#Lore24 – Entry #190 – Supers Month II #9 – A Right Mess of Things
From the journal of Abigail “Sassy” Dawson, Mage of the Order of Hecate
Course, wouldn’t be long before Assane and Richard done decided to make things even worse for us. We’d been on the trail of that demon for a couple more days when Richard up and stopped right there in the middle of the prairie round noon and declared he had the solution to the problem. Assane and me were skeptical, and we didn’t hide that when we glanced at one another. But then he told us his bright idea and I was floored, came just a hair fallin’ out of my saddle right there.
“To catch this demon, we’ll need to summon one of our own!” he told us, and he was somehow sure we’d agree with him, judgin’ by that smile on his face. I was the first to disagree, recovering myself enough to call him right crazy amongst a few other choice words. Assane was a little less heated on the subject, as was her way, but it weren’t long before the pair were snarlin’ and snappin’ at one another again. I rode on ahead just to get the two out of earshot for a while, and stayed that way the rest of the day, ever on the watch for signs of our target. Never got sign that it was near, but had that feelin’ like it was still a watchin’ us, and we hadn’t spotted no carrion birds flyin’ around, so we hadn’t needed no other signs to guide us along, apparently. We were generally headed northwest, and there were some rocky hills comin’ from what I could see.
Anyway, I stopped as the sun started goin’ down and waited on the two, and it weren’t long before I heard’em still arguin’ back and forth, but it weren’t about no demon this time, just which one they was gonna summon. I couldn’t believe that Assane had been won over on the idea, but she just plainly told me he’d made a lot of good points. Knowin’ this could only end bad, I likewise knew I couldn’t talk the two out of it after just a few minutes. They fought all the time, but when they were in agreement, weren’t no force on this planet that could get them to change that.
And so it was that I learnt the intricacies of summonin’ up a demon that night under the new moon, and no, I ain’t gonna detail it here. That knowledge is forbidden for a reason, and this was just one of those times that called for extreme measures, I guess. They assured me this demon was friendly with them, though, and that they’d dealt with it many times over the centuries. Assane even called him a “lovable little scamp.”
Well, I’d call it a little more on the goofy-lookin’ side personally. This particular demon weren’t one of the big ones like I’d been thinkin’ they meant to call, this one was called Arrnor, and his head was bigger than his whole body, comedically large, to the point I just couldn’t make head nor tails of how he was possibly movin’ around on his own two legs. Assane’d told me it was just because he had such a high opinion of himself and it had literally gone to his head, but I’m still not sure if she was jokin’ or not.
When they started with the negotiations, I didn’t miss the fact that the two had started to strip down, and then when the demon’s eyes fell on me, I somehow was expected to do the same. I put my foot down, right hard, and said I wouldn’t be party to none of their debauchery, but since I’d been there when they started up the ritual, I didn’t have no choice, lest I get us all dragged into the demon’s realm for a century of torment at his hands. Needless to say, I weren’t happy, and told’em they should’ve stated the details clearly, only to be told they thought I knew already, and just shrugged it off like it were nothin’.
I still regret that I learned of all this knowledge first hand, for Arrnor is a right indecent demon, even amongst his kind, I reckon. See, whereas most demons will just kill and torment and drive people mad and such, Arrnor just likes to play, and knows all the most wretched of ways that get humans all worked up in ways that nobody ought know. I ain’t proud to admit that the ritual was one of the most intensely pleasurable experiences in my life, nor am I proud that I was gifted with knowledge of his signature spell, one of the forbidden ones cause it taps into his essence to use…nor am I proud that all of us got to experience it for ourselves that night.
But, once we had come back to our senses, all tangled up in each other’s arms there on the prairie, we had the information we had been huntin’ for, and knew what it was we faced. Maybe it was worth the price, and maybe it was worth the stain on my soul in the name of the greater good, but I’m still strugglin’ to work that one out. Regardless, we set off, bound for the Black Hills, to face that monster and get the job done.