695/Dresden Files Short: The Heckmouth

Dresden Files Short: The Heckmouth
Date of Scene:	28 September 2014
Location:	Dresden's Apartment
Synopsis:	Harry and Riva investigate a minor incursion of awful interior decoration
Cast of Characters:	206, Riva Banari

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Harry Dresden (206) has posed:
    The signal from Mr. Dresden is coming from the old region of Chicago, the parts that were lifted over the top of the River ages ago. It's an old house, with a For Sale sign on the front, and a smart looking lady standing next to a car out front along with a short blonde.

    No squad cars, but there are a few patrol officers milling around and some tape around the perimeter. Hmmm.

Riva Banari has posed:
Chicago. She has a feeling this is going to be a thing. Given her work in Kingsmouth, she has an unfortunate amount of experience in cleaning up Illuminati bullcrap these days. Besides, she doesn't want to see Harry get eaten or worse. So here she is.

Riva arrives on site, frowning at the situation. She walks towards the area, approaching the smart-looking lady, since Harry is nowhere to be seen. Given Harry is a Wizard Detective, he probably has the usual relationship with the police: Bad, but works together anyway because they have to. "Hi there." Riva says to the woman by way of greeting. "Riva Banari. I'm here to assist Harry with the latest mess." May as well get it all on the table immediately.

Harry Dresden (206) has posed:
    The Blonde looks up at Riva, and sighs a bit. "A redhead this time. Cripes, Dresden." She crosses her arms, and grumps. "He's inside, check the basement."

    The Brunette looks up from a cell phone and huff and puff. "And please hurry, I've got a VC coming to look at the property in 2 hours and I don't have time for this sort of thing!" This sort of thing?

    The blonde rolls her eyes. "Mr. Praye, I'm fairly certain that until that... spot on the wall is cleaned up you're not doing anything with the house." The two can be heard bickering over closing costs and tours as one of the Patrol Cops lets the Templar inside.

    The moment Riva crosses the threshold though... there's a dull aching pressure against her skull. Something downstairs is not right.

Riva Banari has posed:
"A redhead /this time/?" Riva says, with her eyes narrowed. "So this isn't the first time, huh." She sighs, and then looks over to the dialogue between the two. "Spot on the wall? Great, I'm totally looking forward to this." Her tone says that she is totally not looking forward to this. "We'll get this cleaned up as soon as possible, Mr. Praye, but there's not guarantees in this kind of situation." She replies, more businesslike than usual. "I'm going to get to work now." She announces, and then turns to head into the building.

She grimaces, frowning at the pressure. Something blurs around the edge of her vision, and she shakes her head. Downstairs, huh. She walks through the old building, looking for a way down.

Harry Dresden (206) has posed:
    The house is a stately affair and likely would looks better with furnishings. Also without the dull pressure.

    The staircase down is cement, and looks like it was poured directly as part of the foundation. Very old school. The basement is likewise all poured cement and looks original. The pressure gets worse down here, still just a dull noise at the back of Riva's skull.
    Harry Dresden is around a corner in the root cellar, poking at a dully stained wall. Maybe mildew? Maybe not? Whatever it is it's where this crap is coming from. He looks over his shoulder, lit up by a set of chemlights that cast a dull green shade over the whole place. "Hey you. Thanks for coming out."

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva looks like she's swallowed a bug by the time she gets downstairs. The stained wall gets her immediate attention. "Can we just blow it up? I'm kind of leaning towards C4 right now." She comments. She might not be joking. "Anyway, this looks like crap, the place is radiating evil, and the guy upstairs wants to show the place in two hours." She rolls up her sleeves and gets closer to the mark. "Okay, so what do you know about this thing, or are we going to have to poke at it?"

Harry Dresden (206) has posed:
    Harry grumbles. "No blowing it up, I'd rather not... break whatever this is the wrong way. Okay, so." He shifts and stands up and it's clear he's been working inside of some sort of magic circle on the ground. Chalk. Very simple. He scuffs out the line and looks to Riva. "Have you got any sort of magical sight or anything like that? I can set up another revealing spell if you don't, but... well, just don't get too precise about it."
    He starts fishing around in his jacket.

Riva Banari has posed:
    "Fiiiine." Riva says. She understands, though, really. Though the 'easy way' is really tempting. "The only thing I get close to magic sight is what I get when I hang out on the spirit realm." She comments. "And to do that I have to die. I guess if I could find a way to tune my anima... But um, I don't think doing that here is a good idea."

She looks at Harry, tilting her head as she wonders what he's up to. "I admit, normally I just poke at things or maybe see if I can trigger Anima flows in things and then kill anything that tries to kill me."

Harry Dresden (206) has posed:
    Harry nods at that, shuffles around in that bag, and pulls out a handful of extremely fine dust of some sort. This gets blown at the stained wall...

    And a reing of red, dull red lines start to glow on the wall. The cirlce is precise, crisp, and flatly carved into the wall. Maybe some sort of plaster over the top? Either way, it would be hard to tell in the dingy basement.

    The Mason's Eye and Pyramid crest the top and bottom of the circle. Harry frowns. "These are actually new on me and I wasn't about to leave the place to go get my guy on magic."

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva watches the lines form, and she nods. "Yep. Super evil. And Illuminati. Guys from my world probably would hook up with demons if they got something they wanted out of it." She peers at the lines. "All right, gonna try something." She reaches up and puts a hand over the Eye and Pyramid at the top of the circle. There is a low glow as Riva begins projecting a small amount of Anima, trying to figure out what's up with the thing and if she can manipulate it at all. It's kind of like the magical equivalent of using electricity to pulse a circuit to figure out what it does and maybe flip some switches.

Harry Dresden (206) has posed:
    RIVA > ANIMA MULTITOOL

    There's a sudden dull pop as some of that pressure releases for a moment...
            (...Our wisdom flows so sweet. Taste and see...)
    A sudden explosion of not-light as the Anima pulse trips... something in the circle. A flash of insight. A Building plan, a timeline of construction, June 1871. The quiet murder of a man. Blood makes the mixer run so much better child, really gets the workers into the job.

    Three men poking at the plans and arguing over where To Put It.

    A glimpse of an owner turning IT into her pickle cellar. All of them spoiled, she just thought she was bad at pickles.
    A washroom that always turned things funny colors, no matter how much bleach.
    A nursery upstairs, two dead children in the 30s.
    A mobster's 'quiet room'. For once this place worked well for that.

    Buzz Buzz and there comes the dull headache again.

Riva Banari has posed:
And then Riva triggers something she didn't expect. Her eyes go wide as she locks up in the visions and the stream of mind-rattling information. She doesn't wax prophetic like Inga, or lecture like Wuyin. Her own experiences with the Buzzing are more... quiet.

Finally, she staggers back, clutching her head. "God dammit bees! I didn't think they were going to pull that crap out here." She shakes her head, and looks over to Harry. "This cellar was built from the ground up to be bad mojo. There's blood in the cement. The design... It's been.... twisting and perverting things ever since. It feels like... Toxic waste. Why the hell someone thinks this is a good idea, I have no clue." She looks over. "Three guys, Masonic, ring any bells? Also, got a sledgehammer? There's something here... It is here. We need to find It and get rid of IT or else this place is just going to get worse." She's putting an odd emphasis 'on 'it'. Habit, clearly.

Harry Dresden (206) has posed:
    "HELLS BELLS." Harry growls and rolls up his sleeves a bit. "Dammit dammit dammit. I did some research on the place, and they had this crap built just before The Fire. The upstairs kept changing but they always left the foundation for some damn reason." He kicks the wall, and there's a burst of red energy from the circle.

    "And no, I don't have a sledge hammer. That's not in my usual sack of tricks." He grumps, and shuffles around at his coat. "Did you see anyway to undo that thing while you were spacing out?"

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva taps the side of her head. She's clearly unsettled but the situation, but it looks like she's gotten over her initial panic. "It... It's this room. The environment..."

She blinks when the circle reacts to Harry kicking it. "Do those things always do that?" She asks. "With the glowing when you touch it thing."

She gets asked about hints on how to undo it, and she screws up her face, trying to concentrate. "Ummm.... Well, they killed someone to get the blood. Maybe if we can find the corpse and put it to rest? I dunno, isn't that how it works in horror films?"

Harry Dresden (206) has posed:
    Harry blinks a bit at her question about the kicking, and he murmurs. "Come to think of it, no, it didn't do that before." He looks at the ing and he looks to Riva... and then he points at her hand. "Touch it again. I've got an idea. Also, did you bring your sword with you?"

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva opens her coat, and pulls out with some effort a slightly warped sword. "Still got the crappy old one, if that's what you're asking. Why do you ask?" As Riva asks, she absently reaches out and touches the circle again. If something comes out to try to eat her, at least she has a weapon on hand.

Harry Dresden (206) has posed:
    The placement of that hand gets Riva's body to thrum again, the dull pressure immediately eases again. Harry's eyes focus a bit better too. "...You're grounding it, and I'm not sure how. Okay, I'll take it."

    He steps back, picks up his staff, and murmurs. "Okay, do that... thing you did again, where you swat at the thing with energy. When you do... I'll blast it."

    Wait what?

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva frowns. "I feel all... buzzy. And no, I don't mean in the bees way. Are you saying I'm like, anti-Hell or something?" That kind of makes sense to her... Ish.

She blinks when Harry brings up his solution. "Didn't you say earlier we shouldn't... Actually, you know what, never mind, I'm okay with this. Get blasting." Even if some horrible thing gets out she'll get to take out her frustration on the thing.

Riva holds up her sword and begins channeling Anima through it. The circuitry on the sword glows, burning and waiting for release. Riva promptly jams it into an edge of the circle and starts dumping energy into it. "Hit it!"

Harry Dresden (206) has posed:
    Harry Dresden reaches down, yanks at whatever good energy he can from the foundation around him... And slaps the end of his staff against the other side of the circle. "FOZARE!"

    The House Shakes, and upstairs, Karrin Murphy plants both of her hands against her face, before pointing at her guys. "Right, inside, let's make sure he's alive!" They go charging up into the house, leaving the frantic realtor to start jabbering into her phone in Ukrainian.

    Downstairs, it's a different story. What came out of the wall was not just busted up concrete dust, but a fine mist of that blood, covering Riva and Harry in dull brownish bleh film. You know, and the ringing ears. Harry DID just let off the equivalent of a wrecking ball into the foundation. Oh, and there's a perfectly round chunk taken out of the wall, exactly 3 3/4 inches deep.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva was expecting an explosion, but not like that. in the afternath of the nastiness, the sword is on the floor, Riva frantically brushing herself off. "Eew, eew, eew, eew, eew! This is so gross!" She says, staggering to one side. She then pauses, and yells louder, "CAN ANYONE HEAR ME? I SAID THIS WAS SUPER GROSS!"

Yep, super dignified and serious busniess Templar Knightery all up in here.

Harry Dresden (206) has posed:
    "(this is gross as hell)" Harry is hollaring right back at Riva, wiping at his face with bits of his sleve that weren't facing the explosion. He grumbles, even as Murphy and her boys poke their heads into the Heckmouth room and... And the blonde sighs, lowering her gun. She walks over at pokes at Riva, saying... something.
    Then she yells too. "(get upstairs we'll get the hose from the tap also harry SI is on the way to clean this crap up get out of here while you can)" Harry blinks dully, before staggering forward, handing Riva back her messy sword.

Riva Banari has posed:
"WHAT?" Riva yells, still mostly deaf from the explosion. She does, however, take her messy sword, holding it with two fingers gingerly. "UH, WE'RE GOING TO GO FIND A HOSE OR SOMETHING." Riva yells, and then grabs Harry and drags him upstairs. Conveniently this seems to line up with what Murphy wants anyway.

Harry Dresden (206) has posed:
    The pair get dragged upstairs, and are planted in front of the house as two more unmarked cars scoot up. From them, two more officers in plain clothes and a detective shuffle out and start heading into the house.

    And then the hose. Refreshing running water, the cleanser and grounding of all magic. Also cold as hell.