The Beast Beneath the Mountain

Sometimes, they say, truth is stranger than fiction. On the Rogue Isles I've found this to be the general state of affairs rather than a sometime occurrence - after all, we exist in a sovereign state where daemoniac magicians and occult circus artistes rub shoulders with steam-punk soldiers and cybernetically enhanced freaks - the strange is more commonplace than the normal.

In this particular case it all began with a broker calling himself Virgil Tarikoss. He had contacted some of the lower ranking members of the Seventh Cabal and hinted that he had an assignment that would prove most profitable for all parties involved as well as grant us more power. Having discussed it in the Circle of Tyrants we decided to green-flag the enterprise and see what Tarikoss might be able to give us.
First we had to prove ourselves to him and assault a hideout belonging to the Legacy Chain and break up one of their rituals. Hardly problematic and we cut through the occult fools like a sacrificial knife through the throat of a Thorn victim.
Tarikoss began to reveal the layout of his scheme to us and it required we clash with more minions of the Legacy Chain as well as seek out the Circle of Thorns in their cyclopean lairs. During these raids we began to piece together an idea of what was going on based on information given to us by Tarikoss and - it seemed that in the 18th century, a Jesuit priest called Padre Henri, told about a great demon called Bat'Zul that once dwelt in the volcano after being summoned by desperate cultists. He imprisoned the demon beneath the mountain that gives Cap au Diable it's name and now after it's long imprisonment it was finally breaking loose of it's bond as Dr Aeon's geothermal experiments had accidentally tapped into the fiend drawing tremendous power from it, and weakening the seals that kept it bound.
This last part didn't ring true but Tarikoss insisted this was the way it was. Of course he couldn't have known that I had run a few black-ops for Marshall Brass some time ago, where I had discovered that Dr Aeon was fully aware of what he was doing - there was nothing accidental about his experiments - and that Cap au Diable was actually being powered by demonic energy rather than geothermal power.

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But I went along with the games and kept my eyes on Tarikoss. As the whole thing was thundering towards it's conclusion we had to make a surgical strike against a Thorn Coven which were trying to take control of Bat'Zul so that they would direct it when it broke free of it's binding spells.

As we prepared to descend into the dark beneath the mountain, to rebind Bat'Zul and divert part of it's majestic power to ourselves, Tarikoss informed us that the Legacy Chain had beat us to the punch and brought in the Hero Infernal from The City to assist them in binding and neutralizing Bat'Zul.

We clashed with Infernal and his honour guard of Legacy Chain in the entrance to the lair of Bat'Zul - but somehow the Hero didn't seem to be at full strength - something we capitalized on straight away. Having crushed the Hero and his retinue, we continued into the underworld lair of Bat'Zul - the presence of the creature warping the whole place partly out of this world and transforming it into a small slice of the fiery hell from which Bat'Zul had originally crawled.

Needing to break the remaining intact sigils before we could rebind the beast, we waded through a horde of the demon's avatars - giant two-legged creatures that were all hunger and gaping maws .... although I kept getting an urge for KFC-style chicken legs while fighting them for some reason ...

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Although the shrieking avatars of Bat'Zul were frightful opponents, they were as children as opposed to the horrid demon when it rose from the lava lake in the middle of its underworld domain - it took all of our resources and powers to fight off the creature. The place had the screams of henchmen, the searing light of radioactive blasts, gunfire and general sounds of combat and suffering added to the already existing cacophony of roaring fire and shrieking demons.

Finally we managed to lure Bat'Zul away from the lava lake - which seemed to rob it of some of it's power - and then in a final ditch effort we managed to bind it once again and topple it into the fiery lake - forever bound!

But we had been deceived! No measure of demonic power came our way and in the end it turned out that Tarikoss had been a Hero masquerading as a broker to lure a bunch of villains to do his bidding and prevent the evil of Bat'Zul from rising - we were apparently going to be sucked into the fiery private hell of Bat'Zul when it was rebound, but fortunately this failed.
If only Tarikoss hadn't managed to escape and leaving us looking like fools - but then again, I have sent word to a few old contacts back in The City - sweet girls working for the Knives of Artemis, and given promise of a sizable bonus if they can locate Tarikoss and deliver him to me either dead or living.

Ah well - I guess we should count ourselves lucky that we managed to stand up to a monstrous creature and come out of it alive and uncooked - evil will have it's way some other day.

Villainy & The City

Sometimes I find my thoughts drifting back to my younger days, when I was just a bad little kid in Paragon City - mostly because the mind needs something to do while the body is being repaired and retrofitted with cybernetic enhancements after the latest battle for supremacy and loot across the Rogue Isles.
I especially recall my math teacher always berating me for not doing my homework and telling me I would never amount to anything if I didn't know my numbers, that I would never know if my partners in crime was ripping me off if I couldnt subtract and divide. Well - of course he was partially right - in the case of people ripping one off it's really a matter of management through fear; if they know what you are going to do to them if they are found out, they will usually keep their hands inside the vehicle while the ride is moving ... and if not, well, they don't call it a life of crime because it's led by nice people now do they?

But back to the subject on my math teacher - I recall him rather vividly at the moment as I just met him while doing a tour of Peregrine Island - screaming rather loudly just before I stomped my enhanced cyber-hoof into the pavement of the parking lot where he was sitting in his car. I rather assume that the ensuing explosions and fiery inferno put an end to any further screaming.
And I totally swear I did it to loose that mob of Longbows I had on my heals .... mostly to loose them .... well, in part then - at any rate, subtract that from your sum totals!

Back in The City
And the reason I was back in The City and visiting Peregrine Island? Well as a senior freelancer for Arachnos, you can sometimes call in a few favours - in this case, my broker in Grandville offered me the chance to take a bit of chaos to the home of Heroes. An Arachnos Flier would take me right smack into the middle of the island and a groundcrew would lay down some suppressing fire while I infiltrated the island city, caused some chaos and destruction and robbed the branch of Paragon City Bank, which had some interesting documents in their vault from a certain Russian scientist defector of the former Soviet PSIforce Programme.

Making a SMASH on the evening news
Who am I to refuse an opportunity like that? It was deeply satisfying to return to Paragon City - when I left I was nothing more than a meta-human bully, but now as a full-blown Brute with my powers fully developed, sporting advanced combat armour and a ready regime of combat drugs at my fingertips - I'm the embodiment of what the the Heroes of The City fear to be called out to fight.

They don't make 'em like they used to

It was an excellent afternoon - I rolled through downtown Peregrine like a battletank. I have to admit that the PPD have grown more sofisticated - better equipment, specialized suppression&contaiment squads and even some heavy-handed help in the form of Peacebringer-infested police officers and exo-armour enhanced troopers toting the latest in laser-assault technology.
Good thing I let Doctor Mandible convince me to add that instant replay system to my battlearmour that allows me to watch combat-video footage post-fight - makes it easier to appreciate the scope of things and also spot any techniques that need improvement or even special enemy weaknesses.

At any rate, while I was walking through a grid of laser-fire and PPD assaults and giving it out much harder than I was receiving it, Longbow decided to make an appearance - all adding to the fun - although I am surprised that their field commander decided to bring out the regular footsoldiers for an enemy of my obvious Threat Level - I was fully expecting the Longbow Ballista-1 Units and not the spandex brigade.

Not that I'm complaining of course, it made my job a whole lot easier that they totally underestimated the threat I was - which might also have been facilitated in part by me not leaving anyone breathing after a fight, so there was noone to radio back for better reinforcements. Even so, you would think that SOMEONE would take note that they suddenly lost radio contact with 30-40 trained officers given that they knew an Arachnos threat was present?

Ah - but at the end it didn't really matter - I always knew I was going to make ti to the bank, rip the vault out and get the papers I was sent there for. In fact it was almost a deja-vu, seeing as I did almost the exact thing when I started out in the Rogue Isles where I pulled a job on the bank in Port Oakes with almost the same objective. Of course, back then I didn't have the unexpected pleasure of being confronted by a Hero at the end. He looked the part too - spandex, flowing cape, wielding an assortment of mind-confusing powers and calling up illusions - I even think he yelled "cease and desist villain!"

You have to admire old school heroism like that - I'm pretty sure the doctors will be able to make him walk again.

Having secured the papers from the vault, I made my exit, got back to the Arachnos Fliers and got air-lifted out of the hot zone. All said and done a pretty good day - I even got on the Paragon News! I think they got some pretty good footage of me to.

Paragon City - where it sometimes hurt A LOT to be a Hero.

Getting to the goodies

5th Column Rising?

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Some things never change

One from the archives - Journal Entry 06-07-22-13 or as I like to call it "Some things never change"

Smart people tell us that there are only a few constants in this universe - as one of my associates from Paragon City used to say "Everything freeeeeezes" ... which of course turned out to be only too true for him when a Hero breached his cryogenic weapon system during a battle; the poor guy shattered like a chunk of ice someone hammered with an icepick.
Anyway, back to the constants. Apart from the well-known constants like death and taxes, in my experience there is one more you can always count on: there are assholes everywhere!

In this case I am thinking of a very specific bunch of of them - the Crey Corporation, or Crey as they are commonly known.
I've taken assignments from just as many villain groups as I've fought against; that's one of the things you learn fairly quickly on the Rogue Isles - never think that the enemy you are fighting today can't be the employer your are taking assignments from tomorrow - and vice verse.
However, in my case this NEVER applies in the case of the Crey. Those bastards have double- and triple-crossed me - even at times when I never even knew they had an active part in activities I was involved in.

Taking a regular mega-corporation with all it's built-in greed and lack of respect for people and crowning it with the uninhibited greed, petty mindedness and lack of morals of a super-villain organization is a match made in hell. Lawyers with meta-human backup - it rivals any evil that could come out of the bio-engineered hives of the Devouring Earth or the dystopian catacombs of the Circle of Thorns.

Some weeks ago I undertook a series of assignments from a new broker who called himself Wainwright. He offered above-average pay and there were excellent "salvaging opportunities" along the way, as well as some good opportunities to crack some Malta Group heads, as Wainwright seemed to have a beef with them.
I never knew nor suspected that the Crey were involved until the moment I delivered a box with Titan AI controller-chips to Wainwright and I got jumped by a gang of Crey Power Tanks the second he said he would "no longer be requiring my services for this project." I think the jokers were expecting to knock me out like some rookie and drag me back to some Crey station for shipment to Project Revenant (the Crey "recycling" program that results in the Paragon Protectors). Of course being a Power Tank might be enough to frighten the Heroes and Villains back in The City, but it doesn't impress me one bit - and with all that fancy, heavy body armour they are particularly vulnerable to a certain Brute stomping his foot into the ground with enough force to quake an entire street and send Crey lackeys and pieces of concrete flying everywhere. While they were trying to pick themselves up, I stomped them into the ground and made myself some instant canned Crey - unfortunately Mr. Wainwright managed to escape during the melee.

Not that this did him much good of course - having some ex-Crey employees in the Seventh Cabal as well as access to some heavyweight hackers meant that locating a number of possible bolt-holes weren't all that difficult.
It just took a few raids and overturned Crey stations before I ran into Mr Wainwright again - this time wearing his Crey Tank Armour - and I of course took the time to kindly explain that I took a dim view on being treated this way by the Crey and requested (in all modesty of course) that they refrain from doing so again. A point of view which they seemed to respect.

... of course, I cannot be entirely sure what with the whole places going up in flames, smoke obscuring everything and collapsed walls and ceilings all over the place.

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Scream for me!

One from the archives - Journal Entry 06-04-02-13 or as I like to call it "Scream for me!"
Anyone who have ever visited St. Martial will probably either have seen or run across the obnoxious little demons known as Wailer Demons. Despite their diminutive size they can cause considerable discomfort and even physical damage with their high-pitched shrieks, which is also their main offensive weapon even though their scythe-like arms are also wickedly sharp.

I once took a series of assignments from a contact codenamed Hardcase who has his base of operations in St. Martial and deals with all manners of supernatural entities but who has specialized knowledge on the subject of demons.
The pay was good and ever since I enjoyed the hospitality of the Circle of Thorns, I've been especially adept at handling the forces of the supernatural (at least that is one good thing that came out of my lenghty stay in their crystal prisons - who knew I had the ability to absorb ambient energy and use it to strengthen my own powers?) I took the assignments Hardcase handed out. Unlike many other contacts and brokers I've dealt with during my time on the Rogue Isles, Hardcase was a brutally effective man who knew his subject matter and could actually provide me with useful intel before and after each assignment.

The Wailer Demons featured heavily in the assignments, sometimes even surprisingly so, and a picture began to form suggesting that the little pests weren't as demented as they led on. They were here to collect a soul which had been promised to them, but massive magical countermeasures had been built into a number of structures on the island, which directed the flow of supernatural energy away, weakening the creatures and in many ways they were acting like people deprived of water over a lenghty period of time because of that.

The assignments almost turned into an epic saga, and it was clear that strange things was going on in the shadows of St. Martial - even stranger than you would expect! Johnny Sonata, the powerful Capo running the better part of the island was in to his eyeballs in all of this, and it turned out that the rumours were true: he HAD in fact sold his soul for his marvellous vocal abilities. The Wailer Demons were merely here to collect, and expecting them, Johnny had fortified parts of the island to disrupt their power, confuse them and generally lead them away from him. Only problem was, that robbed of their real target, the demons were running amok and targeting anything that got in their way - and even worse, help was coming!

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Hardcase ran the magical numbers on this and located a massive surge in demonic power beneath the city. Something had materialized and it would be really bad for business if this "something" was to erupt unto the island surface.

Venturing into the dark beneath the world, otherwise known as the sewer system, I waded through a sea of Wailer Demons, until finally, dripping with demonic ichor, I came upon our "something"; A Wailer Lord, a massive demon glowing with supernatural energy, it's shrieks demolishing walls and sewer pipes as it made it's way towards the surface.
Fortunately, powerful as the Wailer Lord was, it was not yet fully adjusted to our plane of existence and as such it was not at full strength. Even so the fight to take their creature down was fierce, and rocked that part of the sewer system, leaving most of it in ruin and I swear my ears were ringing for days afterwards.

Of course, in the end the Wailer Lord was stomped into the ground beneath my boot and dispelled from this plane - it's corpse made for a nice treat to barter with a certain Mage I have done business with in the past, and apart from a good workout, this last assignment for Hardcase proved quite profitable: Beating the crap out of a bunch of demons and good loot - what more can you ask for?

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