VtM Part Two - The Owl's Debt

Necro

Lysander enters the embassy and has a look around.

Fourier

Six centurion guards six times Lysander's height stand near the door and simply nod their heads at him.

Seated behind a massive desk is a young woman writing in a large ledger. Behind her several ghosts sit on a train platform. The departures board indicates one train arriving in fifteen minutes.

Necro

Lysander approaches the desk and greets the woman.

'My dear, I was sent here to ask about Stygian coin... but this is wondrous! Can you tell me a bit about the place?'

Fourier

Necrominus wrote: »

Lysander approaches the desk and greets the woman.

'My dear, I was sent here to ask about Stygian coin... but this is wondrous! Can you tell me a bit about the place?'

"Stygian records office. We take the details of anybody who wishes to take the Midnight Express, so Stygia knows who it is receiving. Basic questioning and Arcanoi scanning, so nobody dangerous gets on the train."

OOC: Arcanoi are the analogue of disciplines for ghosts

Necro

'Midnight Express? Interesting... and if I wished to take this... Midnight Express... exactly what would I need to do?'

Lysander gauges the young girl to see if his powers might work on her.

He catches her gaze.

OOC: Command

'Drop your pen, my dear.'

Fourier

The woman goes wide eyed and drops her pen.

The giant guards look in her direction, their eyes glow. Then one shrugs and the ignore her and Lysander.

Necro

Fourier wrote: »

The woman goes wide eyed and drops her pen.

The giant guards look in her direction, their eyes glow. Then one shrugs and the ignore her and Lysander.

Lysander speaks softly this time, continuing to hold her gaze.

'Add me to the list for the next train.'

Fourier

Necrominus wrote: »

Lysander speaks softly this time, continuing to hold her gaze.

'Add me to the list for the next train.'

Something fights Lysander's command. She lifts the pen, but her hand shakes, pulling it back from the page.

Slowly though his command wins and she enters him into the ledger with approval.

Necro

Intrigued, Lysander thanks the young lady with one of his usual dashing smiles before making his way to the platform to wait for the train.

Fourier

A few minutes later a train rises out of the Tempest through the air and lands on the tracks, running along the coast over the Tempest ocean.



It flies past the platform, hundreds of carriages passing, suddenly halts one single carriage opens.

Lysander cannot see the end of the carriages, they seem to stretch on beyond the horizon. The one opening before him is 1,786.

Necro

Lysander steps on board

He looks around at others entering the train with him to see if he recognises any of them.

Fourier

Lysander steps on first



Looking around the others are unknown to him, a mix of fashions from the 1800s, all the way up to the 1980s.

Finally a man steps onto the train, in a ferryman's cloak, some sort of guard.

A woman then walks over to Lysander, in Victorian dress, she speaks in an upper class British accent.

"Mind if I join you Sir?"

Necro

'Please, my dear be seated. What brings you on the Express this day?'

Fourier

"Just want to visit Stygia. I've been dead for one hundred and thirty years as of last month. I decided I have to stop putting it off, despite my fears.

You?"

Necro

Fourier wrote: »

"Just want to visit Stygia. I've been dead for one hundred and thirty years as of last month. I decided I have to stop putting it off, despite my fears.

You?"

'Just checking out what all the fuss is about the train to be honest. I've heard so much about it.'

Fourier

Necrominus wrote: »

'Just checking out what all the fuss is about the train to be honest. I've heard so much about it.'

"As have we all. Three thousand years of continuous construction, must be quite the place"

She summons a thin cigarette holder and begins to draw on it slowly.

"I've finally seen the whole world you see, took me a long time, but now I have to move on."

A shudder passes through the train as it heads off, suddenly Los Angeles disappears from view, being replaced by the Tempest. Lysander sees thousands of knick knacks and everyday objects from the past hundred years being tossed around violently in a grey void. The train is battered repeatedly as clocks, coats, TVs, baths and everything else hit the windows soundlessly.

"Good lord, quite the show no?"

Necro

Lysander looks out the windows and marvels at the sight.

'Amazing. All of these material objects, people spending money on them and regarding them as matters of importance... and yet they are essentially pieces of junk, discarded and forgotten like rubbish.'

Fourier

Necrominus wrote: »

Lysander looks out the windows and marvels at the sight.

'Amazing. All of these material objects, people spending money on them and regarding them as matters of importance... and yet they are essentially pieces of junk, discarded and forgotten like rubbish.'

"Forgotten being the operative word, that's how they end up here"

A waiter comes by.

"Anything to eat or drink Sir? Madam?"

Necro

Fourier wrote: »

"Forgotten being the operative word, that's how they end up here"

A waiter comes by.

"Anything to eat or drink Sir? Madam?"

'No thank you waiter.'

He smiles at the lady.

'Had some southern food earlier, enough to keep me going for the journey at least.'

Fourier

"I'll have the pork if you please"

"Of course Madam, that'll be no problem"

The waiter heads off.

"So, since we are sharing a table and I am quite the busybody, what was you cause of death, mine..."

Her form shifts a bit as she looks sickly.

"...infection in Victorian London, common enough. You look more Modern though, very much so. I rarely get to meet those who've seen the 2000s"

Necro

Fourier wrote: »

"I'll have the pork if you please"

"Of course Madam, that'll be no problem"

The waiter heads off.

"So, since we are sharing a table and I am quite the busybody, what was you cause of death, mine..."

Her form shifts a bit as she looks sickly.

"...infection in Victorian London, common enough. You look more Modern though, very much so. I rarely get to meet those who've seen the 2000s"

Lysander shrugs.

'Vampire attack... rather vicious.'

Fourier

Necrominus wrote: »

Lysander shrugs.

'Vampire attack... rather vicious.'

She leans in.

"You say it with conviction. I wouldn't have believed it before, but well this whole place tends to open the mind. I have heard rumours, wolfmen, magicians and these vampires"

She leans back

"Incredible, much more so than my own story, though obviously old news to you. Few move on so fast. In my time there was that Irishman's book 'Carmilla', read it in the penny dreadful section at my school's library. Didn't live to see the 'Dracula' craze"

The waiter rolls out a food tray.

"Here miss"

She begins to eat.

"Have some if you wish, Mr?"

Necro

Fourier wrote: »

She leans in.

"You say it with conviction. I wouldn't have believed it before, but well this whole place tends to open the mind. I have heard rumours, wolfmen, magicians and these vampires"

She leans back

"Incredible, much more so than my own story, though obviously old news to you. Few move on so fast. In my time there was that Irishman's book 'Carmilla', read it in the penny dreadful section at my school's library. Didn't live to see the 'Dracula' craze"

The waiter rolls out a food tray.

"Here miss"

She begins to eat.

"Have some if you wish, Mr?"

Lysander takes a small bite of the food to be polite and smiles.

'Well, I do not know much about them, only I was killed by one. Or at least, so I am led to believe. It attacked me, feasted on my neck and left me to die in the street.'

Fourier

Necrominus wrote: »

Lysander takes a small bite of the food to be polite and smiles.

'Well, I do not know much about them, only I was killed by one. Or at least, so I am led to believe. It attacked me, feasted on my neck and left me to die in the street.'

For some reason Lysander does not need to resist the normal urge to vomit the food. Probably because it isn't real.

"My word, that's horrible..."

A shudder passes through train and in the whirling storm of objects a large sphinx like being appears, the size of a city and passes over the train.

"...a Malfean!" the woman cries "Thankfully the train is hidden from them. We must be near Stygia"

Necro

Lysander looks out the window at the Malean.

'Wow. Never seen one of those before. I've never been one to... linger. Always pushing to move further on. Stygia excites me though, I wonder what it is like?'

Fourier

As if answering his question, Lysander sees a hole appear in the massive grey void, blackish looking at first, but as they move toward it he can see it looks more like a dark ocean.

They pass through the hole and indeed they are now above a massive sunless ocean stretching to the horizon. The grey void only visible through a receding hole in the sky. The train remains high in the air. Ahead of them, a few hundred miles away, lies an island with a city at least hundred times the size of Los Angeles.

"Stygia!" his friend at the table exclaims. "And those..."

She points to a string of islands on the distant horizon.

"...the afterlives, the distant shores they call them and that..."

The train turns so they can see the horizon on the other side of the city. An enormous structure, five times the height of Everest, rises out of the sea. Its walls a dark grey. Within, even from this distance for the wall has collapsed in places, Lysander can perceive thousands of floors. The large being they saw earlier enters a gap near the top of the wall.

"...the Labyrinth. Hard to think it's real after all you hear about it"

As they descend toward the island they see buildings of various styles rise over ones of earlier styles. Though the tallest of all bear an architecture unique to the city itself, not inspired by buildings in the world of the living.

The train lands on a track extending out into the ocean and they pull into a section of the city inspired by Revolutionary France (OOC: near Onyx Point on map below).

"We're here! What first in the home of the twenty billion dead?"

She looks at the train's map of the city.


OOC: Official images of Stygia



Fan art of city from a distance:


Map:


Creator recommended Stygia theme:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zspf6DY0vA

Fourier

"So, I'm going to see the purely Stygian buildings near the Seat of Silence. Coming with or are you off somewhere else?"

Necro

Fourier wrote: »

"So, I'm going to see the purely Stygian buildings near the Seat of Silence. Coming with or are you off somewhere else?"

'No, I think I'll accompany you for a little while my dear. Always wanted to see the Seat of Silence.. see quite what is so Silent about it.'

Fourier

"Hmmm, it might be hard to get into. Seat of Golden Tears?"

Necro

Fourier wrote:

"Hmmm, it might be hard to get into. Seat of Golden Tears?"

'Wherever you wish, my dear. I do not know these lands.'