#Lore24 – Entry #191 – Supers Month II #10 – Mines and Monsters
From the journal of Abigail “Sassy” Dawson, Mage of the Order of Hecate
A couple days later we’d ridden into the Black Hills area, and before long, we’d found where this thing had wanted us. Weren’t hard to find, I suppose, considering there was a whole mining town that this thing had consumed for itself, leavin’ the bodies of the miners and townsfolk behind as mindless, walking corpses with a right fierce hunger for fresh meat. It was grim work, but it had to be done, lest these diseased things spread their condition around the whole area. Figure it was this demon’s plan to help tire us out before the real fight, cause while the zombies weren’t much of a threat to myself or my two ever-bickering companions, it did take us the better part of the day to clear’em out, even with Assane and Richard’s considerable magic.
We could sense the presence of the demon all over the place, and we knew exactly where it was hidin’, deep in the mines. I never was one for the underground, and after this, I surely wouldn’t feel no better about goin’ into tight and dark places like’em. Still, there was work to be done, and I weren’t goin’ to let a little thing like that stop me from dealin’ with that evil bastard. We knew goin’ into the place it was gonna be dangerous, traps abound from the dynamite and sabotaged bracings and the like, no doubt. My companions didn’t have so much to worry about if they mistepped down there, but I was under no such protections, and, as much of a handful as they are, it was rather touchin’ that they were bein’ extra careful on my account.
Weren’t just traps in there, though; the demon had some more undead roamin’ the place, and as we got further down, some lesser demons it had called up, bunch of little imps and flyin’ things that were more or less balls of teeth that spat acid everywhere. Was a good thing I knew some curin’ magic, cause I would’ve been right deaf before it was all said and done. My magic reserves weren’t nothin’ like Assane’s and Richard’s, so I had to be careful with what I used up. Not that I had a ton of powder on me at the time, so I had to be careful regardless, though my magically enhanced toothpick did its own fair share of the work down there.
So, it was slow goin’, and well into the night when we finally navigated our way through the maze of tunnels and drops into the deepest recesses where this thing had took up. We knew we was close when we heard the chantin’ and saw the red glow in the dark of the tunnels ahead. I hadn’t counted on there bein’ a cult of humans ‘round the demon, but of course, I weren’t as learned on them as I was followin’ this whole thing. I could see the magic swirlin’ about and knew we was in for a rough time of it. Still, we marched right in there, knowin’ what needed to be done and with some idea how to do it. I was the weak link, bein’ the most inexperienced and the only one who could die permanently, but the pair, for all the trouble they had put me through, had taught me several tricks I’d never had thought up on my own.
Turns out, this demon, and its cult of worshippers, were after Richard. I honestly weren’t surprised by this revelation, nor was Assane. Turns out he’d been at the center of a nasty fire some years back that nearly wiped out some city over in England, and some of the wealthiest survivors were none too pleased that they’d been put out like they had. So, they’d been nursin’ the grudge for a good thirty or more years, just tryin’ to track Richard down so they could kill’em off and had learned the dark arts to make sure that happened. Assane was of a mind to leave them to it just to get it out of their system, but I ain’t for sure if she was just doin’ that to throw them off their guard or what.
Needless to say, things got real messy, but it was the first time I’d seen Richard and Assane unleash their full elemental genie natures, turnin’ into bein’s of pure fire and ice. These Limey cultists weren’t unskilled at what it was they were doin’, and the magic they’d warded the place with was provin’ difficult to deal with, but in the end, we managed to see it through. In the heat of the moment, I didn’t think about it too much, cause my life was on the line, and who knew how many others if we didn’t kill this demon off, and in a moment of desperation, with my bullets expended and my magical reserves nearly exhausted, I called on that damn spell I’d learnt from Arrnor. Don’t think that demon expected me to call out to another demon, and it certainly weren’t expectin’ what that spell did to it, but it did the trick, and let us do what was needed to banish that sucker back to its own little corner of the pits it had came from. Think that spell might’ve broken the resolve of the cultists too, cause it weren’t much trouble to finish the clean up after that.
Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do, even if it ain’t always the smartest or best thing. In the end, that demon got cast out of our world for a good long while, the cult that called it up got wiped out, and we made it back out without the whole place fallin’ in on us. All in all, I’d call it a definite positive on the scale of things. That event would lead me to the next big change in my life, which I’ll be getting’ to right shortly.