The Stormcrow, A Superhero's Tale Options

[Acadian]

It makes sense that Stormcrow – being a magical melee fighter – would exercise or flex both her body and magicks to keep them up to snuff.

Very neat how, as Silverlight approached, both mages could sense each other.

How best to advise Xochitl. Good advice from Silverlight that it really needs to be the girl’s decision.
”It's so damned hard to tell. Punching giant spiders is so much easier."
- - Minsc could not have said it better, Jan! Well, he might have said, “You point, I punch!” or perhaps, ‘The bigger they are, the harder I hit!” Okay, sorry. It’s all your D&D / gamernerd references in this episode that got me going.

Hopefully, Silverlight will be able to shed some light on the Dogman/flail mystery. At the end here, we did confirm that the flail indeed is the problem and that Bill has only been dogging out since picking it up recently. That’s a start.


Nit: "It was my life after all, and it is was not like she could really stop me from telling anyone if I was determined to.’ - - Drop the 'is' I think?

[WellTemperedClavier]

I can see how Shadowrun would help with that. Last time I played Shadowrun, I was still in middle school, and I don't think we paid much attention to those particular details. But I do know surveillance is a big thing there.

I remember hearing about the Rampart scandal as it happened. I'm not familiar with the others however, though I'm not exactly surprised by them, sadly.

Good to see Silverlight again!

Sad that Silverlight still has to keep her activities a secret from her family. That's got to be exhausting after a while. I was too young to know about the Satanic Panic as it happened, but I later read how awful it got (and saw a few of the aftereffects lingering in popular discourse).

What exactly is the difference between Wicca and real magic here?

You know, I could see how gaming manuals might help prime people for this sort of thing.

Okay, so Bill's normal again. Obviously pretty traumatized, but at least being cared for. So is he out of the woods? Or might he still transform?

[SubRosa]

Renee: I am sure there are plenty of meta-humans who do hire themselves out as bodyguards, assassins, and the like. I am also sure there are plenty who join the CIA or FBI or Army. But those are people quite different from January, Blood Raven, Gadget, and the like, who value their personal freedom, and pick and choose who they fight for, and against.

Calypso is a marine biologist, and creates/stars in documentaries about the oceans. Like a super-powered Jacques Cousteau.

Xochitl might be an ubermensch wizard someday. Or not. Even I do not know!

Posting once a week means the story moves slowly, so it is easy for forget things that were posted months ago. Even if they were just a few days previously in story time. When he recently explained how he tracked down the Dogman's secret identity, Cray said that the first Dogman appearance was at the Big Tire, just a few days after the Battle of Belle Isle.


Acadian: January and Minsc would get along very well! "Make way Villainy, Hero coming through!"

Honestly, the decision to leave telling her parents soley in Xochitl's hands did not come to me until I wrote that scene with Silverlight and January talking about it. January is receiving conflicting advice about it, with Calypso saying that her parents knew the entire time that Blood Raven was teaching her, and both Silverlight and Riven saying the exact opposite. It all comes down to exactly who you are dealing with, whether it is a good idea or not.

If Silverlight is good for anything, it is shedding light. Plenty of radiance coming up this post.

And as ever, thank you for spotting those editorial nits for me to fix.


WellTemperedClavier: We used to spend a lot of time plotting and planning our break-ins when we played Shadowrun. In one case we had to get through an electrified fence. To make sure we had deactivated it, my street samurai (who was a real stone cold bastard) brought along an alley cat. He proceeded to throw the cat against the fence. Thankfully it really had been turned off. He and his roommate (the other street sam on the team), adopted the cat and named it Lucky.

As Blood Raven has said before, there is no shame in not wearing the cape. It wears people down. Fighting villains is the easy part, living the double life is the hard thing.

Xochitl is a great example of Wicca in the Crow-verse. It sort of primes people to become magic-users. But in the end it is just a religion. When you are doing Wiccan/Witchcraft/Neo-Pagan rituals, you are still just performing religious celebrations. You are not turning invisible, or flying, or shooting lightning bolts from your rear. That takes another step.

Xochitl just took that first baby step when January and Blood Raven first discovered her, thanks to her finding the notes left behind by the Hierophant. By following his instructions she was able to create a spell that summoned... well nothing. It only got the attention of the January and Blood Raven. And the amulet with the monster trapped inside it did the rest.

There are doubtlessly hundreds of thousands of people in the US with a tiny sliver of magical power thanks to them following Wicca, or Chaos Magic, or Thelema, or Druidism, or Asatru, etc... Again, not so much people flying or shooting energy beams. But people with just a little bit of ability, and using it in their religious celebrations, or even just to make themselves a little bit luckier in ordinary life. Like a +1 on their d20 roll. More likely to get that job, or attract that girl, or pass that test, and so on, assuming they are directing their will upon such things. (Come to think of it, there is a D&D spell called Guidance that does exactly that).

Much more on Bill and his state coming right up. It's not over yet!





Lighthouse Portable Libraries

Zakariya al-Qazwīnī and his book Ajā’ib Al-Makhlūqāt are real

Dr. John Dee and the Monas Hieroglyphica are real. The sequel Multus Hieroglyphica is entirely fictional, of my own invention.



Book 11.31 - Raven Sisters

"With the grace of Selene, we are here to help you," Silverlight declared. She pronounced the moon goddess' name in a manner that sounded odd to January's ears. It was more like "Say Lay Nee" rather than "Sah-Lene", as she was more accustomed to hearing. That made her wonder if Silverlight was using a modern Greek pronunciation, or perhaps an ancient one.

The Greek-American magician strode up to the pair, and went down to one knee so that she was eye to eye with them. Her eyes glowed bright silver against the already pale background of her white marble skin. January could feel magic rise within the other woman, and intuited that she was studying Bill's aura.

January shifted her own senses to the astral as well. She closed her eyes. It still helped her to shut out her as much as her mundane senses as possible, when adding in the extra information from the astral plane. Now she could plainly see that Silverlight was magically sensing the pair, as her power was clearly resonating across the higher magical realm.

"Yes, I can see it," Silverlight nodded. "You my friend, are under the effects of a curse. I can see its chains upon you."

"I don't sense anything," January frowned. She stepped closer, and studied the man's aura more intently. But it was just a jumble of sensations: light, and power, and emotion. She could not tell what most of it - really any of it - meant.

"It is subtle, but it is there," Silverlight insisted.

"Unlock the next rank in your astral sensing skill tree," Gadget murmured, "you'll get it then."

"That is an apt explanation," Silverlight agreed. January sensed the other woman draw back her power, and she allowed her own senses to fall from the astral as well. She opened her eyes, and saw Silverlight rise to her feet and step to the nearest table. "It takes practice, but you can learn a great deal from aetherial sensing. Maybe sometime we can set up a training session or two with you, our youngest sister, and some of the others. I have a great deal of experience in the higher realm."

She paused to reach into the folds of the loose gray and white robes that she wore. From here she produced a wooden box or crate, several feet high and wide, but narrow in depth. A pair of cabinet-style doors filled its front face. Upon this were stenciled the words "U.S.L.H. Library." At this point January did not even remark upon the fact that she had apparently stored such a large container upon her person. It was just magic. January could similarly summon her armor, and Blood Raven her swords.

Silverlight opened the doors of the crate, to reveal that it was in fact a miniature bookcase. Its interior was divided into two sides, and further bisected by a shelf that ran horizontally along its length. Its interior was crammed with books. They had faded leather or even wooden faces, washed out titles upon worn spines, and weathered pages within. She had seen their kind before. They were the type of tomes that Blood Raven's ancient occult library had been filled with. Likewise, they were the same kind that she had taken from the Hierophant's sanctum, and now filled several shelves back in the Witch House's den.

Silverlight reached into this miniature library and drew forth a book. It was a giant affair, bound in cracked brown leather, and locked shut with a silver hasp. In fact, the tome was too large to fit within the crate. But January did not even consider questioning that, no more than she did the magician's ability to carry around such a container within her super suit.

"That is pretty dope," Gadget whistled, and gestured to the small crate. "What is it?"

"It's a portable library," Silverlight remarked offhandedly. "They used to make them for lighthouse keepers back in the 1800s. This one is from an old lighthouse off Point Lookout."

"Oh yeah, I know the place," Gadget mused fondly. "Mirelurks, mutants, killer robots, and a pre-war brain in a jar. I got my gatling laser there."

When Silverlight looked at him quizzically, January explained.

"It's in a video game."

The lunar heroine shook her head and set the tome down gently upon one of the long, narrow tables that stretched out before the control panels. She unlocked its hasp and carefully turned it open. Then she began to thumb through its pages, turning each with care. January looked over her shoulder, and recognized the writing on the faded yellow pages as Arabic, but could make nothing more of them.

"Is that the Necronomicon?" Gadget whistled.

"No, I've got that at home," January murmured, thinking of the Scripta Mortis.

"This is the 'Aja'ib al-Makhluqat wa Ghara'ib al-Mawjudat - the Wonders of the Creation and Oddities of Existence." Silverlight explained. "It was written by Zakariya al-Qazwīnī in the 13th Century."

"You said the flail's name was 'Alsaahiq' correct?" Silverlight looked around for Ôkami. But as was his wont, the samurai/ninja was nowhere to be found.

"Yes," his voice issued from a dark spot along one wall. A moment later the Japanese-American's body resolved itself into view. It seemed as if he had stepped from the shadows. Even though there had not really been any shadows there to begin with.

Silverlight whistled. "You're good at the stealth thing brother..." she murmured under her breath.

January privately agreed. Given how everyone else nearly jumped out of their skins at the young man's sudden appearance, she did not doubt that they felt the same way.

"Alsaahiq? That means Pulverizer." Sunita was the first to speak afterward, "or Crusher?"

"Exactly," Silverlight nodded along with the other woman. "It is as I thought. Al-Qazwīnī speaks of a tribe of people in North Africa called the al-Ḍabyūn - the 'Hyena People'. They created the Alsaahiq to defend themselves from enemies who sought to destroy them. According to this, it was either a weapon, or a champion, or perhaps both. They poured their rage, their hate, their ferocity into its creation. It was the magical epitome of those things."

"However, they soon found that the Alsaahiq could not be controlled. It destroyed them, before their enemies could even reach them. From there it fades from history. It became a legend - a myth whispered around campfires. It was said that the Alsaahiq would come from the darkness and murder entire encampments in a fit of mindless rage. Then it would vanish into the desert sands afterward, its boundless rage and thirst for destruction never sated."

"So their technology destroyed them," Gadget murmured. "Well, good thing we all learned our lesson, and nothing like that has ever happened again..."

"Wait a minute," January lifted a finger to her chin in thought. "I read something like that just a few days ago! But it was Dr. John Dee I think, in one of his runic books. I've been looking through them a lot lately, so I can help our newest sister."

January lifted Sága to her face, and furiously tapped at her screen until she brought up the works of Queen Elizabeth I's court wizard in her book reader. She flipped through his Monas Hieroglyphica for a moment, then moved on to the much larger and more expansive sequel: the Multus Hieroglyphica of 1567.

"Here it is," January insisted. "There's a Hermetic rune that is said to contain the al-Ḍabyūn spirit. He doesn't go into details about how it works. But it does say that the bone-crushing bite of the hyena is required to break the spirit's hold upon its victim."

"So he's not a Dogman, but a Hyenaman?" Gadget spun in his chair to look back at Bill.

"Well, there is a precedent for hyenas in the Mediterranean world," Silverlight pointed out. "Al-Damīrī wrote that striped hyenas were vampiric creatures that attacked at night and sucked people's blood from the neck. In a similar vein, until the end of the 19th Century the Greeks believed that the bodies of werewolves - if not destroyed - would haunt battlefields as vampiric hyenas. They would suck the blood of dying soldiers. On the other hand, Pliny the Elder also suggested that placing the right foot of a hyena on a woman in childbirth would speed the delivery of the baby. It's folklore. So take all of this with a grain of salt."

"Wait, I'm the Hyenaman?" Bill's eyes widened. "Please don't tell me that's my supervillain name."

"You aren't a villain dear," Sunita insisted. She laid a comforting hand on his wrist to reinforce her words.

"She's right, he's not," Silverlight agreed. "You my friend, have fallen prey to an ancient threat."

"Besides, the Michigan Dogman still sounds a lot better." Gadget murmured.

"It does," January nodded.

"Why did you have to pick that flail up?" Sunita sighed. "If only you had just left it alone..."

"I didn't know it was an ancient Hyena People curse!" Bill cried. "I saw it after the battle, and I thought it was, you know, a trophy to bring back home. I was going to put up on the living room wall. Maybe then the kids wouldn't think their old man was basic."

"Oh the boys," Sunita fretted. "Thank goodness Aisha is there to keep an eye on them."

"We'll try to get you both home to your family as soon as we can," Cray's voice came over the comm. January noted that one of the screens within the control room had glowed to life. She saw the pages of the same book by Dr. Dee pop up on its face, and turn to the glyph in question.

"So... runes," Ôkami said pointedly. "Who do we know that is good with runes?"

"Are you sure about that?" Silverlight looked from the others to the Nadeems. "I don't know if she is ready for this."

"He's got a point though," January said. "She's our rune mage. Besides, she needs practice. It will be good for her."

"I will keep her safe," Gadget insisted, "no matter what happens."

"Wait a minute, who do you mean?" Sunita stood up and waved a hand in the air. "Who needs practice? Are you bringing in a... student to fix my husband?"

"We are all students," Silverlight assured. "None of us know everything. Don't worry, I think they are right. It will be fine."

"So that just leaves the bite of a hyena," Gadget observed. "Anyone happen to have one of those lying around?"

"I think the zoo might have one," January thought aloud. "I do have a contact there, thanks to my little adventure with Tigris."

"Tigris?" Bill wondered. "Is that a supervillain you fought?"

"No, she's a tiger," January said. "I helped wrangle her from a trap house. You didn't see it on the news?"

"I guess I was busy that day," Bill shrugged.

"So even if we get the zoo to loan us a hyena - and I don't believe I just said that - how do we get it to bite this... thing?" Cray said over the link. "I mean, hyenas are not exactly trainable. It's just as likely to take a chomp out of any of you."

"Perhaps we only need a hyena tooth?" Ôkami reasoned. "We could use it like a dagger, or a hammer, to crush the magical link between the spirit and Mr. Nadeem."

"Just Bill is fine," the Coney Island owner insisted. "I mean, we've got history now, given that I've tried to kill you a few times."

"That might work," Silverlight mused, one hand cupping her marble chin. "Magic is rarely meant to be literal. It is more the emotion and intent that counts."

"We are not going to be pulling out some poor animal's tooth!" January insisted, hands upon her hips. "That's just... no."

"So maybe we can drug the hyena?" Gadget suggested. "Then we can hold its jaws, and you know, make it bite the spirit."

"Are you people listening to yourselves?" Sunita cried. "This is all crazy."

"First time eh?" January smiled. "Welcome to the super life."

"What is it that Lighthammer always says: 'my life has gotten a lot weirder since I met you'?" Gadget laughed.

"Our lives have always been weird," Ôkami insisted with a dismissive wave of one hand. "We need to call in our alchemical sister for this. She will know how to safely drug the hyena."

"Right, let's get to it then," January nodded.

* * *

[Renee]

Xochitl might be an ubermensch wizard someday. Or not. Even I do not know!

Wicked!

Whoa, Bill is suffering a curse. Doggone curses, I tell ya.

Now that i know where Silverlight is from, I can hear a slight Bawl'mer accent. Even the most white-collar, educated inhabitants from Baltimore possess this accent, no matter how hard they try to get rid of it. Bethesda devs missed an opportunity to add some NPCs into Fallout 3 who speak in such a way, instead going with the Jersey accent found amongst raiders, or Moira Brown's flat, Midwest accent. Such a shame. Maryland, never properly represented in various forms of media.

Good gosh, sounds like Silverlight's got a Box of Holding under her robes. Am I reading that right? Yep, underneath her robe was a crate or a box. In a way this is way cooler than any smartphone.

Silverlight shakes her head at the Fallout references! Videogames. I wonder if she's internally rolling her eyes, as well.

That's cool how Sunita is able to help by translating a word. Hey, how are you able to create all the alphabetic enhancements that go along with some non-English words, like Al-Qazwīnī? Do you have a special keyboard or something? Or is it some special way of tapping those keys? I used to have a keyboard that, if I held down a particular button, it would access all those umlauts and other symbols. Maybe my current keyboard can also do this as well. If so, I have no idea how.

"Why did you have to pick that flail up?" Sunita sighed. "If only you had just left it alone..."

"I didn't know it was an ancient Hyena People curse!" Bill cried

That's so classic. One of those highlights you'd see on next week's episode! as last week's Raven Sisters chapter came to a close.

I wonder who they're talking about, who is good with runes. Blood Raven is, but she's out of the picture. Hmm. The high school student, I'll assume. Because they're like "is she ready for this?"

This post has been edited by Renee: Oct 14 2023, 02:42 PM

[Acadian]

A fascinating exposition regarding the history and ‘fix’ for the cursed flail. And I love the humorous super banter you infused throughout. Jan needs to level up her astral sensing.

I’m thinking Silverlight can summon her library – the animation simply looks like she is pulling it from her robes it seems. Very handy!

What a hoot the way this is developing! All we need to do is borrow a hyena, get our alchemy sister to make a hyena drug potion, get our young rune sister to conjure up the right rune, and coax the drugged hyena into biting the evil spirit within. What could go wrong?

[WellTemperedClavier]

Well, Shadowrun does reflect a pretty Darwinian mindset, so your samurai did get the job done. Cute story about the cat getting adopted.

Got it, thanks for the clarification.

Not surprising that Bill's under a curse.

That summoned storage space sure does sound handy. Though now I'm thinking I'd pack so much stuff in it that it'd become an impossible-to-untangle mess.

Neat reference to the book.

Ha! I liked Bill's reaction to all this. Hyenaman is indeed a pretty awkward super name. Though there is this guy:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photogra...ves-with-hyenas

Huh. Yeah, don't think an enormous demonic flail is a good idea for a decoration. Bill needs to watch more horror movies; he'd know this if he did.

Interesting problem-solving here. How exactly do you get a hyena to bite what you want it to bite?

Well, they haven't yet figured out exactly how to do it. But they do know they need a hyena, so that's probably the best next step for them.

This post has been edited by WellTemperedClavier: Oct 20 2023, 10:40 PM

[SubRosa]

Renee: Silverlight does have a bookcase of holding as it were. Both she and Kaelin have specialized versions of bags of holding, to suit their personalities. For Silverlight it is books, for Kaelin it is potions.

I did the Arabic letters in words like Al-Qazwīnī the easy way, I copied and pasted them. They usually keep their formatting when you do that, even in Notepad.


Acadian: I was not originally intending this to be a comedy episode. But as things began to gravitate in that direction, I did deliberately lean into it. We are coming off of the very high stakes conclusion of Season One with the Battle of Belle Isle. I think that rather than trying to up the stakes from there, it would work better to have sort of a light-hearted palette cleanser. A lot of TV shows do this. So I am taking a cue from them.

Honestly, I am not sure if Silverlight can just secrete that library on her person in some shrunk down version, or fits it into a dimensional pocket, or just summons it. For now at least it does not matter. It just looks cool when she pulls it out. That is what really does matter!


WellTemperedClavier: I can't find things in purse, and I have hardly anything in there at all. I don't know what I would do with a bag of holding.

I am sure Sunita would have put her foot down if Bill had actually tried to put a (even non-cursed) flail up on the living room wall. He probably would have instead put it his a man-cave, along with that old guitar and his football helmet from high school, and his other Man-Artifacts.

The hyena is definitely a sticking point in all this. But the Alliance have faced worse problems. They will find a way to deal with this one too.








Book 11.32 - Raven Sisters

Bringing Xochitl to the bunker was as simple as flipping through the pages of the waypoint network. Concealing her identity from the Nadeems was another matter however. Thankfully January still had her old Stormcrow suit. It was a little big on the younger woman. But the belt cinched up tightly enough around Xochitl's waist to keep the pants from falling down. Still, the helmet was clearly too big, and kept falling over her face. Then the teen immediately dispensed with the gloves in order to free her fingers to draw.

"Do I get a super name now?" Xochitl practically gushed once she was in the suit. "I know, I could be Rune Girl, or Glyph Maiden!"

"Sigil," Ôkami declared laconically, and that was that, at least for the moment.

Bill and Sunita did not say a word as the newly christened Sigil went to work drawing upon a bare stretch of floor with colored chalk. But January could see that they were less than impressed. She was not worried though. She had faith in her apprentice. Xochitl - now Sigil - would come through. Besides, she was probably the only one of them who could draw more than a stick figure.

In any case, Silverlight knelt down beside the teen and once again produced her portable library. From this she produced a physical copy of the Multus Hieroglyphica. January could feel magic radiating from the book the instant that she drew it forth. It was a beacon in the astral. She could not help but to stop and walk back over to look over their shoulders at the book.

She immediately saw the source of the energy. It was the runes. They were not simply drawn in the musty old wizardly tome. They were enchanted there. Each and every one of them brimmed with magical power, ready to be activated. The book itself was a literal library of spells, each waiting to be turned on.

"Where did you get that?" January marveled.

"It's the original, written by Dr. Dee himself." Silverlight murmured. "I had to fight a dozen skeletons, a wraith, and a necromancer to get it. It is priceless. With it, one can not only see the runes, but feel the actual enchantments within them and study them in the astral."

"So can't we just use the book to do the ritual?" Gadget asked.

"It is too small." Silverlight frowned and shook her head. "Besides, I do not want to risk damaging the book. Like I said, it's priceless. In any case, the whole idea behind it was to demonstrate the runes to others. Ultimately it is always up to us to make our own magic."

"Wow, I thought learning magic was going to be all stuffy, like memorizing books and taking quizzes," Xochitl breathed and looked to January. "This slaps! You are way more dope a teacher than Blood Raven was!"

"I'll make sure not to mention that to her," January shook her head and smiled. Granted, she had to agree with some of it. Field trips always were the most fun part of school.

With that Silverlight turned back to Sigil and began to speak quietly with her. She laid out the open book beside them, so that the young mage could both see and feel the rune in question. January could not catch what they said, but given her gestures toward the rune that Xochitl slowly reproduced upon the floor, January imagined she was offering some pointers. She hoped so. It was clear that Silverlight knew a lot more about magic than anyone else there did.

They worked in the wide open space of the main chamber, as no one wanted to perform the ritual around the delicate equipment within the control room. They were just off to the side from the teleportation rune, which January used a moment later.

Once again she allowed the rune to fold space around her, and deposit her in the parking garage beside the Raven's Nest. Like most of the other waypoints, this was an out of the way place. In fact, it was at the base of a concrete stairwell at the very bottom of the structure. The only thing else there was a fire hose and extinguisher.

While January waited she brought up Sága. She opened her phone interface and put through a call. A woman's voice rang out in her ear a moment later as the receiver picked up.

"Dr. Amanda Duncan, Director of Animal Health."

"Hi!" January practically gushed. Her perky phone voice was once more taking matters into its own hands. Only with an effort of will was she able to restrain it, and continue on in a more sober tone. "This is Stormcrow. I was hoping you might be able to do a favor for me."

"Wow, well anything," the Detroit Zoo's chief veterinarian instantly replied. "Whatever you need, I can do it."

"Well, hear me out first, this is going to sound strange," January admitted. Now that she had to explain it herself, the idea sounded more harebrained than ever. But if an idea was dumb, and it worked, well then it was not dumb after all.

"I'd like to borrow a hyena," she declared. "Just for a little while. We need one to help break a curse on someone."

"Wait, you want to do what with a hyena?" the other woman's voice sounded incredulous. "Who is this? Is this a joke?"

"It's no joke," January insisted. "This is Stormcrow, and I'm totally serious."

She went on to explain the whole story of the Michigan Dogman - who had actually turned out to be a Hyenaman - and how they needed a hyena to free him from the curse of the evil artifact Alsaahiq. The doctor stopped her halfway through however.

"Okay, okay, okay," she agreed. "A month ago I would have said you were crazy. But since we were invaded by magical monsters from outside of reality, and we now have a glowing dragon looming over Belle Isle, let's just say I believe you. No, scratch that. I trust you. That's good enough for me. Just promise me that the hyena won't be harmed in any way."

"I promise, we will do everything in our power to keep the hyena safe for the entire time." January insisted.

Kaelin came down the steps even as she finished her sentence. The goth-punk had swung more to the punk end of the spectrum this time, dressed in a red plaid mini skirt, ripped stockings, a white halter top, and a torn leather jacket. With her was Harper, who was clad in a pair of black tights and boots. Over that they wore a long black sport coat, and a white shirt with a high, ruffled collar.

"Yes, let's definitely keep the hyena safe," the androgynous magician declared. The look in their eyes revealed a palpable amount of incredulity.

January smiled at the two, and wrapped up her conversation with the zoo's head veterinarian. Once off the phone, she turned to the new arrivals. She had not expected Harper to come. But given the circumstances, the more were the merrier.

January repeated herself once more, and explained their admittedly vague and unorthodox plan for ending the curse on Bill Nadeem. Kaelin nodded along the entire time, while Harper looked more and more amazed.

"You know, I can tell this is real," they said, "because if this was fiction, no one would believe it."

"Welcome to the Sisterhood of the Traveling Raven," Kaelin laughed. She turned from her lover back to January. "Knocking out a hyena is no problem at all. I can do more complicated things with alchemy before breakfast."

"Okay, we do have civilians present, so you'll both need to be on the down low," January warned the pair.

"Got it covered." Kaelin reached into her alchemical satchel. It was slung across her torso, with its strap nestled above one shoulder, and its wide pouch hanging against her opposite hip. If it were not for the magic that January could clearly feel within the black bag she would have thought it was an ordinary purse. From this the alchemist drew forth a jar of bright body paint, and began slathering it all over Harper's features, and then her own.

"Good thing you still have leftovers from Belle Isle," Harper mused.

"You two are going to have to get regular suits, if you're going to start doing this more often," January suggested. "I can give you Blackwood's number."

"Oh no!" Harper held their hands up in protest. "Belle Isle was a one-off, end of the world special. You can keep this sort of craziness to yourself."

"Yeah," Kaelin nodded. "I couldn't stop shaking for week after that. It took a forest of Mary Jane to settle my nerves. It's still giving me nightmares."

"Not all of us are made for this thing you do," Harper said more soberly. They slid one arm around Kaelin's waist, and held her close. "I honestly don't know how you do it, day in and out."

January shrugged. She honestly had no answer to that. She just did... what she did, and that was that. It certainly did not surprise her that others were not suited to the super life. It was honestly terrifying at times. She imagined that it took a certain sort of insanity for someone to enter the life, and stay in it.

She had nightmares herself. But that was normal after all. Who would not, after being kidnapped by a mad wizard and nearly sacrificed to a lich king from beyond time and space? She was sure the bad dreams about the Hierophant's horrific demise would fade however. She just needed to give it time was all.

It was the same with Hannah. She was so totally over her. It was not like she just had thoughts of the other woman out of nowhere. Soon enough, she would put the aftermath of Belle Isle in the rear view mirror just the same.

January could feel the enchantment upon the body paint. It was indeed the same concoction they had both worn the night of the Battle of Belle Isle. As then, she could sense that it had something to do with providing physical and magical protection, a sort of SPF 100 bullet and spell block.

Once they were ready January used the waypoint network to teleport the pair back to the Raven Bunker. She could see that Xochitl and Silverlight had made progress on the entrapment rune. They both looked up with smiles to see the newcomers. The teen looked at the alchemical satchel which Kaelin began to rummage through, and then said something that made everyone stop what they were doing.

"You're an alchemist right?" she asked. "Why do we need a hyena? Can't you make a potion to turn one of us into one? I mean, shape-changing is in plenty of books and movies."

January did a facepalm in synchronization with Kaelin.

"Why didn't I think of that?" the alchemist wondered.

"Probably because I presented you with a specific problem, and all you could think of was how to solve that alone." January mused. Then she turned back to her apprentice. "Good Gordian Knot moment Xochitl."

"This is going to be greater alchemy, so I will need some reagents." Kaelin held a finger up to her lips in a thoughtful pose. "I've got the basics right here in my satchel. But you will still need to get me one specific agent. I'll need some part of a hyena: hairs, or blood, or saliva. Really any portion of its body will do."

"Got that covered," January insisted. "That should make Dr. Duncan a lot happier as well."

[Renee]

You copy-pasted those letters!! So there isn't a super-easy solution, dang. Like I said, I used to have a keyboard. If the typist held down the FN button (FN meaning 'foreign', I've always assumed) and tapped the letter A for instance, it would cycle through all the different A-enhancements, like à ... á .... â .... ã ... ä ... å, and so on, and that was with a simple WebTV device. I know there's a way to get those accents with my current PC/Logitech keyboard, but it's not as simple.

Heh, they're disguising Xochitl. Probably don't have to worry about this so much, probably the Nadeems are too freaked about their current predicament. Then again, maybe the supers don't want them to realize they're about to get assistance from a high school student.

Glyph Maiden! Rune Warrior! Sultan of Symbols!

"This slaps! You are way more dope a teacher than Blood Raven was!"

Phew... easy there!

Do not restrain the Perky Phone Voice, dear. It shall become thy hallmark, someday. Wow. Borrow a hyena. But then when she explains "this is Stormcrow", the request then becomes sort of plausible. Fortunately, the zookeeper gets it.

Anyway, interesting how much effort it takes to set up this magic. I'm sure Branwen and even The Hierophant had to spend days, months, maybe even years and decades of research into these matters. While the current team needs to come up with a solution NOW, and on the spot. 🔣

That's cute, the part when she suggests Harper and Kaelin are going to need to dress more obviously as supers! "You two need to start being more professional!" almost.

It was the same with Hannah. She was so totally over her.

Hmm, are we sure about that, hon?

What's a Gordian Knot? Never mind, I'll just Google. But nice, what a moment of insight there, Xochitl. Does this mean they won't need the hyena? 🐕

[Acadian]

‘Sigil’ – good call Okami! Ever so much more pronounceable than ‘X-7’.

I don’t think Jan will ever drop the perky phone voice – and that’s a nice thing.

And yup, she is so over Hannah. . . .

What a brilliant twist having Sigil make such a simple suggestion! Now, who’s gonna volunteer to be a hyena? Bill has experience for sure, but he may not be the best choice. Hopefully whoever takes the task on will be able to retain their ability to focus on their mission instead of starting to eat bystanders.


Nits:
’They were not simply drawn in musty old wizardly tome.’ - - Not sure but did you leave out a ‘the’ before musty?
’Now that she had to explain it herself, the idea sounded more harebrained that ever.’ - - ‘Than’ instead of ‘that’ of course.

[WellTemperedClavier]

Hmm, I dunno. Man-cave still seems like a bad location for a cursed flail (is there a good location for one?).

Sigil's a good name. And carries a lot of weight for the old 2nd Edition fans...

Ooh, the Dr. Dee copy. This one's been around for a while.

Ha! I like Sigil's reaction to January's teaching style. Blood Raven is an expert, but she is kind of remote. Not that it's bad for a teacher to be remote necessarily, but some students just gel better with someone who feels more down-to-earth.

"I'd like to borrow a hyena." I laughed out loud at this line.

Hm, if I were the vet I might ask for some video evidence of all this. I don't think I'd be much fun as a side-character in a superhero story.

So Harper and Kaelin are kind of like... part timers? Which is an interesting spin for a superhero.

Huh, Xochitl has a really good point.

[SubRosa]

Renee: I have learned how to use keyboard shortcuts to write a few special characters, like the á in Sága. But mostly I just copy and paste them. It is simpler, and saves me time.

Xochitl is a high schooler, so naturally she went for more youthful-sounding names. It reminds me of DC Comic's Legion of Superheroes. They are all teens who have names like Lightning Lad, Element Lass, Saturn Girl, Cosmo Boy, and so on.

The Hierophant did spend years, an entire lifetime really, learning to summon Abyssals. And it still killed him in the end. Likewise, Blood Raven has spent centuries learning magic.

Jan is totally over Hannah. She just said so after all!

The Gordian Knot is an old Greek legend of a super-complex knot in the city of Gordium, that was supposed to be impossible to untangle. Until Alexander the Great came along. He took one look at it, pulled out his sword, and cut it in half. Problem solved. So a Gordian Knot moment is facing a complex problem and solving it with a direct and unconventional manner. Like Xochitl realizing that they really did not need an actual hyena, just someone shapechanged into one.


Acadian: X-7 sounds like it would be a good radio call signal though...

I came up with Sigil as quickly as Ryo did. I spent more time working out Xochitl's more juvenile names. Then Ryo's more serious name just popped into my head.

I think Bill has the worst kind of experience at becoming a hyenea! So it won't be him. Besides, they would not possibly endanger civilians like that. It will have to be one of the supes who takes the drink.

As always, thanks for finding those nits for me.


WellTemperedClavier: Rest assured, the team will come up with a suitable place to put the flail when all is said and done.

I don't remember the term Sigil in D&D 2nd Edition. Was it one of the class titles they had for magicians?

Depending on how you look at it, Dr. Dee is a relative newcomer. January's copy of the Scripta Mortis is 2,000 years old. My first inclination was to put an emphasis on really old books like that. But then I realized that being written so long ago, means they would not have information on newer developments, like the Hyena People in this case. So I have also been tempering the ancient magic tomes with newer magic ones, from sources like Dr. Dee and James Frazer. And of course Silverlight's annotated Scripta Mortis.

I am glad the humor in the last few parts came through. I wanted to impart some light-hearted fun into the proceedings, after the grim events surrounding the near end of the world that so recently took place.

We have often heard Blood Raven and January herself telling others that there is no shame in having powers and not being a superhero. I wanted to show people doing just that in Harper and Kaelin. They are mages to be sure, and do what they can to help. But they don't have the mindset to wear a cape, and they know it. So they only get drawn into things from the periphery, not directly such as January and company.









The Detroit Zoo is on the Stormcrow Map

The Spotted Hyena



Book 11.33 - Raven Sisters

With that January pulled up the waypoint network once more. Then she realized that there were no nodes within it nearer to the zoo than she already was. So she went out the old-fashioned way, via the same hidden entrance that Blackhawk and Lighthammer had so recently used. From there she rose up into the city skies, and winged her way north.

She was surprised that it was still day time. It had seemed like hours had passed. But really, very little time had gone by after all. The evening had just begun, so most people were off work. But given that it was midsummer, there was still plenty of daylight left. So below her people were making their way around on the streets, mowing their lawns, swimming in pools, running or biking along paths, and just going about ordinary life.

She followed Woodward Avenue directly to the zoo. The wide, divided thoroughfare was an easy landmark to use, as it was one of the major arteries that cut through the city and suburbs. That took her past her old battleground in Ferndale, where she had her first encounter with an Abyssal at Ferndale pride. It felt like ages had passed since then, even though in reality she knew it had been less than two months. Time certainly flew when one was battling monsters!

Just a mile later January soared over the massive water tower that belonged to the Detroit Zoo. It was painted to show a sunset of mouthwatering purples that faded to blue, with black silhouettes of various animals encircling its girth. Immediately beside it was an upraised parking structure. Both sat in one corner in the intersection of the wide, divided boulevard of Woodward Avenue and the sunken concrete of Interstate 696.

The entrance of the park itself lay just beyond. In a moment January winged over that as well, and into the zoo proper. Below her stretched out wide picnic areas, clusters of animal habitats, and large buildings such as the new penguin house and the giant glass dome of the old aviary. Then she winged her way over the wide walkways that led through the center of the zoo. She came upon a massive bronze fountain there, held up ten feet high in the air by a pair of sculpted bears. There she turned sharply to the left.

From here she flew over the cluster of buildings that made up the education center, along with a few open air restaurants and bathroom facilities. Then she was beyond the public areas, and into the administrative section of the complex. Walled off from the rest of the park, the buildings here were plain and utilitarian. They were a stark contrast to the often nature-themed kiosks, Beaux-Arts classical structures, and postmodern fantasies such as the new iceberg-inspired penguin house that filled the public spaces.

January feathered back on her wings to slow her descent, and dropped lightly to the ground outside of a plain, windowless structure here. She referred to Sága on her wrist. She had Dr. Duncan's phone number. That was all she needed to track the veterinarian. Thanks to the GPS in the doctor's phone, Sága could pinpoint her exact location. She used this to go inside, walk past several startled zoo employees, and go straight to the doctor's office.

"Stormcrow!" she looked up with surprise. "I wasn't expecting you quite so soon. The hyena is still in her enclosure. We haven't even begun to prep her for transport."

"I've got good news Doc," January held up a conciliatory hand. "We won't need the entire hyena after all. All I need is a few hairs."

"Oh, well, that's a lot easier," the doctor breathed an audible sigh of relief. "I'll be honest with you, I was more than a little worried about all of this. I mean, I am responsible for the well being of these animals."

"I understand completely," January nodded. "The last thing we want to do is hurt any animal. That's why we came up with a work-around."

"A work-around?" the older woman led January from the building, and back into the public area of the zoo. Soon enough people were staring. But there was no time to pause. They made their way directly to the African section via an electric golf cart. But given that it was across half the zoo from them, they had time to talk along the way.

"We are going to create a polymorph potion," January declared. "That way one of us can turn into a hyena instead. So we get all the laughter, and none of the possible tragedy."

"You just made a hyena joke, didn't you," the doctor said.

"Humor always works best when you have to explain it..." January mused somberly.

"So this is about that Hyenaman in the news then?" the doctor asked. "The one at the art fair today, and the Big Tire last week?"

"That's the one," January agreed. "The Hyenaman is really not working for me as a name though. I like the Michigan Dogman."

"But he's not a dog," Dr. Duncan insisted. "I saw the videos of him. He's a hyena, and a man, so... a Hyenaman."

"I know," January sighed, "but it just doesn't... land right. Sometimes the Rule of Cool is more important than actual science."

By then they had skirted past the arctic enclosures, and had entered into the space devoted to African animals. January marveled at the heads of several giraffes as they waved high up in the sky. Closer to her were several zebra, who meandered around this way and that within a nearer enclosure.

"How is Tigris by the way?" January wondered.

"Oh she is doing great!" the veterinarian piped up with clear enthusiasm. "As you know, she was badly malnourished when she came here. She also had a minor infection. But she responded well to antibiotics, and we cleared that up. She's eating healthy food now, and looking better every day. We will try to integrate her with the other tigers soon. Hopefully that will work out. Otherwise we might have to find another zoo to take her, or an animal sanctuary."

"Let me know when you do, I'd like to be here," January said. "If things don't work out... Well having a crow around might be helpful in breaking up a tiger fight."

"That sounds great," the doctor said. "It would be a huge relief to have you and your friends there when we do that. Sometimes animals don't get along, and that can go really badly when they are predators. Do you want to stop by and see Tigris now? We don't have her out in public yet, but I can take you to where she is."

"I wish I could," January mused. "But everyone is waiting on me. Once I get these hairs, I've got to get back so we can do our de-cursing."

"Yeah, right, sorry. We don't get superheroes here every day. To be honest, it's kind of exciting." Dr. Duncan breathed. "It would really suck for that poor guy to be stuck as the Hyenaman forever."

"You just aren't going to let that one go, are you?" January smiled.

"It's the most accurate terminology," the veterinarian insisted. "In fact we could call him Homo Hyaena..."

By then they were at the hyena enclosure. Two of the spotted carnivores prowled within. January noted how their thick, powerful shoulder muscles trailed to narrow hindquarters, and immediately recalled how the Dogman - or Hyenaman - had possessed the same top-heavy body shape. Other than that they looked like wolves or dogs in general, but with rounded ears that stood straight up, and short, small tails.

So far neither paid any attention to January, nor anyone else. They simply ambled slowly about the grassy hill within their glassed-off pen.

"We can go around back," Dr. Duncan said. "I'm sure there are some hairs they shed in the-."

But before the other woman could complete her sentence, January had leaped over the tall glass that separated the hyenas from the crowd of people that now looked on. Many of those people held up phones and even a few old-fashioned cameras. Clearly, this was going to end up on the internet.

January made it quick. She came down behind the two animals with barely a sound. She reached into her first aid belt pouch, and pulled out a pair of blunt-nosed safety scissors. Then she made a final, shorter leap to the nearer of the two predators. It had just begun to swing around to snarl at her, when she snapped out with the scissors.

A puff of hairs fell like snow as the hyena darted around in a circle. January reached out with her free hand to snatch them up before they could waft down to the earth. Then her legs propelled her directly skyward. A pair of hyena jaws snapped shut just beneath her toes as she did so. Then January's wings swept out and held her up in the sky, out of reach of the animal's fangs.

She stuffed her scissors back into her first aid pouch, and the hairs into another. She paused to give both the hyenas and people below a smile and wave. Then she turned her eyes to the south, and winged her way back to the Raven's Nest.

* * *

[macole]

Wasn't Sigil the name of the D&D Planescape crossroad city? Those books are packed away somewhere in my basement, that's why I thought of it.

The Hyenaman, took some getting used to. Hangman kept getting in the way.

I do like the way you can take real-life location and mold it into your story world. Loved the way January gets away at the end. I could feel the wind as her wings beat the air to send her upward.

This post has been edited by macole: Oct 28 2023, 08:03 AM

[Renee]

Mm hmm, yep, exactly. The shortcuts used to make accents aren't really so short, hence the need for copy-paste to make a word like naive have an umlaut over the I, and so on. I once tried to learn how to make accents so I could impress Lopov while we typed our messages, but the process was so convoluted.

Lightning Lad!

Yes, thank you, I did look up Gordian Knot last week. Sometimes getting an answer from a friend is better than from search engines, just because of that more-personal set of nuances we can give one another. Gordian Knot is also like that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, when the guy with the sword is swinging it back and forth all fancy, the idea being that Indiana Jones is supposed to be so entranced how skilled the sword-swinger is is while his demise is about to befall, and *blam* goes the gun.

It is quite daunting how little time has passed, that is true. Not a whole lot of time, yet so much has happened. It's like most of our game characters: all of this action (main quest, side quests, etc.) is packed into just a few short months of their lives.

Stormcrow finds the doc through GPS pinging of her doc's phone. Eesh, that's so scary. True, though. Even my cheapie flip phone is not immune.

Soon enough people were staring

I bet they were!

And me too.. I like Michigan Dogman better, too. Bet that must drive the zoologists crazy: But that's a hyena, not a common dog!

Yikes, don't get nipped by hyenas, hon! 🐕

This post has been edited by Renee: Oct 28 2023, 05:23 PM

[Acadian]

"We won't need the entire hyena after all. All I need is a few hairs."
- - Whew, after the first sentence, I had visions of needing the animal’s heart. . . not that Stormcrow would have gone along with the plan if that is what it entailed. A few hairs is much happier for the hyena.

Mission completed! Though now I have visions of the Stormcrow’s daring hyena hair grab going viral and producing the newest Twit Tok challenge, with plenty of potential Darwin awardees to attempt it.

Seriously though, a fun episode and I’m looking forward now to who the lucky potion drinker will be.

[WellTemperedClavier]

Macole beat me to it, but Sigil's a city from the Planescape campaign setting, and probably the closest thing an infinite multiverse can have to a center.

Incidentally, WotC's apparently brought it back for 5th edition! Glad to see it return, in one form or another. I hear they brought back the factions, which I have mixed feelings about. 2nd Ed culminated in the factions losing their power, which I disliked at the time but came to believe was the correct decision, since they're kind of limiting in a lot of ways.

https://dungeonsanddragonsfan.com/planescape-5e-dnd-2023/

Makes sense. The magical world changes just as surely as any world, and that means you need to keep up-to-date. Getting the latest grimoire is like downloading the latest software update.

Ooh, I like the water tower description. Your writing really brings a feeling for Detroit's landmarks.

I'd be relieved if I were the doctor, too. Don't even want to think about the liability issues of hyena transport...

Heh, I laughed at the joke.

That is a good point. Hyenas aren't even related to dogs, i don't think?

Good to hear Tigris is doing all right.

All right, sounds like she got what she came for.

[SubRosa]

macole: I had no idea about Sigil being a city in the Planescape setting. I only knew Planescape was a video game back in the day, but I never played it. I did not even know it was a campaign setting for regular D&D. It does sound like a really interesting, if really weird, setting for a game though.

Hyenaman does not really roll off the tongue, not like Dogman does.

Setting this in the Real World - or at least a very close cousin to it in the multiverse - has had some bonuses and drawbacks. On one hand it makes things a lot simpler for me, as I can use the setting that already exists. For example, I don't have to invent how downtown looks, I can just look at pictures of how it really looks like.

On the other hand, it can sometimes be constraining to be stuck in the setting that already exists. I have found that using the real world as a base level and then adding in new locations and organizations on top of that has worked well. That also helps me reinforce that this is not exactly the same world the readers live in. Besides superheros being real, so are Worldwide Network News, Burger Baron, Fae Cola, the Technocracy, and the like.


Renee: Phone security, and tracking people through it, will become important in later Books this season. It is literally so simple that anyone can do it, but so many people are utterly oblivious to that fact. Granted, there is no reason to track someone like you or me. If the FBI wants to track me, they are going to be mighty bored following me walking from the couch to the bathroom to the kitchen every day. But if you were say, committing acts of terrorism, that would become very important.

January would definitely not want to get bit by the hyenas. That might damage their teeth!


Acadian: January would absolutely not sign off on cutting out any hearts! OTOH, this will not be the last time we see Kaelin's polymorph potions put to use. January will find a clever use for them in the future.

Thankfully hyenas are rare enough that not many people would have the opportunity to replicate January's feat. Though granted, doing it to dogs, or other people, is a different story...


WellTemperedClavier: I looked up Sigil after you mentioned it last week. It is a neat setting. I had no idea it was a thing in D&D. While I was at it I discovered that D&D has wereravens, which are Lawful Good. Sounds like something January might play as a character, in addition to her dwarf Dora the Kneecapper in Shadowrun and her Kenku monk Harmony in D&D.

I added that water tower description in my final edit to the piece. I realized that I was really breezing over the description of the zoo, and went back to add in a little more detail. I am glad that both you and macole appreciated it. It does help the world feel more alive.

At least someone laughed at January's hyena joke. It was not great of course, but the hyena does laugh last after all...

I thought hyenas were canines until I read up on them for this story. Turns out they are completely unrelated.

I do plan to bring Tigris back for one more scene in a future Book, when the zoo tries to integrate her with the other tigers. I am still not sure how that is going to work out.








Alchemical Symbol for Mercury

Spotted Hyena Sounds

Harper's Hand is inspired by the numerous D&D Bigby's Hand spells.


Book 11.34 - Raven Sisters

Once back inside, January handed over the hyena hairs to Kaelin. The alchemist reached into the satchel at her hip once more. It was black, and emblazoned with what January had recently learned was the alchemical symbol for Mercury. It was the common Venus symbol for women: a circle with an equidistant cross that descended from its underside. But in addition this glyph also bore the added feature of a semicircle that rose up from its top. This reminded January of a pair of small horns, and added a touch of the masculine to the otherwise traditionally feminine symbol.

January noted that the interior of the satchel was divided into multiple folds, which her Raven Sister flipped through with ease. Each held vials and bottles tucked into little leather loops. There seemed to be no end of them. In fact, there were far more than could ever fit into such a small bag, and January was sure that she was only seeing a fraction of the interior.

Like Silverlight's portable library, this was clearly another version of a bag of holding. Only this was specialized to Kaelin's needs as an alchemist.

The punk potion maker produced a mortar and pestle made of green, veined marble. Then she poured in a few drops of liquid from one vial, and some powder from another bottle. Finally she added in the hyena hairs. She ground them all together into a brown liquid. The color reminded January of the hides of the hyenas she had seen at the zoo.

Through it all January felt magic rise within the other woman. A tiny thread of this flowed from her and linked with the concoction she was creating. She felt much greater magic there rise up and take the shape of a specific enchantment. Clearly, Kaelin was using her magic to unlock the power within the reagents. Even as the alchemist physically ground and mixed them together with her pestle, she was doing the same in astral space with their magical properties.

When she was finished, Kaelin swished the fluid around in the basin of the mortar, and held it up for all to see. January could feel the power that radiated from the draught. It smelled of hyenas - a musky scent that January was now personally familiar with - and its threads of energy spoke of transformation.

"Okay, who does the honors?" the alchemist asked.

"Oooh, can I drink it!" Sigil instantly volunteered. The teenager even held her hand up, as if she was in class.

"No." It was not just January, but practically everyone in the room that instantly replied.

"This will probably be dangerous," January explained. "Not the potion, but what comes next. I'll do it."

"That's why you can't be the one who drinks it," Kaelin reasoned. "I doubt the hyena spirit is going to go quietly into that good night. We are going to need you when it fights back."

"Then give it to me," Ôkami reached out his hand for the potion.

"No, we need you even more. You are the rescue man. You can walk through walls, and spirit people safety if things go sideways." Harper explained. Then she nodded to the katana at his hip. "Besides, you've got the magic sword."

"She's right," Silverlight agreed, and hefted her lunar staff in one hand. "Those of us with magical weapons and attacks will likely be needed for the confrontation that may arise here."

"Okay, me then." Gadget stepped up. "It sounds like my powered armor won't be much help anyway."

"But you can make force fields," January pointed out. "I don't know if they can keep out a hyena spirit, but it might be just the thing we need to keep the noncombatants safe."

"Well then, bottoms up!" Without another word, Kaelin lifted the mortar to her lips and upended the vessel. Harper tried to reach out to stop their partner, but they were too slow. By the time their fingers wrapped around the green marble basin, the alchemist had already imbibed all of its contents.

The transformation that came next was a little disappointing. January was expecting all sorts of dramatic body horror, with the other woman's skull cracking apart and elongating, shoulders widening, back hunching over, and so on. Instead her body just seemed to blur for a few moments. When it finally resolved back into clarity Kaelin was gone, and a waist-high hyena stood in her place. Even her clothing had vanished, apparently absorbed into the magic of the transformation.

She looked like the hyena that January taken the fur from at the zoo. Even the pattern of dark spots on her light brown fur seemed the same. With overly developed forequarters, a smaller hind end and short tail, she looked like a wolf or dog that had been stretched out of shape. If she had been placed beside the real hyena, January honestly could not have told the difference between them.

Kaelin the hyena raised her head and made a series of long whoops, each starting out in a low tone, only to transition to a higher note at the end. Harper shook their head and sighed. But they could not remain upset for long, as a moment later Kaelin leaped up on her back feet, planted her forefeet on the magician's shoulders, and began to lick their face.

"Alright, alright, save it for the after party," Silverlight laughed. "We have the rune finished. I think it is right.

"You think?" Gadget asked.

"We shall see soon enough," Silverlight replied coolly. "Magic is not a science, but an art. It cannot be copied and reproduced exactly. It comes from the spirit, and as everyone's spirit is different, everyone's magic is as well."

January looked over at the rune. Painted across at least ten feet of the concrete floor, it was brushed out in multiple colors. It was bordered by a huge yellow circle. Within this were curving flower petals in orange, what looked like a hexagram in blue, and other shapes drawn out in red and green. To say that it was complex would be an understatement.

She felt power radiating from the design. Unlike most spells, she could not sense links to bind it to its creators: Sigil and Silverlight. Instead it stood entirely alone, separate from any other entity. It was exactly as January had read about runes. Like one of Kaelin's potions, or Blood Raven's own waypoint network, or even a magic sword like Chujitsu at Ôkami's hip, it was its own individual magical being.

Now January understood why Blood Raven had once described magic items have having a life of their own. They did indeed exist beyond the power and will of their creators. They were the nearest to technology that magic ever got. Once created, anyone could use them, or at least nearly anyone. After all, Blood Raven's waypoints could only be activated by her blood. So it was clearly possible for an enchanter to place some authentication procedures upon their use.

"Right, let's do this thing." Gadget declared. "Sigil, Sunita, come back with me to the control room. I'll stand just outside, and be ready with a force field if need be."

"I can fight!" Sigil declared with youthful zeal. She looked from January to the powered armor hero. "Tell him Stormcrow!"

January stepped up to the teen, and laid a comforting arm around her shoulder. She leaned down, and whispered quietly into her ear, so that no one else could hear.

"I need you to keep Sunita safe," January reasoned. "She is your responsibility. Gadget's force fields might not work on a spirit. But you're a mage. I trust you to do this, you understand? Her safety is up to you now."

"You're just trying to get me out of the way, because you're afraid I'll get hurt." Sigil groused.

"Of course I am afraid you will get hurt!" January declared. "I'd be a pretty cold bitch if I didn't. We can talk more about this later. Right now, this is what being part of a team means. We all protect one another. Nobody dies."

"Right," Gadget said as the young woman finally relented and walked back with him and Sunita. The older woman paused at the door, and stared back toward her husband with a look of trepidation clearly etched upon her features. But she did go within. Once they were safely ensconced behind the armored glass of the control room, Gadget stepped back outside, and gave the thumbs up.

"Okay Mr. Nadeem, come and step into the circle," Silverlight motioned for the Coney Island co-owner and operator to join them at the glyph. "This won't hurt. At least I don't think so. Once we draw out the spirit, your part will be done. Then I want you go back to the control room as well. Gadget will be ready to help you with that."

Again, the powered armor hero nodded in assent. In the meantime January and the others spread out around the massive rune. She deployed her wings and separated them from her arms. She was not expecting to need precision, or speed right now. But the extra limbs might just help. Ôkami likewise drew his sword Chujitsu, and Silverlight readied her staff Mene. Even Harper took a moment and cast a spell upon themself. January could not tell exactly what it was for, aside from giving her the feeling it would provide the other magician with good luck. Finally Kaelin sat back on her furred haunches, and a nervous-sounding giggle escaped from her bestial throat.

Bill moved tentatively into the rune. It instantly glowed to life at his first step within its bounds. All of the colors that created the glyph - yellow, orange, blue, and green - now shone brighter and brighter from its inscribed lines. The National Guardsman paused at this, but continued on when Silverlight motioned him to continue forward.

A hum began to grow in January's awareness. It took her a moment to realize that it was not with her physical ears, but rather her astral ones. It was a sound that washed through astral space, like that of an oncoming wave. It grew louder and louder, causing January to turn her head this way and that to seek out the source. She was about to close her eyes and shift her senses fully into the magical realm, when the origin of the noise became clear.

That massive flail appeared in Bill's hand. The long haft looked like it was made of wood, capped with iron at either end. Three metal chains descended from the top, ending with those spiked rods. They now reminded January of iron rolling pins festooned with spikes. None of that struck her as amusing however. After all, she had seen them kill a truck recently.

Bill dropped to his knees only halfway to the center of the rune. Then he fell farther down onto his hands as well. It reminded January of when the Technocrat had altered gravity near the end of the Battle of Belle Isle. Like the Abyssals then, Bill seemed to be crushed down against the rune, as if he weighed ten times his normal amount.

With him went that terrible flail. Alsaahiq - its name was now clear to January in astral space - was pinned to the magical glyph as well, as if by glue. It began to shake in Bill's hand, as if some unseen force was attempting to pry it from his fingers. January could see Bill's knuckles turn white as he clutched the weapon ever tighter. At the same time as his eyes bulged, and his face constricted into a look of pure horror.

Then Alsaahiq was torn free from his grip. It skittered across the rune, and slipped down one line in its surface after another. Bill took in a deep gasp of air, as if it was the first breath he had taken since entering the circle. He rose to unsteady feet, and lurched away, only to fall unceremoniously onto his butt. Gadget raced forward to meet him. But before he could reach the circle Harper intervened in a most dramatic fashion.

The magician did something with their hands, and a moment later a blue light issued from one of their fists. It swept out in an expanding cone, only to solidify into a giant, transparent hand. It had to be at least five feet across, larger when it opened its fingers. This great hand folded around Bill and lifted him from the concrete floor. It swept him across the room, and set him down in front of Gadget. There it released him, and turned back to the rune.

Harper's Hand, January mused. Now that was a neat spell.

[Acadian]

Kaelin has a magic satchel of holding! Cool!

And a heated debate about who takes the potion. Well, a potion in the hand is worth all the debate in world and Kaelin ended the debate by upending the vial herself.

Jan was wise to try and convince Sigil that her mission was to protect Sunita. Sigil didin’t fall for it of course.

With all safety precautions in place, Bill take his place, only to be soon joined by that pesky flail. Heh, the rune seems to act like flypaper sort of. Separating Bill from the flail and getting Bill to safety is a good start, right?

Nice of Harper to lend a hand (groan).

[Renee]

Exactly, if the FBI or some other acronym organization wants to look at me, go right ahead. You'll be mighty bored while doing so. But this is why landlines still have validity, right? Some criminals refuse to talk too much over their cellphones due to this very reason.

My mom told me a story from the 1970s. My family traveled to Europe several times in my youth, using the fabulous book Europe on Five Dollars a Day. Somehow, the FBI or somebody began wondering how a mixed-race couple not long out of college could afford to to travel every summer. My dad worked for the government as well, so I think someone got concerned. Like, maybe someone thought he was really traveling over there because he was a spy.

My mom by then somehow knew that someone was eavesdropping. She could hear this *click-clunk* noise every time she used the phone. Knowing this, she began joking over the phone when gabbing to one of the other local housefraus, literally going out of her way to discuss discuss the latest coupons at Giant and other boring topics.


Anyway, yes, the symbol for Mercury (in astrology) is the same one for Venus, plus a couple of added 'horns', I guess. Pluto had a similar symbol originally, but us Scorpios aren't supposed to consider Pluto an actual planet anymore.

Silverlight and Kaelin have the best Bags of Holding kits!! It really impresses me how they're doing all of this on the spot. Will it even work, this cure to return the Michigan Dogdude to just a dude? 🐶 Wow, that's crazy. So they're even using multiple planes of existence to brew up whatever they're mixing.

Whoa, the teen wants to drink the potion, but NO that'd be a bad idea. Too inexperienced. So Okami's wants to drink the potion. Brave. But again, no. They're having to make this concoction testing on the spot. Normally there'd be all kinds of test subjects in such a case, even for arcane, magical work, the equivalent of EARN CA$H for MEDICAL TE$TING we sometimes see in the Classified sections of newspapers, probably on Craigslist nowadays. But nope, there isn't time for any of that.

Kaelin drinks it, uh oh.

"This won't hurt. At least I don't think so.

Ha that's a great line! .. Another this week! preview on the CW. I'm laughing but this is all sort of creepy in a way. Even though the Flail has been forcibly removed from Bill, nobody really knows what's going to happen in the long run. Guess we'll find out.

This post has been edited by Renee: Nov 5 2023, 10:01 PM

[SubRosa]

Acadian: A potion in the hand is worth a two in the stomach, or something like that. Kaelin just decided to skip straight to where she thought the debate was eventually going to go in the end. She may have learned that direct approach from January. Or Blood Raven.

I also enjoyed the obligatory lie to convince Sigil to get herself out of harm's way. Of course she had to see right through it. She has seen the same movies January has where someone tries to do that!

Flypaper is a really apt analogy for how I decided to make the rune work. It pulled out the Hyena spirit. Now it is up to the heroes to do something about it.

You might say that Harper is quite handy to have around. More than anyone else, they are the classic D&D Wizard. Even more so than Silverlight, who has some overlap in the Cleric areas. If I had to describe Harper in one word it would be: Fluid. They are always changing, always adapting. So they are a jack of all trades when it comes to spells. They are not the best there is at what they do, but they can do a little of everything. From make a gateway, summon Bigby's hand, ice up the floor, shoot magic missiles, or make tentacles rise up to entrap people.


Renee: Traveling Europe on just $5 a day sounds fun. I imagine there is a lot of hiking, camping, staying at hostels, and using public transit in there.

I had fun customizing bags of holding to fit the specific needs of both Kaelin and Silverlight in this book. It was nice, because I was able to make each fit their unique personalities.








Book 11.35 - Raven Sisters

However, January could still sense a link between Alsaahiq and Bill. It was invisible in the physical world, but in the astral it was an iron chain that bound the hapless restaurateur to the artifact. It did not bear the clean scent that most magic did. Rather this link felt foul, corrupt, like an addiction that one could not escape.

Clearly she was not the only one to sense it. For Ôkami leaped forward with a loud shout. His sword Chujitsu flashed under the lights, and howled like a wolf in the magical realm. He brought it roaring down in an overhand chop, straight into the magical link. But the samurai and his enchanted steel were both thrown back, as if they had struck some inviolable wall.

"I had to try," he sheepishly remarked a moment later.

With that Kaelin came forward. A series of loud, high-pitched giggles erupted from the hyena-woman's inhuman throat as she charged. A similar noise seemed to erupt from the flail itself, just a few feet away. Then Kaelin's jaws clamped shut upon the magical link between it and Bill Nadeem. Her teeth ground down upon the threads of magical energy. Harder and harder they pressed, crushing the power beneath them, just as a mundane hyena crushed bones within its jaws.

A loud screech rose from Alsaahiq, and there came a flash of brilliant energy through the astral. January found herself reeling, holding up her hands in front of her face by reflex. But she held her ground, as did the others around her. Once that magical shockwave abated it became clear that the link between artifact and man had not only been severed, it had ceased to exist entirely.

But that was not the end of it. No, January could see that it was just the beginning. The flail seemed to dissolve before her eyes. She felt the power within it rise up into the air, and form a great dark cloud within the astral. This cloud coalesced and solidified, even as the physical weapon on the floor faded away into nothingness. In mere moments the flail was completely gone.

In its place loomed a shadowy figure painted in dark earth tones. It hissed and wavered within the air, as if it was made up of numerous streamers of cloth blown taut by a strong wind. These ribbons or streams of power mixed together to form a general outline however.

It was much like the form of the Dogman that January had encountered at the Big Tire, and most recently at the art fair. It was humanoid in outline, but bore the massive, hunched shoulders and arms of a hyena, along with its nearly atrophied waist and hindquarters. Its head was canine in shape as well, with a long muzzle that sprouted fangs. Green eyes shone malevolently within the elongated skull, and stared at the assembled magicians.

Harper was the first to act, and engulfed the larger creature with their magical hand. But the claws which sprouted from the monster's fists ripped their arcane construct to shreds, and caused it to vanish entirely a moment later.

A brilliant, magical laser blossomed from the horned moon diadem that rode Silverlight's brow. This radiant energy lanced straight through the creature's body, and left a visible hole behind in its wake. The monster recoiled for a moment, then lurched after the wizard. But January intervened. She threw up her wings in time to meet the monster's claws. They skittered off her feathers, but only after cutting long furrows through their near-impregnable surfaces. That caused January to wince a moment, before she pushed down the pain in order to carry on.

Chujitsu howled in the astral, and struck at the hyena spirit. But the monster whirled and caught up the enchanted steel in its paws. It pressed both of its hands against the sides of the blade, sandwiching the steel between them. Ôkami pushed down hard with the edge, trying to slice the creature's paws apart. But its arcane flesh stood strong under the assault, and instead it shoved the samurai back.

January was about to lunge forward with her wings, in an effort to cut the monster in half. But another laser from Silverlight sent it dodging sideways. That sent it right toward Kaelin, who was still in hyena form.

January beat her wings down to give her velocity, even as she pushed off the ground with her feet. She soared through the air past Alsaahiq and scooped up Kaelin's canine form in her arms. The hyena-alchemist was heavier than January would have imagined. But she could lift trucks. At the end of the day, a big hyena was nothing to her. January flew away with the alchemist, and looped around toward the control room. A moment later she dropped her friend off near its entrance, even as Gadget was helping Bill through the door to the relative safety inside.

January looped back around through the air to rejoin the fight. Ôkami kept the monster occupied in melee by constantly putting himself right in front of its face. It struck at him with claws and fangs, but he either dodged aside or parried with his katana. At the same time Silverlight lanced one burning laser after another through its body, slowly but surely annihilating it.

Harper mixed things up with a spell that January had no idea existed. In an instant she created a field of ghostly tentacles that sprang up from the floor, and tried to snare the creature in their grasp. But Alsaahiq sliced through them with its claws, and what little remained of them vanished a moment later.

"Let's give it the Zerg Rush," January said through gritted teeth. She slammed directly into the creature, and sent it staggering backward. Silverlight joined in, wielding her staff at close quarters now. She pressed it against Alsaahiq's body, and used it to push the spirit down. Harper's Hand once more appeared out of thin air, and grabbed the creature by the head. Together the three of them shoved the monster to the cement floor.

That gave Ôkami the opportunity he needed. He held his sword with one hand on the hilt, and other half way down the blade, as if it was a spear. Half-swording thusly, he drove the weapon directly down into the spirit's heart. Darkness spilled out across the astral under the blow, like blood from the magical wound. Ôkami pressed harder and harder, shoving the katana deeper into the monster's aura. Even Gadget came up in the end. He leaped onto the samurai's back and literally lent the weight of his powered armor to other man's attack.

That was the final straw. With a terrific howl through the astral, the monster collapsed in upon itself, like a black hole. Those streamers of power fell into themselves, becoming denser and denser, smaller and smaller. They quickly grew so small that the allies had nothing to hold on to, and they found themselves sprawled out on the empty concrete floor. There was a final groan, and then Alsaahiq vanished entirely.

Well, not quite, January noted when she rose back to her feet with the others. That flail, that terrible artifact, once again lay upon the concrete floor. It was completely unscratched by the affair. In fact, it looked exactly as it had when they had started. If she had not known better, she might have thought it was a museum piece, or part of a cosplayer's outfit. But given what she did know of the artifact, she felt her skin crawl from looking at it.

Except of course, its link to Bill Nadeem was now severed forever. If nothing else, they had succeeded in freeing him from the spirit's dark grasp.

"Is there no destroying this thing?" Harper said what they all were thinking.

"If it were so easily vanquished, it would not still be here after nearly a thousand years," Silverlight pointed out.

"So what do we do with it, fire it into the sun?" Gadget wondered.

"Or perhaps drop it to the lowest depths of the sea," Silverlight looked to January. "We have a sister who could arrange that."

"Just so long as no one touches it, it's alright though?" Harper questioned.

"I saw a bunch of crates back in those storerooms, and some bags of concrete mix..." January mused. "I think that in the very least, we can insure that no one ever gets their hands on it again."

Kaelin yipped in agreement. The alchemist was still a hyena. She ran back from the control room to where January and the others all stood around the flail. Behind her, Bill, Sunita, and Sigil followed more cautiously. The two restaurateurs clearly had no desire to get too close to the cursed artifact again.

January stared at Kaelin, and wondered how long her potion would last? Then she realized that she looked exactly like the hyena that she had taken the hairs from at the zoo. She did not have photos to compare them, but she was pretty sure that her alchemist friend was now a duplicate of that same animal. Perhaps even down to the DNA?

She wondered if Kaelin could do the same, but with her own hair instead? If she could duplicate January, and then wear the Stormcrow suit, couldn't she and January Ryan be filmed in the same place, at the same time? If it worked with her, it would with the other members of the Alliance as well. This might be a solution to her secret identity problem. In the very least it was one more tactic to employ. She would have to talk to the alchemist about it, once her friend could do more than giggle and slobber.

In the meantime, Silverlight looked down at the rune around them.

"Once we get this thing safely concreted up, I'll take it to Calypso. She can bury it at sea." The wizard declared. "Then I'm going to tell her about this rune. If it worked this well at drawing out the spirit, imagine what a modified version might do to the plastics she is hoping to pull from the oceans? With a little tinkering, we might be able to put this on ships. Then they could safely gather it all up without harming any wildlife with nets, or nanobots, or even elemental spirits."

"A garbage glyph?" January thought out loud.

"Well then, let's get trashed," Gadget laughed.

* * *

[Renee]

Ach, so the process is not done, yet? Poor Billy. I bet he'll never again pick up any sort of utensil or tool the rest of his life without double-thinking it. 🍴

Nice. Good job KAELIN! Oops, spoke too soon. Man, this flail is really got some power embedded within it. Not just within it, but all around and down and under. Good Gosh it is taking ALL of them, thinking creatively, again doing all of this on the spot. I bet this demon ... uh... Chujitsu, thought he'd just show up and mop the floor. Nope, he's getting his hindquarters kicked.

Yikes, Alsaahiq is still here! Is it even possible for any of them to simply pick it up and just drop it into a trashcan? I suppose not. Picking it up is how this whole mess started in the beginning.

Yeah, drop it into the sea, there you go. I guess. And there's also that one superhero who's flown to another planet, if I recall correct. Maybe he can take it to Pluto!