7954/Crushed

Crushed
Date of Scene:	23 September 2021
Location:	Ice Palace
Synopsis:	Amanda encounters pieces of demons at the ice palace.
Cast of Characters:	Lucifer, Amanda Sefton

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Lucifer has posed:
A pulse of magical energy rolled out from the Bronx, at approximately six in the morning. A thick, strange presence, from a demonic source. It fluttered, as if flitting behind a veil, movement somehow abstract, like a fractal of different wavelengths appearing and shifting.

It may be worrisome that the sensation is focused in the area where the Ice Palace still stands, as it was a magical focal point for a considerable amount of necromancy. Still, that was perhaps a year gone, and the palace of ice has not felt the tainted darkness until now.

Amanda Sefton has posed:
Amanda wasn't among the mages that confronted the necromancer in the ice. She was dealing with other crises at the time. But, as the pulse rolls across the Bronx and down into Manhattan, the Romani sorceress is pulled out of her sleep by the restive, kaleidoscope of dark energy that ripples across its edges. Attuned as she is to the city, such things are likely to attract her attention. Especially these days.

Thus, a short time later, she finds herself standing in front of the frozen palace in the cool damp of the early morning, hood drawn up over her fair hair, studying the icy facade.

Lucifer has posed:
While the energy seems further in, there's something notable immediately upon arrival, in the gutter running alongside the sidewalk. There's a squished lump of something, approximately the size of a cat-- and a long smear of purple and reddish liquid showing that it presumably was dragged (or dragged itself?) from the ice palace itself. It has some purple-black fur, though it doesn't seem to be moving much, there's a thread of sensation of magic from it.

A little crushed imp, perhaps: a single eye turns and moves, watching Amanda's arrival, then closing.

Amanda Sefton has posed:
Amanda moves to inspect the imp -- to see what might have caused its injuries. She's not quick to risk healing it, but she is concerned that whatever caused its damage may still be about. Drawing her shadowcloak spell about her, she leaves the small thing where it is initially, and makes a careful inspection of the trail it left. Cautiously, eldritch energy around one fist, just in case, she makes her way into the palace.

Lucifer has posed:
The little imp plays dead. It's not hugely convincing, really, and it can't prevent a little hiss when Amanda gets close - defensively, perhaps. It is unclear if the thing can speak since it doesn't do so, but it clearly does a little bit of calculating of whether it will play dead or not, and remains mostly still otherwise until Amanda turns away, whereupon it starts to try to inch along the gutter again.

Moving into the palace reveals there are a LOT of the imps around. Counting them is hard, though, as they are in pieces. It is an entryway of a large number of dead, small demons, in a litter of yuck. Their energy is fractured, the bits of their demonic essence scattered around: which would explain some of the odd magical signatures felt.

Amanda Sefton has posed:
Generally, Amanda doesn't tend to enjoy walking into a nest of demons by herself. In this case, however, she's compelled as much by curiousity as concern. She pauses periodically to, again, examine remains and investigate those starting to skulk away to lick their wounds.

Her power lifts her off the icy ground. She drifts deeper in, letting shielding magic spin up around her. What the hell is making lunch meat out of these creatures? She reaches out with magical senses to try to find a larger signature, something that might be the source of this. But she's beginning to suspect the creatures are turning up here as much because of the necromantic focus as anything else. Easy for the dead to pass through deadzones...

Lucifer has posed:
The whole situation continues: more demons, though they seem to be far more destroyed the deeper that Amanda gets into the structure. Inside, on the frozen floor, is some loose remains of what was once a summoning circle of some kind. Someone came here, and was tapping into the magic - though whether it was the demons themselves, or something else, is hard to decipher from a casual look.

What is certain is that the demonic imps are now mostly destroyed, and there isn't a lot of sign about what exactly nailed them - perhaps something physical, due to the style of crushing destruction. There seems to be no further demonic life beyond the imp splatters, or if there was something larger, it isn't there now.

Just because the imps are in pieces doesn't mean all are entirely dead - there's some terribly awful eye-turning to watch Amanda, from the mostly destroyed remnants of dying imps, which makes for a gruesome audience!

Amanda Sefton has posed:
At this point, this deep into the demonic throng, Amanda's just as glad they're not more lively. Imps are easy to kill, but that's why they come in such numbers... much harder to dispatch.

She walks the perimeter of the remains of the summoning circle, studying the symbols that remain, trying to make sense of them. It's possible she's missing some of the key signs, she knows. But, maybe there's enough here for her to piece together a working theory.

Lucifer has posed:
A few more of the imps die, during the process. Their ichor seeps into the floor more, frozen patches now as the ice freezes the impish blood into translucent mucky masses. It doesn't seem to be getting very far, but it certainly is present: demon blood on ice, if anyone needed a reagant!

The circle itself looks to be generally standard, perhaps a bit pitiful: so it's no wonder the flood of imps siezed control and rushed on through.

There's a flavor of hell here, which would logically connect to some hell-oriented presence having brought in the imps, perhaps. Often hellish signals are abounding when demons are arriving!... But then finally, when really getting close to the circle, there's a very real sensation of anger and frustration: a mood that's magically lingering in the frosty fog of the ice palace's center. It isn't the imps, they aren't angry, so it was something else, that had enough impact to touch the environment.

Amanda Sefton has posed:
That level of impact, combined with the sloppy, somewhat incompetent spellcasting, suggests to Amanda that she's either dealing with a juvenile of some sort, or an inexperienced human mage... or wannabe mage, as the case may be. She has no way to know for sure. She considers trying a scrying spell to scrub through time and see what happened, but it's dangerous without a good channel for it, given all the ambient magic about.

She's not the Sorcerer Surpreme, and she doesn't have the Eye of Agamoto to help.

So, she decidese it's better to simply sweep with what magical senses she has and piece together what happened from whatever she can find. Perhaps there's an imp intact enough to talk.

Whether it's honest is another problem.

Lucifer has posed:
Splut. Splut splut.

Splut...

A small, legless imp has fallen down the icy stairway from the area above. It is leaking the awful ichor out onto the ground, and is entirely ignoring Amanda, in its interest to get away from, presumably, whatever removed the lower half of its body.

The senses pick up that imp, of course, as well as the one outside that she'd witnessed, and something sort of odd at the top of the stairs - but not intelligent, more of something closer to quicksand. Dangerous, but not with any intent except an odd, dark suction.

Amanda Sefton has posed:
Amanda senses the oddness further in. She gestures with one hand. The legless imp finds itself floating in the air, hanging before her. In a thick tongue she knows most imps can speak, she addresses it. "You've had a bad day." Her blue eyes glitter in a manner reflective of the ice that surrounds her. "What happened to you?" A beat. She glances around. "All of you?"

She's not sure what useful she'll get from the thing, but there's no harm in asking. Not that she can see right now.

Lucifer has posed:
"All dead, alllll dead, punished, destrooyyyyyed," moans the little imp, in a rougher version of the language Amanda chose. "Lets us kill you, as last act, won't you? Kills makes us so happy," asks the imp, begging in it's version of being highly convincing and sweet. It has no eyelashes (or eyelids) to bat, but the tone would be appropriate to such an action.

"Or maybe small torture? Just chews your eyes a little," suggests the imp, as if that were better. It is definitely dying, as are the others around: the demonic life is being sucked away from all of them.

Amanda Sefton has posed:
"Not happening," the sorceress says shortly. Still her eyes narrow faintly. "Punished for what? Answer and I might find a way to let you live." Probably not with its legs restored, however.

She tends to be a little less charitable with things inclined to eat her than she might be with others.

Even so, she starts moving slowly towards that quicksand draw, the imp suspended still by her power as she moves.

Lucifer has posed:
The imp eyes her -- sort of, with the beady little yellow eyes it has. There are no irises, they are just orbs of sickly yellow, like slightly off egg yolks, with crusty bits floating atop them. It's not a cute creature.

"Didn't keep deal with devil," gives the imp finally. There's a resolution in it, no real hope. And probably no real expectation of her understanding it really - even if she may in fact understand. "Dying out of hell, all sucked up. Pity us, does it? Lets us chew nose. Maybe windpipe. Little chew... such a nice human. Grants the human wishes maybe, after chewing on."

Amanda Sefton has posed:
"Who didn't?" Amanda asks the imp, continuing to move forward. "You and your cohorts? Or something else? Be specific, please." She doesn't want or need it to grant wishes. She's just as happy to toss it aside with the others -- though she'll ultimately honour her deal and stop its bleeding... but only once she's done asking it questions. So, for now... it drips.

Slowly, now, she makes her way up the stairs, closer to that sucking void.

Lucifer has posed:
"Us, yes. All us. Got called. But should not have come, broke the deal to come. Not supposed to be here," is what the imp is willing to say, before it starts to shudder more. It isn't just physically damaged - the siphon from above on the landing is the main culprit of all of it. The physical damage may not even be directly connected to that.

Upon reaching the stairs, there is something easy to spot, there, at least for one with magical sense like Amanda: it's just a rock, though. A small obsidian black rock, resting on the edge of part of the bannister, that is pulling in the life force of the demons nearby, in a slow, aching series. There are dead, gray imps piled around it, on each other and about - all of them damaged. As the imp in Amanda's possession is brought closer, it shivers a little, and then goes limp, as the stone soaks from it's life - such as it is.

Amanda Sefton has posed:
The imp goes limp and grey before Amanda can really react or reverse the inadvertent damage. That she was unable to keep her promise to it... perhaps that bothers her a little. That an imp who broke his deal with the devil -- with Lucifer? -- is being punished for it? She has less sympathy.

It's not like it was trying to redeem itself, after all. Or fight on the side of the angels.

But the object is pulling in demonic life force. That does not describe Amanda. True, given she has no idea who her father may be, it's entirely possible she does have traces of demonic blood in her veins. Margali has never chosen to reveal that part of her heritage. But, it is not her true nature.

She discards the imp's body and moves to examine the rock, however, careful at first not to touch it.

Lucifer has posed:
From afar, it is just a rock. Maybe magical. However, a close examination truly aimed at it? It's certainly unholy - objects like this are known to ignite into huge vats of steam if you dump holy water on them: it has that feel to it.

Which does mean it feels like Lucifer; he often has that same coloring to his aura, that clashes so firmly with what's considered holy. The object could well corrupt those that impact it at some point, though for now, it is just pulling in, collapsing all of the demonic energy into one tightly bound little source.

Gems like these are often in the center of rituals to open gates to massive demons or hell realms, though, so that may still be on the table, if it is allowed to draw in enough energy - but something would still have to trigger it.

Amanda Sefton has posed:
Amanda considers the implications of just leaving the thing here. They aren't good. Not when kids still have access to the place. She closes her eyes for a moment, visualizing all the carnage she has passed to get to this point. Speaking quiet words of power, she sends out a flash of eldritch energy that consumes the demonic bodies and refuse.

Once that mess has been cleared, she moves to encase the stone in a tight ball of witchfire. It's not the strongest container for it, but it will contain it long enough for her to find something better back in her library. Just before she transports it, however, she takes a quick snap of it and sends the picture to Lucifer's phone, along with the message: <<This yours? I've got it contained. Come see me.>>

With any luck, she won't have pissed him off. And if she has? Well... Every relationship has its ups and downs.