Ascention, the search for Vehemence

It seemed to be a run off the mill day at the Nuke's 'n Bees. The regulars were all there, Raine, Johdi & Safi had their hands full making the sector wide renowned Crystal green. The partons seemed to enjoy it very much, the room was filled with laughter, happy faces. Business was good at the Nuke's n' Bees these days. Margrave Widah had just taken seat in the booth at the back, though he loved coming here, one could never be cautious enough and after all, a man of his stature in a bar like this. If his subjects would know... Safi had just served him a fresh Crystalgreen, vapor still dwindling down from the top of the ice-cold glass when his comlink sounded, casually he procured it from his belt, realising that sudddenly the laughter in the room had virtually stopped. Another comlink sounded, then several more till virtually every VnV Commander's link had bleeped.

This must be important...

Widah thought to himself, he didn't need to read the message. Somehow he *knew* what it was. It was a message from the palace at Thera, a summons to all VnV Commanders to meet with the Arch Chancellor immedeately. Widah had thought something was troubling the Arch Chancellor lately, though Vehemence had always been a strange man surrounded with mysteries & intigue, the last few weeks he had felt different then before. More distant then usual. The Margrave stepped out of the booth, all eyes of the other VnV Commanders suddenly fixed at him as if he knew what was going on. He didn't need to say anything, everybody was used to following the Arch Chancellor's orders and this time it would be the same. With the VnV Commanders leaving for Thera, Raine tossed out the few patrons left and locked down the bar.

A few hours later, their ships appeared in the sky above the Nation's Palace at Thera. Something was odd, the city seemed desolate, the huge laneways with the ominous statues usually bustling with people were now completely empty. A strange stillness surrounded the city. On their approach to the city, Widah's comm sounded again. It was James T SELF, who's slightly faster ships had already set down on the palace grounds.

Margrave Widah, I'm sending you a readout of our city wide scan. We better go in armed, there's not a living soul in the entire city! i've never seen something like this before, even beyond the city limits there's no human life detected! The palace is void of life too, I fear for the Arch Chancellor's life...

The Margrave didn't need the SELF foundation advanced sensor array to know that there was not a living soul in the city. His senses told him that the same was true for the entire planet. As the other ships landed side by side in the courtyard, he extended his senses, reaching out for the Arch Chancellor's presence. He sighed with relief, he could still feel the unusual tingling across his spine when Vehemence was near, along with a few fading life signs in the Palace. He responded to Count Self:

The Arch Chancellor is still alive, but something is terribly wrong...

He opend the comm signal to include everybody.

Lords & ladies... The Arch Chancellor needs our help, arm yourselves we'll need to search for him in the palace. The technology to find his lifesigns hasn't been invented yet, but I can sense he's still here somewhere.

The others responed, and so said they approached the main gate armed and wearing body armor. Widah had his lightblade at his side trusting in his training to alert him of danger. As the group approached the black marble palace, one didn't need Widah's unique senses to feel the aura of dread coming from inside.

Widah and James pushed open the great door, revealing something they had not expected, truhly dread:

Across the floor near the gate were strewn bodies of men & woman. Little was left of them to be recognised but some wore the palace uniform. The floor and walls were spattered with blood, body parts left and right. It seemed as if someone, no , someTHING had massacered the lot when they were trying to get outside. The rancid smell of blood emanated from the hallway...

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OOC:

Allright everybody, I have some very important things to tell, I'm taking the time to tell them though so i'm inviting everyone to continue the plot I have written here. If you want to add something special, just pm me. The idea is to let you guys explore what's going on in the palace and eventually find Vehemence somehow. Just make sure that you don't reverse anything that has been written yet, so have a quick look at the other palace oriented stories to get the feel and architecture of the place. Other then that you're free to add & expand.

Admiral Raine Castle was in her body armor. But that was nothing new, she virtually lived in it. But this time the armor didn't shield her from the deafening hiss and static that massive death trauma causes. Numbness, all feeling gone. no one was feeling. She would never get used to the void of life freshly gone.
She took a deep breath from breather, not knowing whether the air was safe.
Where were the others she thought, of her comrades in arms. Over there. Keep her eyes open, wide open.
How many raids had she pulled on dead worlds where none had survived, or been abandoned, nothing like this, the newly killed, not yet smellling of decay but reaking of lifes blood leachind into the ground.
Her eyes wide, she moves in automaton fashion toward the others. No one, no one better touch her. Not now. They too would have to join the others of torn flesh upon the ground. Something more primal was taking over. The taste of blood. it tasted good.

The sight of her comrades before her took her attention briefly away from the massacre before her. "Widah, James, what in the universe could have done this kind of damage?" Her voice sounded distant to her as though someone else was speaking through a double pane of glass in a soundproof building. she was returning to herself, the initial shock wearing off. Where was her sence of compassion? There was a quickening of her heartbeat. Her breath caught. "The Arch Chancellor! What's happened?"

Widah had seen some grizzly scenes before, but this he was not prepared for. He stood beside James with his mouth hanging open until Raine's voice brought him back to center.

"I have no idea, my Lady, but the vibrations of fear here are overwhelming. Some potent darkness has been unleashed on this place--this place that we all thought inviolate. Whatever devil wrought such destruction might still be near stalking these halls. It's difficult to pierce this fog over my mind, but I can still sense faintly the familiar presence of our Arch Chancellor. We must proceed most carefully, but I fear time is running out."

The Admiral doesn't sense the fear but a feeling of helplessness and a hunger for blood.
"I cannot tell if it is myself or outside of me but there is a taste for vengeance here. I'm not thinking clearly. It does not help that I've seldom come here. Where do we begin to look?"

The hallway before the group was filled with more of the same grizzly scene. The Arch Chancellor's peculiar sense of art didn't help much either, on both sides the hall was littered with statues of naked men and woman, some at eachother's throat with all sorts of exotic weaponry, others engaging in intercourse in the most challenging positons. Even more peculiar wher those that blended the two styles... Seeing them drenched in blood almost made sense as if the artist intended it that way.

As they continued in the hall, the gate behind them fell shut with noone holding it anymore. The heavy thud startled some, invoking a sense of being locked in.

Shrugging of these feelings they payed more attention For some reason the lighting was only at half strenght, if it was working at all. Giving the hall and the statues more shadows then usual. A shrill sream sounded in the distance, though their instruments still indicated no life within a 100 yard radius.

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OOC: Everyone feel free to jump in!

The Lady Raine Castle started at the scream, then began to move rapidly toward it. "What am I doing?" she thought. But the scream could be someone yet alive, someone in need of help.

Before the others could respond. Lady Raine ran towards the end of the hallway, the carnage seemed to have concentraded near the gate, once she passed the bodies she was able to run full speed. At the end of the hallway she could go left or right, the motion scanner in her helmet indicated movement 50 yards to her left. She checked the charge on her plasma rifle, then took the left turn. That hall opened up unto a small courtyard, gefore she could full see it. Something grabbed her and pulled her to the side into a dark alcove. Before she could protest a dark hooded figure put up his finger to his face:

"shhhhhht, be quiet....watch"

They turned and watched the scene in the courtyard. It was about 15 yards across with a fountain in the middle. Whoever let out the scream they were too late to save him. Several human figures were hunched over what seemed to be a body. Sounds of tearing and biting could be heard. There were at least 10 of them, apparently eating the poor fellow on the foor.

"RayDeg of LGC milady, are all parties on Thera so interesting, I think its time we got some answers"


with that he drew a broadsword, and stepped from the shadows..

This is what she had been sensing, the taste for blood, the desire to utterly destroy. She only paused for a moment, Looking back the way she came to see if James T SELF and Margrave Xulub were anywhere to be seen. Then she turned back to follow and cover RayDeg's back taking his lead. Then the seen in front of her grew more intense.

RayDeg somersaulted into the midst of the group, his robes falling away as he leapt... 2 he beheaded with one swipe.. 3 more fell with quick thrusts, the others turned to flee...

Lady Raine fired upon one and took down with one shot from her plasma rifle. The next shot missed.

Startled by the new threat that suddenly jumped in between them, the figures fled a few paces from their prey. Raydeg and Lady Rayne finally had a chance to get a look at them. They still seemed human, but something was terribly off. They hunched close to the ground, like monkeys on all fours. Their flesh a pale white in stark contrast to the blood on their jaw and chest. From their mouth two rows of jagged fangs protruded and their eyes seemed to have retracted into the skull, growing a fiery red.

They still wore the uniforms of Palace personnel, some had the garment of Vehemence's slaves and still wore the chackles, the chains broken.

The ones that Raydeg beheaded stayed still, but the three he had trust trough the chest still moved, a vile dark purple ichor bubbled from their wounds.

"Those should've been dead..."

The five that remained started cirling Raydeg, clearly deciding whether or not they could defeat this new foe. Raydeg realised he made a tactical error, as he was surrounded now. Even with his skill he could not kill them all in time if they came all at once...

Just as he realised that the five shieked in unison, showing of their fangs and charged at him from all directions...

Two plasma blasts flashed just as they charged, one hit home spreading the remains of it's head across the room. A second bolt burned into the far wall.

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OOC: Raine, Raydeg, Im going to let the others respond first now plz be patient for a while

Since this might be the first time some of you play RPG by BBoard, this is how it goes:

1) you can freely decide your intentions, but remember that the storyteller (in this case me) decides the outcome of events so leave your posts open ended.
----> I jump inbetween and try to chop of their heads...

2) you are free to decide what you see around you, unless the thing you're looking for gives you somekind of an advantage in which case you leave it open ended again.
----> I see if there is anything, like a chandelier, that I can shoot down an drop on the enemy

3) you're allowed to some degree to let the other charactes do & say things, but be very careful here, don't let them do anything their player might not agree with or make them say things they wound't say.
---->If you're not sure about this part, always ASK the player before posting.

4) Remember that the storyteller control the timeframe, you can never move too far into the future from the last storyteller post, a few seconds but that's it. You can however always desrive the same scene though your eyes, add more detail and state your reaction to what happened.

5) These are guidlines not rules so they can be bent and broken, the idea again is to have fun

baron bob uzzell showed up for the first time in many cycles...i got this he says..
walked to a hidden door, opened it and found............................
V with a slave.......and a big smile

"Raine wait, no! We mustn't get separated. James we've no choice but to go after her." The Director of SELF stood unmoving.

"James."

"Hang on a sec, Widah." A moment later James turns to face Widah his attention seeming to come back to the here and now. "Sub-vocal communication with my ship in low orbit. I'm brining in some of my marines to back us up. Be a few minutes till they drop, but we needn't wait. They can find me."

"Come on then."

The two break into a run turning down the hall they saw Raine sprint down. They come to an intersection of hallways that all looked the same. They pause to scan the options. Count James interfaces with his armor switching to thermal optics and picks up her trail.

James points down the left-hand hall. "This way," he calls as the eerie quiet of the palace is cut by the peal of some inhuman shrieking followed by two quick blasts from a plasma rifle. "Move, move!" barks James, and they run as fast as they can.

As the Croatian Flag ship Duke Anton, entered the space over Thera, Commander Croatia was amazed at the number of different ships. It was the entire VnV nation, ships from every world responded to the request from the Arch Chancellor.

Captain, is my shuttle ready. Yes Commander and your private guard are standing by. Have them arm themselves and be ready to depart as soon as I get there. Have my armor and sword taken to the shuttle. Your sword? Yes, I expect that I may need it.

As the shuttle settles on the pad in front of the Arch Chancellors Palace, Lord Croatia exited the side door with his personal guard fanning out to protect the perimeter. He looks to his right and see the others assembled near the gate. Margrave Widah, and Count SELF were discussing the situation.

As Lord Croatia approached the gate, he drew his sword, he follows the others through the gate and into the palace grounds, the scene was gruesome. The Croatian special guard unit fanned out to secure the interior of the palace grounds. As they did this the Lord and others approached the palace doors, they entered and the scene was just as gruesome. Lord Croatia went to his right to cover the others as they fanned out inside the palace.

as Lady Raine started to bolt down the hall and Ray after her. there was a commotion and shots fired near the end of the hallway. Lord Croatia, turned to see where the shots were coming from. Lord Croatia could see the heat signatures. As Count SELF and Marqrave Widah stood watching the goings on.

Lord Croatia flaked by his Special forces in a sprinted down the hall to come to the aid of his Brothers and sisters.

Lord Croatia rounds the corner just in time to hear the beasts shriek. with sword in hand he throws it toward the beasts decapitating three in one fail swoop and sticks in a solid granite pillar. As Rey takes on the other two with skill of an assassin, he disposes of them rather quickly.

Lord Croatia walks over to retrieve his sword from the granite,

Rey see the sword in the granite and says "Lord, you will never retrieve that sword from there"

Croatia, Look his way and smiles. as he draws the sword from the granite like it was butter. As he inspects the sword for damage even though he know that there will be none. He thinks, if they only knew what this sword is made from. Pure Pearlainum. a metal that has no equal.

Michael Croatia wrote:Lord Croatia rounds the corner just in time to hear the beasts shriek. with sword in hand he throws it toward the beasts decapitating three in one fail swoop and sticks in a solid granite pillar. As Rey takes on the other two with skill of an assassin, he disposes of them rather quickly.

Lord Croatia walks over to retrieve his sword from the granite,

Rey see the sword in the granite and says "Lord, you will never retrieve that sword from there"

Croatia, Look his way and smiles. as he draws the sword from the granite like it was butter. As he inspects the sword for damage even though he know that there will be none. He thinks, if they only knew what this sword is made from. Pure Pearlainum. a metal that has no equal.

I'm gonna have to edit here, since there are only four creatures left, and they are approaching Raydeg from all sides it is physically impossible you kill three with a singe throw. Please leave the result of your actions open ended. Instead of saying you slay three, state that you throw your weapon at them.

So:

Michael Croatia wrote:Lord Croatia rounds the corner just in time to hear the beasts shriek. with sword in hand he throws it toward the beasts intending to decapitate them. Counting on Ray to take on the others with his skills of an assassin, Michael thought the encounter to be over quickly.

Also don't advance time too far beyond the last storyteller post, since you sometimes cant know or predict how things are going to work out. I'll include the latter part of your post in mine below.

Vehemence wrote:

Michael Croatia wrote:Lord Croatia rounds the corner just in time to hear the beasts shriek. with sword in hand he throws it toward the beasts decapitating three in one fail swoop and sticks in a solid granite pillar. As Rey takes on the other two with skill of an assassin, he disposes of them rather quickly.

Lord Croatia walks over to retrieve his sword from the granite,

Rey see the sword in the granite and says "Lord, you will never retrieve that sword from there"

Croatia, Look his way and smiles. as he draws the sword from the granite like it was butter. As he inspects the sword for damage even though he know that there will be none. He thinks, if they only knew what this sword is made from. Pure Pearlainum. a metal that has no equal.

I'm gonna have to edit here, since there are only four creatures left, and they are approaching Raydeg from all sides it is physically impossible you kill three with a singe throw. Please leave the result of your actions open ended. Instead of saying you slay three, state that you throw your weapon at them.

So:

Michael Croatia wrote:Lord Croatia rounds the corner just in time to hear the beasts shriek. with sword in hand he throws it toward the beasts intending to decapitate them. Counting on Ray to take on the others with his skills of an assassin, Michael thought the encounter to be over quickly.

Also don't advance time too far beyond the last storyteller post, since you sometimes cant know or predict how things are going to work out. I'll include the latter part of your post in mine below.

maybe pearlinium metal turns corners?
just a thought

OOC: Since my name (or character) was being used some much, I actually got inspired to write some material. It started out as fiction before I realized that this was suppose to be more RPG. Sorry that I may be backing up the story a bit or rehashing it but other folks posted and the story progressed faster than I could generate material. (Plus RL intervened...try getting into the writing groove when your 3 year old daughter walks in with her cloths soaked in pee -- BTW she drop my wife's Itouch in the toilet yesterday....aren't kids wonderful!?) Well here it is: if you don't like it just delete it and have me cowering behind some big dude with lots of armor... :

James T SELF and a battalion of his personal guard had just landed and spread to form a parameter about the palace. Having some of the fastest ships in the Nation and being close to the emperor had its advantages but today the Foundation Director and VnV Count wasn’t feeling terribly blessed.

Foundation troops weren’t the hardiest of the VnV Nation. Neither did they, man for man, possess the combat prioress of the ground troops of Baron Maenhout nor the strength and agility of Count Damored’s. However, they were well trained, extremely disciplined and equipped with the best body armor and weapons the Foundation scientists and engineers had produced – some of which was even used by the Arch Chancellor’s own home guard.

Not to say that with their technology, Foundation troops would be push-overs. Every Foundation citizen, whether spacer, marine, scientist, or engineer, had to spend two standard years working in mines prior to going to combat or technical school. Doing the hazardous jobs best left to droids and having to personally solve the complex problems of deep space and deep planetary core mining had the result of making the average citizen both physically and mentally tough.

None of this was making James feel any better about the situation. Normally one of the advantageous of being the Foundation Director and a Count was that he wouldn’t have to dirty his hands with ground operations. To be honest, he never like this sort of thing, but a personal summons be the Arch Chancellor was NOT to be ignored. Also not normal was the nature of the summons – something was up so this time. This and the news of the destruction of Baron Desilvia home-world made the decision easy. Rather than take a Charon shuttle with light escort, the director would travel with his Gal 41 fleet on board a Poseidon, the fastest ship available…escorted by of over 100 more Poseidons—the vanguard of a fleet including dozens each of Athenas, Ares, Hades and Prometheus capital ships – no chances would be taken with the life of the Arch Chancellor on the line. In orbit now the fleet watches not

The Count stepped out with the first squad of troops – “Don’t kid youself James”, he thought, “your not that brave but I’ve got to look good for the men. Maybe I should keep one or two of those big Marines between me and likely sniper nests ?– make that three. Damn it’s been way too long since basic combat training and I’m too old for this shit. Ah there’s Widah, maybe he knows what the frak is going on.” The look on the Margrave’s face is disheartening.

“The Chancellor?” Widah, nods and points in the direction of the palace. He expression relaxes just slightly to indicate that he is still alive but all is not well. James thinks, “I’m going to have to have my scientists look into how he does that.”

The Foundation troops spread out, surrounded the palace and set up a parameter. One that faces in toward the palace as well as out. James with a half dozen of his bodyguard approach the palace. There, he meets up with Lady Raine Castle and he enters with her and the Margrave.
Upon first sighting the gore, James was immediately overcome with nausea. Hesitating, and feigning a Sub-vocal comm, he drops back to vomit into is respirator. “Oh god,” he thinks as he uses he keypad to send the orders to his men outside the palace, “I got to regain composure. I’m so glad we designed these things (meaning the suits & respirators) to handle and dispose of liquids. What the hell is going on here?!”

After a couple of seconds he replies to Widah, (cough) “Sub-vocal communication with my ships in low orbit. I’m bringing in more of my marines to back us up. Be a few minutes till they drop, but we needn’t wait. They can find me.” James tried desperately to keep he voice from cracking. It’s been more than 20 years since he has been personally involved in ground action and he was trying to pull back long ago training. “Getting a little to comfy with raining nuclear death from orbit, aren’t we James?” his late father’s voice rang in his mind.

“Let’s push forward. We’ve got to stick together. Be careful, the Arch Chancellor is still alive. It would NOT be good protocol to shoot him.”

James activates the image recognition system on his shortened plasma rifle and imports a 3D image of the Arch Chancellor from his data pad to his rifle’s sighting system. He then selects the “friendly” and “protect” tag of the choices given for his selected target. The sighting system integrates with Foundation battle suits and would automatically highlight and identify targets detected by the suit’s or rifle’s sensors and displays the location of these on the helmet visor. Given the marine, or in this case middle aged Count James T SELF, 360 degree, above and below, situational awareness of the battle. The “protect” selection automatically inhibits the plasma rifle from firing if the sight is pointed to within 0.01 arc seconds of target “protected” unless overridden by a simple paddle switch on the front grip.

Widah and James then rushed forward after Raine.

Margrave Widah, Count Self and Lord Croatia run in the direction of the plasma blasts, after about 30 yards they see Lady Raine with her plasma rifle still smoking, Raydeg is standing in the small courtyard beyond Raine and four humanoids charge at him from all directions.

Lord Croatia throws his sword with a mighty swing, flying past Lady Raine and impaling one of the creatures through the chest to the statue in the center of the fountain. It kicks and screams but it's unable to get free.

Raydeg assassin's reflexes kick in, automatically taking a fighting stance suitable for taking on the three remaining foes, He dodges the first attack, sidesteps and slices the first creature across the back sending it reeling into the water of the fountain. As he turns to the remaining two his reflexes kick in again just in time to avoid being splattered in the purple Ichor, as Widah's and James shots strike true and finish the two remaining creatures.

Lord Croatia walks over to retrieve his sword from the granite, the creature still squirming to get free.

Ray sees the sword in the granite and says "Lord, you will never retrieve that sword from there"

Croatia, look his way and smiles. He thinks, if they only knew what this sword is made from. Pure Pearlainum. a metal that has no equal. It should come out of the granite like butter.

As Lord Croatia walks up to the statue to retrieve his sword from the fountain, a deep rumbling voice sounds from the hallway to the left.

"I wouldn't do that yet..."

A huge Bear steps from the darkness, they recognise him immedeately, as he is wearing a sash bearing the VnV crest.

"Leave it for now, we could learn from the creature..."

James T SELF wrote:OOC: Since my name (or character) was being used some much, I actually got inspired to write some material. It started out as fiction before I realized that this was suppose to be more RPG. Sorry that I may be backing up the story a bit or rehashing it but other folks posted and the story progressed faster than I could generate material. (Plus RL intervened...try getting into the writing groove when your 3 year old daughter walks in with her cloths soaked in pee -- BTW she drop my wife's Itouch in the toilet yesterday....aren't kids wonderful!?) Well here it is: if you don't like it just delete it and have me cowering behind some big dude with lots of armor...

OOC: lol no problem James, your post is perfectly done! you can always rewrite things trough your eyes, (love the humour you added) I't trying to get everyone post open ended so its more easy to link the stories

As the Genovian battle fleets arrive from Ba’ku and Genosys, they establish high orbit as ordered by Commander Defiant; the commander’s personal yacht arrives. Commander Defiant quickly pilots his ship to the shuttle bays of the Flagship Prometheus Gen1 without regard to safety protocols! The landing feet of his craft have hardly settled as the commander leaps out and runs to the main corridors of his flagship barking out “Prepare my battle armor now, get it to my quarters immediately! Ready that new design Artemis heavy fighter, I want to be on that planet as soon as possible. Ground soldiers to the ready in full gear and stand by for my orders”. The crew of the commander’s ship snapped to the orders given them, and preceded in great haste to fulfill the orders given by their commander. He was a fair man but if angered the most deadly warrior in all Genovian history!

“Jehanne, I must go down to Thera. Something terrible has happened and I must assist in any way I can! I beg you stay here my love and await my return. You have the fleets at your command; I will contact you as soon as I know what’s transpired here!” Defiant thinks to himself “damned if that woman would ever listen me” in his heart he wholly believes she will defy his request and don her own armor and follow him to the surface. He prays she respects his request to remain on the ship! Jehanne reply’s to him “Def what’s happened? Calm down, collect your composure, don’t rush in like a madman. Remember the incident on Terraknor? You almost died that day!”

Defiant did not respond to her plea and instead kissed her and left the compartment. Now in full body armor and with his weapons of choice dashed down the corridor to the launch bay where the experimental Artemis has been prepared for departure. As he arrives in the bay the Artie GenX1 is fully prepared for launch. Defiant thinks to himself “this damned thing better be all it’s promised some how I think I am going to need it. He boards the new ship and orders the science and preparation crews disembark. “Get off this ship now!” no reply was necessary, the crews returned to the launch bay without a sound and manned the test monitoring stations for the GenX. As the GenX and her captain leave the Gen1 flag ship the shimmering Purple paint and markings fade into the space around her. Damn that Grizzly his stealth paint works!

As Commander Defiant descends to the surface of Thera his thoughts turn to the wellbeing of the chancellor. Not a single life sign other then the other commanders is registering on sensors, and there are also strange readings he’s never seen before. A strange place he’s never been to before, Thera, the home of Arch Chancellor Vehemence, it had an aura of death Def could feel even from the outer atmosphere. What awaits him he does not know, and he makes no guess as to what he will find!

Lady Raine's morbid curiosity moved her to take a closer look at one of the fallen creatures. "Do any of you know what these are? They're in palace uniforms." Part of her was deeply concerned with the whereabouts of the Arch Chancellor but really, these things just begged for an answer.

Observing one of the things more closely, Lady Raine notices a most peculiar thing: Whatever metamorphosis these things had gone through, now that they were dead they were slowly reverting to their original form, or at least partially. The fangs remained, as did the claws, though less pronounced. After a few minutes she was sure that these things had been human once. The glowing red light in their eyes gone, she could almost see a human expression on its face, surprise, maybe even relief.

The other bodies showed the same symptoms, reverting to their original state. Whatever evil had inhabited them was now gone, maybe it could not survive when the host was incapacitated.

She was about to turn away when she noticed something she had almost overlooked, a mark of some kind, like an old scar, in the back of their necks. A star of eight arrows pointing outwards.