I2DT: Oh, he's a wanderer

[Sean Hall]

Sean had decided to take a trip to Maldon having not really taken the time to explore the city before going to help seal the rift and whatnot. Now he found himself wandering the main drag in town trying to find a place to have some coffee.

[Narrator]

Maldon is a quaint little tourist town. High Street is filled with small shops and the occasional pub. It's too late in the year for there to be too many people around and the few people out and about are locals. The faint smell of the sea hangs over the town as the wind carries the aroma of salt. Down the street and between the roofs of the houses the ocean can be seen and it's grey waves that roll against the shores. The shrill scream of a seagull pierces the air as Sean reaches a street corner and a garden encircled by a short wall. Behind it a small church is nestled onto the corner of rows of houses.

[Sean Hall]

Sean stops to look up at the seagull then over at the church seeming to just then notice he'd wandered into a residential area.

"I'll be the first person in school history to go out for coffee and get lost," Sean muttered to himself.

[Narrator]

The church looks kind of imposing. Almost a little more like a medieval tower complete with high, narrow windows and parapets. It feels misplaced among the townhouses.

[Sean Hall]

Curiosity killed the cat...

Sean thought to himself as he looked at the church

...but satisfaction brought it back

"Might be a sign of insanity to be having a conversation with ourself," Sean muttered again as he began walking towards the door of the church.

[Narrator]

The door creaks slightly as he pushes it open. It's a heavy wooden door that takes some effort to move. The inside looks a little gloomy, most of the lights inside are off so most of the light is coming from the narrow windows. It's a fairly normal if small church. Maybe 7 or 8 rows of pews fill the sides of the room and a fairly plain altar sits on a slightly elevated area at the other end of the room. The ceiling is high, significantly higher than the building is wide which gives it a slight claustrophobic feeling. It smells like stone and the faint memories of frankincense.

[Sean Hall]

Sean walked towards the altar at the front of the room a bit lost in thought. The seemingly innocuous interior leaving him fairly comfortable having almost expected demons to come crawling out of the walls or the building to be full of corpses. Pleasantly surprised he couldn't help but run a hand along one of the pews as he looked around wondering if people still came to the church for Sunday service or if it was just maintained as historic building.

[Narrator]

There seem to be books of hymns and such lieing in the pews, so it's probably still in use. In the back a small group of candles is flickering that have been lit by people. Not a single demon hiding anywhere, which kind of makes sense. It's a church after all.

[Sean Hall]

Probably shouldn't skulk about like some kind of fiend...

"Hello?" Sean asked seeing the lit candles and assuming somebody is probably around someplace.

[Narrator]

Sean's voice echos slightly in the big room, but nobody else answers.

[Sean Hall]

"Odd," Sean said as he looks around hoping to find a small office or something attached to the main room.

[Narrator]

Once again he comes up empty aside from a very cramped staircase that leads up to a small wooden balcony with an organ and two more rows of pews.

[Sean Hall]

"Very odd," Sean said before doing what any mage would do in his situation he decided to see if something magical was going on by opening himself to the flow of magic around him.

[Narrator]

The church doesn't feel like there's anything particularly magical happening. It's just a church. Maybe the fact that he can't feel anything mystical about this place says something about Christianity, but there's the nagging feeling that just maybe it's something that's refusing to reveal itself to him...

[Sean Hall]

Sean tends to operate on gut feelings when it comes to feelings and pushes. The words of spell tumble out as he tries to draw out something hidden by essentially reinforcing reality by pushing magic out of the church.

[Narrator]

Nothing. At least not within the church. Sean feels something else tilt and slide, reinforcing itself though and the light inside the church dims as less light comes in through the windows as if a cloud had moved before the sun.

[Sean Hall]

Sean looks towards the window and pushes again harder this time having experienced some amount of resistance the first time. He begins walking back towards the door.

[Narrator]

The light dims a little more but if it's because of Sean's pushing or because something is already slipping anyway is hard to tell. It's like blinking the sleep from your eyes or bolting upright from a dream. Looking to the windows Sean slowly walks into the door with his back, the heavy door swinging open behind him much too easily.

[Sean Hall]

Sean walked out the door registering how the door was easier to open this time around, but not sure what to do about it. Energy crackles from him now as he gathers power to himself.

"You're not getting away," Sean said, "Whatever it is that you are."

[Narrator]

As he moves back out of the church he sees why the light inside had dimmed. Grey clouds are hanging low in the sky, almost looking like they touch the rooftops. The street is deserted and in the gloomy light the town looks worn out. Like a place that has long since stopped seeing tourists. A seagull cried again from the east and all Sean can see between the buildings now is an endless expanse of dark muck stretching out from the beach all the way to the horizon. Here and there it looks like things are standing out like rotting carcasses of rusty boats, half-sunken into the mud.

[Sean Hall]

Sean looked out at the expanse of dark muck wondering how he hadn't noticed it before. He tried to find the source of magic he'd felt before. The tattoos on his skin glowed dully beneath his clothes as he drew more power to himself, which was perhaps not the subtlest thing he'd ever done.

"Something very strange is going on here," Sean muttered after finishing the spell to try and locate whatever it was that was mucking about with things.

[Narrator]

There's something but it feels impossible to pin down a solid direction. It's like it's constantly darting around as he turns his attention to and fro like a spinning compass needle.

[Sean Hall]

"Very well then if you wont come out willingly," Sean said before gathering magical energy. When it reached a sort of critical mass he released it as a wall of force in all directions. The tattoos could now be seen through his clothes.

[Narrator]

The burst throws up random clutter and trash around him, a newspaper flutters into the air and is torn apart and a rusted can is launched down the street where it clangs along for a bit before coming to a rest. Not much else happens but the street answering his outburst with silence for a while. After a couple moments there's the sound of a door slamming way down the road.

[Sean Hall]

Flame coiled around Sean's hand as he contemplated simply igniting the car whose door had slammed shut.

"Doubt that Melody would understand why I'd slagged some random car," Sean said the fire vanishing from around his arm.

Instead of using the fire spell he'd prepared Sean walks towards the noise slowly not really wanting whatever it was to get the drop on him. Though thus far it was seemingly more likely that would happen. As he walked he pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and folded it into a crane. It fluttered as he breathed life into and sent it flying ahead of him to act as something of a proximity alarm.

[Narrator]

As the piece of paper flutters away from him it seems to lose it's color and turning a faded yellow. It stays in the air but the paper looks worn and fragile, bits flaking off the further it gets away from Sean. Still, it stays in the air long enough to make something jump and slam against the inside of the window of a car. He can't make out many details beyond the sudden movement followed by slight shifting of the shadow inside the car.

[Sean Hall]

Sean watches the golem dissolve with more than a little concern. He walks towards the car and casts a single word spell that seals the doors to the car shut. He hoped it'd hold whatever was in the car, but it certainly wasn't something he'd tested against well... whatever it was he was pursuing.

A blade of energy formed in one hand as he continued closing on the car not wanting to be unarmed if the thing in the car broke free.

[Narrator]

As he gets closer he can make out the thing inside the car a little better. It's looks like a person, at least at a glance. Hands are slapping and clawing at the passenger side window in an aimless, almost feral struggle to get to the fluttering piece of paper that's dissolving outside the pane of glass. Once it does and Gid comes into view it's head snaps towards him but where it's face is supposed to be is just nothing. An empty surface of bare flesh that's framed by the thing's shoulder-length dirty hair.

[Sean Hall]

"Bloody hell," Sean said recoiling slightly before composing himself. "What are you?"

[Narrator]

The creature doesn't answer. Instead it (she?) just claws at the window and door, occasionally throwing herself against it to no avail.

[Sean Hall]

Sean dispelled the blade seeing that the creature was contained. Thinking back he remembered something and pulled another piece of paper from his pocket. He had an idea.

"Can you nod to answer my questions yes or no?" Sean asked.

[Narrator]

The thing bangs her head against the glass a bunch of times, then crawls into the backseat, limbs moving in a way that's not quite in the range of human motion before the thing flails at the window in the back.

[Sean Hall]

Sean wasn't sure what to do. He couldn't communicate with whatever it was.

"Peculiar," Sean said giving the paper life once more and having it fly a circle around car. Ancient words caused the tattoos on his skin to burn bright as he watched the creature within. He hoped to reinforce the golem to keep it from decaying like the previous one.

[Narrator]

The paper crane fares a little better but still begins to fade, it just takes longer. Meanwhile the creature seems to be no longer interested in it now that Sean is right there. She continues to throw herself against the door in the back until it begins to groan and shudder with each impact. One last push and the car door is thrown off it's hinges and the creatures tumbles out onto the street.

[Sean Hall]

Sean gave up on the crane in favor of something to defend himself and his arms crackled with electricity as he prepared for what he thought was the inevitable attack from the creature.

"Now this is not going as bloody well planned," Sean muttered.

[Narrator]

He's right to expect an attack as the creature scrambles around on all fours for a moment before throwing herself at Sean, attempting to grab on to him by wrapping her arms and legs around him.

[Sean Hall]

Sean wasn't really a trained fighter and was instead hoping that getting grabbed would just let him channel lightning into the creature more easily. He hoped to at least stun... Whatever it was.

"I really don't want to hurt you," Sean growled.

[Narrator]

He certainly has no problem electrocuting the creature. Unfortunately that also makes it wrap it's limbs around him even tighter, clamping down around him like steel wires as the rest of it's body twitches and convulses.

[Sean Hall]

Sean grunted as the creatures limbs tightened around his. Things were not going as planned and in. A moment of desperation another spell tumbled from his lips.

"Flames of Faltline," Sean said before black flames burst from his flesh. His tattoos began to look stained as if somebody had spilled black ink in them.

[Narrator]

The creature's skin blackens and cracks, flaking off as it writhes. It's only a matter of moments before it falls away from Sean, landing on the ground, still twitching and burning as it shrivels up into something that only vaguely looks humanoid anymore. The smoke rising from the thing bites the inside of Sean's nose and feels like it coats his lungs with every breath, the air itself seeming permeated with the faint sting of smoke. As he's still coughing from the acrid smell the radio in the car crackles to life, occasionally interrupted by static.

".....were found dead inside their flat. According to the police the parents........eighbor saw the mother move out tot he toolshed at about 11 pm, returning to the flat shortly after, carrying a small hand-axe........ave been told that the father had been acting strange the week leading up to the incident....." The news-report dissolves into static for a moment before the voice starts up again and begins reading out numbers.