(Witch Hunters) ...at the stake...

[Weavebreaker]

"This screams trap." Weavebreaker glanced over to Alastor. "I have a feeling he is going to get someone killed one day." Her eyes snapped back to the fire. While it did not extinguish the inferno, at least it pulled it to the outside of the building, giving people a better path to escape. While she could try to wrestle with control once more, its' location seemed problematic. It was much more plausible for fire to come shooting out a window, then to come floating off the side of the building.

"Couldn't sympathy be drawn from the photograph's to view who took them?" Weavebreaker frowned.

"If they were going with sniping, they wouldn't have done something that provided so much concealment." Weavebreaker considered the possibilities. "The Circle is downwind. We should check for spots upwind that could provide a advantage for ambush."

With that, Weavebreaker scanned for advantageous spots of ambush.

  2 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2018-08-19 20:23:43		[01] Weavebreaker rolls 6 to Perception (10 Again)		9, 6, 8, 3, 3, 2		2 successes

  4 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2018-08-19 20:23:43		[02] Weavebreaker rolls 6 to Perception (10 Again)		9, 8, 5, 2, 4, 10, 10, 2		4 successes

  1 success

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2018-08-19 20:23:43		[03] Weavebreaker rolls 6 to Perception (10 Again)		6, 6, 9, 6, 3, 4		1 success

[Winter]

He watched as any resemblance of a plan was smothered in its crib. "You know, I really appreciate your committment to honor", he said with his back leaning against a wall, hands in his pockets, "you two plan ahead, stay a wide berth away from unnecessary risks. Who knows, it may turn the Lie for the better, or maybe not? But sometimes you have to wonder whether you're really just the staff boys rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic", whether he was talking about helping the Sleepers or their companions was left unsaid.

"They rush into a likely trap, you follow. They will never learn the lesson". He gave a wide shrug, his head now angled at the door, "Besides, today is this mysterious fire. But where do we draw the line? Are we planning on helping old ladies cross the streets. Someday someone will be a tad too zealous in his heroic efforts, and suddenly my Order has to sweep by and sanitize the area".


"But I'm just an old cynic", he sighed, languidly waving a hand up in the air in a farewell gesture, and taking the same door the younger Magi had left from.


In the alley, he found enough time for a fast incantation. He was curious about the fire; the book was boring anyway.

  6 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2018-08-20 02:54:29		Winter rolls 10 to Incognito Presence Rote (Wits + Subterfuge + Mind + HS + O.spec) (10 Again)		9, 2, 9, 9, 4, 9, 4, 9, 9, 6		6 successes

Equip: Smartphone, rosary, Cortez Thumbdrive, Kevlar vest(thin), Brass Knuckles, wallet, lighter, wedding band, pencil, cigarettes
Spells: Unseen Shield 2e (pot 1), Read Matrices Infrared (Pot 3), Incognito Presence (Pot 6)
Mana: 5, WP (4 or 5?)

[Cayce]

OUTSIDE THE INFERNO

Knot Banshee Winter Cricket

The Free Council believes that Humanity Is Magical, but as Banshee watches the flames writhe so unnaturally through the lens of the Aether, pulling and straining against the tapestry of interconnected energies, she knows that she is witnessing something wholly supernatural. Perhaps this is the work of a Spirit unchained, or, perhaps, there is some other Fallen phenomenon. Urban Legends abound with tales of Firestarters, those touched with the power of pyrokinesis, and those who believe in the wrath of the Satanic know that fire is the Devil's element...

Nevertheless, Banshee does not wait around to ponder these possibilities, but instead, bravely sets forth. Experience is the best teacher, after all...

Knot also leads the charge, moving towards the building with his fire extinguisher held aloft, with Cricket trailing behind.

Winter pauses to shroud himself beneath a mantle for Pandemonium, making him utterly forgettable before he joins the others.

Clearing through the shroud of choking smoke, the Magi come upon a scene of devastation and terror. The apartment building is a six stories of burning wood and falling brick, and the splattered remains of a family lie tangled amidst the wreckage of a damaged fire escape. Hopefully, the time of day means that most of the other residents have escaped. Hopefully...

A crowd of people gather helplessly, some recording the horrendous fire in a fit of grotesque fascination while others yell into their phones for 911, a few young men seem to be on the verge of pissing themselves, even as they jerk back and forth, dreams of heroism reflected alongside the fire shining off of their eyes.

Yet, even above the roar of the flames, the Magi can hear a woman screaming for help from inside, two words intelligible above the rest.

"MY BABY! MY BABY!

The front door is a wreathe of flames, the fire escapes compromised...and yet, the fire door on the side of the building is swinging open, with only a thin veil of smoke leaking out...

Inside the Circle

Weavebreaker looks for signs of an ambush, her keen eyes scanning their surroundings. The smoke is thick, making it almost impossible to see, yet she spots something. A car, sitting down the street, a person with a telephoto lens sitting inside...

Meanwhile, Alastor 's ever shifting view of their surroundings picks up on something. Two firetrucks are screaming down the road, their lights flashing, their sirens blaring, but wait, what is that on the ground? It looks like a thin cable, one of those traffic counters? But, no, sudden movement catches his eyes, sunlight glinting off of steel as a homemade spike strip is dragged across the road by the cable.

The lead Fire Engine's wheels explode, the suddenly decompressed air echoing like gunshots as the Engine begins to swerve, smashes into an electrical pole...

And is hit with several tonnes of steel as the following truck hits it fully in the side. The crash can be heard from miles away, the trucks collapsing in a tangle of twisted steel and spurting water, their sirens wailing like screams of pain...

[Langdon]

Langdon had been quiet after saying his bit. Pissing off Winter isn't too high on the young Mystagogues list of things to do. Generally having the police on your side is a good idea. That does raise a good question about Sacramento too.. wait no. Damn it.

"Guess we're the bait then huh?" The Stalker asks both of the Arrows who haven't gone out yet. They probably know something that he doesn't. "Shitty thing is is that I can't help them from this far away. Well not easily. So uh." His ritual tool is gently side into the back of his pants. "Make a good use of the bait I guess?" The joke falls flat as Langdon takes a deep breath and forces himself to walk outside into the chaos just as something explodes.

[Banshee]

Nearing the blaze and mindful of her own limitations when spell casting, Banshee unravels her carefully laid Ritual Glyphwork and casts a hasty offering of Aether's Protection

This was so obviously a trap but such a well thought out and executed ruse had to be praised.

"Knot?" she asks of the mage who immediately followed her and who was now leading the way, "Can I beg you for some good fortune?" whispered close to his person in her haunting wretched voice, so like someone else's

  2 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2018-08-20 21:41:59		Banshee rolls 7 to 2E Forces Armour (Gnosis 2 + Forces 2 + 3EA) (10 Again)		7, 8, 1, 5, 7, 3, 8		2 successes

Active Spells: Ritual Grim Sight, Read Matrices, 2E Forces Armour

[Knot]

The carnage disgusts Knot. The belief that this whole thing was a trap for them, the Awakened, was only growing as more information came in. It all seemed too overt for anything actual Awakened would be forced to try, if someone could arrange this with magic, they could arrange something far more subtle. which seemed to suggest that it was Sleepers somehow.

He leans in towards Banshee when she asks for some luck, chanting for several moments while everyone is focused upwards. While the sleepers remain oblivious to his Nimbus, to the opened eyes of the Awakened, Knot seems to jerk and contort as if he were a wooden puppet being controlled by a puppeteer with seizures. Fate is fickle in the moment, and Knot gives her a disappointed shake of the head. But the mysteries of Life are less opaque, and his growing awareness of the patterns of life around him sing. "I've got eyes on patterns," he says. And then, looking at the other two mages that had followed him, he nods to the open door. Fire extinguisher at the ready, heads in. It was an ambush, obviously. But with his spell, he'd probably be able to see it coming.

After all, he knew he wasn't DOOMED in coming to the source of the blaze.

  Paradox failure

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2018-08-21 18:11:19		Knot rolls 1 to Paradox (Base 2 - Disciple 1) (10 Again)		7		failure

  Bestow Exceptional Luck (Banshee) failure

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2018-08-21 18:09:15		Knot rolls 8 to Bestow Exceptional Luck (Banshee) (Fate + Gnosis + High Speech) (10 Again)		3, 7, 1, 1, 3, 4, 2, 4		failure

  Sense Life (Humans) 3 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2018-08-21 18:27:41		Knot rolls 7 to Sense Life (Life + Gnosis + High Speech) (10 Again)		9, 9, 10, 1, 2, 7, 6, 3		3 successes

Health: , Mana:, WP:
Defense: 6 (vs Firearms 3)

Vulgar: 2.5 dice, Active Spells: 3/6, Personal Spells: 3 (-1 Contagion)
[3] Fortune's Protection (Defense +3) & [2] Sybil's Sight (Fate Sight)
[1] Body Control (1/2 oxygen needed, +1 Initiative, double deprivation/fatigue interval, double poison/toxin damage interval)
[3] Sense Life (Human-only, 4 yard safety zone)

Equipment: Pocket Knife, Pen, Cell Phone, Bracelets, Surveillance Pictures, Fire Extinguisher

[Cayce]

Those going inside the building, please roll for me: Initiative. This does NOT mean that we're entering combat immediately, but I want to have it, and I can use it for...other things.