. I'm Agent Cordon, from down South. I love painting and slaying monsters. It's nice to meet all of you. How are we taking down this thing?"

Edited by Greydoom on Oct 27th 2021 at 1:29:47 AM

Factory front entrance

Tom focused his attention on Kat, looking rather unsettled at part of what she said. "You mean to say, you think a human performed the ritual here? If it was anything of Broom's doing it should've been in the report..." Tom trailed off to think, though turned his attention, once again in exasperation, to Zoya. "And we still have the problem of trigger happy fools who don't know how to approach things without just starting a fight," the Ritualist noted, seemingly just thinking out loud at this point, and adding sarcastically after Cordon's last comment, "and we just got another one. Brilliant."

Tom took a moment to quickly switch out the water canister in his power washer like device with a different canister. "Now, at least we have some good news; the ritual only affects ghosts, so it's safe for us all to enter. I will go to the basement to see what I can determine about this ritual and its creation; I would request one of the Mediums come with me. To the rest of you, I would suggest you scour the rest of this building and find our Herald's missing Bump," Tom told the rest of the group, and headed off across the open floor towards the distant staircase. "Assuming it hasn't buggered off," the MI6 operative muttered to himself.

Upstairs

Since there wasn't much to the first floor being mostly open space, and finding nothing there yet, the next obvious course of action for Spider would be to look upstairs. Up there, there was actually more walls and distinct rooms, so she'd have to check one by one. Halfway down the main upstairs hall, she saw a large spirit looming in a doorway in a hunched posture. It was clearly similar enough to herself for her to see it clear as day, but it was no human ghost; it had a cow's skull for a head, and its body was wreathed in a sort of cloak that at a distance kind of looked like crow feathers, but was actually dried, black leaves. With the cloaked form hiding its body, the only distinguishable limbs it had were two very long arms, which reached to the floor and almost seemed to meld with the floor, the way the cloak of leaves spread out on it from its arms.

... And it just stood there, staring at Spider. Then it spoke in a hollow, non sound of a voice, not moving its jaws to speak but rather just leaning its head forward a little as its only movement. "Dead spirit seeking vengeance," it said, apparently addressing Spider as such. "What brings you here?"

Any of the humans who went upstairs wouldn't see or hear it, though if Kat went she would see symbols around it, and if Diego went he would be able to approximately sense where it was.

Edited by FirockFinion on Oct 29th 2021 at 9:02:25 AM

Zoya just sighed.

"If anything, she won't be inside where she can't enter. And if she has run into a bump, I can only hope she does not think that attacking it is a good idea. I'm yet to hear gunshots, so that's a good sign."

She sounds resigned, as if it's not the first time she has lost track of Spider. Then she enters the factory, armed and ready.

"Lets hurry up and get Spider before she resorts to violence."

ON SPIDER'S END...

After looking around on the first floor, she erm... just flew up to the second floor like a darn ghost. She sweeps each room as she goes into the main upstairs hall and then sees the large spirit looming in a doorway. Since she can see it therefore it must be of a similar type to herself. But... not a human. And she knows what human ghosts look like! Maybe a vengeful spirit? Hard to say. But the humans will be unable to see it. This will be told to Zoya and co AFTER she can find them. Hopefully Zoya brought an extra radio with her.

Judging by its hunched position, it must be very tall in general. Covered in dried black leaves and the cloak hides most of its features. She also uses her cloak to hide her own inhumane features. Though the pistol is still in her left hand, she uses her cloak to hide her limbs and body shape to let herself pass as a humanoid. Her own cloak is ankle length and has a lot more fabric than a normal cloak to account for her spider limbs. This is ideal so she can prep weapons under it while hiding all 12 of her limbs. Still floating though.

... Ok that's a cow's skull and it has two very long arms that reach the floor. And it has seen her. And it SPOKE. Well that's... a mixed bag. Barely moves. She continues acting like she has no herald and a vengeful spirit to blend in. Maybe it is a nature based one? Spirits are diverse! And it knows that she is seeking vengeance... oh boy. Is it the same type as she is? Maybe? But reveal as little as possible in terms of human allies. Zoya is definitely looking for her now! And the rest of the humans.

... and then internally groans when she has to come up with the right words to talk to it. After some thinking, she decides to hide the working for her enemy part and the whole working with a human part too. Just act like a natural spirit...

She looks at the other spirit with a neutral expression, one that lacks any human emotions.

"I came here to look for leads on how to get my vengeance. This place is abandoned and thus, the majority of mortals would not notice me here. Then why are you here? Since you have asked me a question, it is fair for me to ask you one as well. I was ensuring that there were no mortals hiding in this location before doing a further investigation. Being spotted by a mortal would not be ideal."

Said in a tone that would pass for a spirit. She is ready to attack IF needed, but it has not attacked yet so... she's going to take advantage of this. And hide her alliance with humans! And a half truth sprinkled in for good measure.

At once, Martin found himself slightly disturbed by the newcomer. Diego didn't seem to trust him, as he arched his back and growled slightly in Cordon's general direction.

"No, Diego," Martin commanded, and Diego stopped growling but did not take his eyes off of Cordon. Martin sighed, then looked back at Tom, nodding as the wizard went to examine the ritual. With Tom doing his duty, Martin looked at Zoya.

"Do you happen to have something of Spider's? Perhaps Diego can track her scent," Martin told her.

She gets a knife out from her belt, still sheathed and presents it to Diego.

"This is the knife Spider uses. It it frequently used. You don't want to know why she prefers to stab her prey to death."

The knife in fact has Spider's scent on it and she lets Diego sniff it, then she puts it back on her belt.

Edited by sci300768 on Oct 29th 2021 at 9:32:57 AM