Prickly

  The members of the paranormal division did not ofte up, but it wasn't oftey... any city was thrown into the midst of a coup. From what Ronald could gather from the keep, the duchess was supp the coup for some reason. The proud house of Malencia which had resisted the corruption it nurtured for so long falls to a single woman of substantial size, and said nurtured corruptio feel victorious at all. The cults of The Host and The Beyond have been pletely bypassed, Ronald is lucky if even oh of the demons required for their usual 'activities' show up, and Plynka is slowly starting to be uo unicate with The Beyond like she used to. The neancers are the least affected, but their newly granted resources are quickly appropriated by the military for use in patrols.

  Initially they were very happy that Esstrey was so quickly gaining power, the st of demons eldritd death oozed off her while not being any of them, yet now it has e to the point where she is turning them obsolete on nearly all of them on every field. Something had to be doo limit her power.

  "She tacted a high-ranking demon, and now no matter how favorable the terms of the tracts I offer are, demons just don't accept them anymore. The only thing my cult still has is Infernal magid the occasional demon motivated by politics, yet still never enough to tell me what kind of deal they are getting from the witch!" Ronald is noticeably agitated, his precious things being taken away do not sit well for someone who bears the stresses of using Infernal magic.

  "I am certain the loss in my e with The Beyond is reted to a servant of hers, it was very eaining to watch the maid-shaped being skulk about at first, now it merely reminds me of what I lost. I am not sure how it had do, but to have already kept the secret of its existence from me for so long..." Plynka has always been a bit of an airhead, which was very useful when dealing with eldritch horrors as they aren't things you should think too much about, now that she barely has a e with The Beyo it only serves to show how little she takes care of herself. Her dress of bck ribbons is torn in numerous locations, and her frail looks betray that she hasn't beeing much.

  "We haven't had a moment's rest, our neancers have beeing worked to the bo isn't as bad for the liches, but our mortal personnel has been pining to me about the workload, g that they are practically being worked to death. We had to cut ba security to ehe number of liches wouldn't start increasing over it." Both Ronald and Plynka stare at Kreif at that moment. The fool yed, they all were.

  "If you lessened security, who is keeping this pce safe?" Plynka's question causes Kreif to seize up, they had always kept plenty of things around them to make sure Rowan or Kharn didn't just get rid of them whenever. Now there is... nothing.

  "W-we o strike fast agairey if we want to-" *THUD THUD THUD*

  Sileno one moves an inch closer to the door. No one was supposed to interrupt them. No one is supposed to have the authority to interrupt a versatioweehree right now. Pynka's arms leak a bck fog, Ronald's hands light the room in the reddish color of infernal fire, and Kreif begins ting for a powerful attack of death magic. The door slowly opens to reveal...

  "Lord Flester! We are in trouble!" The gathering rexes as an Infernal cultist barges in instead of the mermaid they were expeg. It would have been a little too paranoid to think it was Esstrey knog on the doardless, a servant still interrupted their gathering, so it must be important. Ronald gestures for him to speak quickly, as the three cult-leads have important matters to attend to.

  "The military is-"

  *FFF-K*

  The servant colpses to the floor as a ballista bolt pierces him through the heart, Plynka moves first by attempting to cast her magito the dark, but a chair is unched full speed in her dire instead, causio seek cover. Ronald successfully casts his magito the magic figure emerging from the dark, but the fmes fail to stick to the mermaid looking down ohe face hiding behiransparent visor still has the exact same emotion pstered on it as she had in every one of their iions; a satisfied smirk. Kreif tries to open his mouth to say something, but is cut off by Esstrey, who somehow seems to be the most ied in unication in this sario.

  "If you want something dht, you call the army." She snaps her fingers, and figures at her sides level their ons. She isn't alone, and Ronald, who is standing with his hands on fire, makes for an easy target in the dark room.

  *BLIING* *BLIING*

  Ronald falls dead to the floor. Kreif only stare in momentary shock as one of the stro people he knew died just like that, while Plynka is still trying to recover from having a chair thrown at her. She will never recover, as Esstrey uses magic to take hold of Ronald's corpse before the resident neancer , and flings him full for Plynka, breaking most of her bohe st thing Kreif sees is Esstrey's loaded crossbow pointing at him.

  While the liquidators move to finish off Plynka, who is groaning on the floor underh the weight of a corpse, some cultists enter who were w what the ruckus was all about. Esstrey prioritized dealing with the leadership of the paranormal division first, the cultists would follow soon after. The entering cultists belonging to The Beyond cult stare at the se for a moment as they witwo liquidators exeg their incapacitated leader, and e face to face with Esstrey.

  "S-sorry rades... wrong room." The terrified men quickly close the door, and run off to hide deeper in the lowest level beh the keep.

  "Go and kill them, will you?" Esstrey gestures for some of her men to go after them, and dell should be moving with a rger force to round up all the cults in one go. The Beyond and The Infernal Host will all be shot, while the neancers and liches will be arrested until it's proven if they will be more useful than a hassle. Esstrey herself had things to attend to at the meeting of the Perrenian Matriarchal Coalition.

  The liquidators eagerly give chase to the cultists. Many oners were lost to these cultists, while the losses were decred acts by the duchess. Esstrey gave them guns and promised them vengeance against both the nobles in Malencia and the wretched people causing the disappearao fuel their personal power, and all they o do was sort with demons and monsters.

  Prickly