@Device(PostScript)
@Make(Report)
@Style(Spacing 1.5, Leftmargin 0.75 inch, Rightmargin 0.75 inch,
       SingleSided, Font = TimesRoman, Size 10)

@comment(Set these values appropriately for each character profile)

@string(name="Rose Bluemist")
@string(realname="Natasha")
@string(playername="Player Name")
@string(id="209393")

@include (/mit/abstract/Characters/Sheets/cover.mss)



@MajorHeading(@value(realname))

Ah.  The other one is awake, and confused.  You should try to talk to
her; being possessed can be quite uncomfortable to humans, and they
tend to get upset, even when they have agreed to it.  This one, it
would seem, did @b[not] agree.  Oh dear, this one can't quite remember
who she is --- that has happened to others you've possessed.  It's
difficult to understand mortal thought at times; they're so
@i(different) from the devils and fellow succubi you were raised with,
and the demons you've been living with for the last near-millenium.  

On the other hand, you certainly aren't the same carefree succubus you
were then, either, and have had a considerable amount of first-hand
experience with one of the most amazing mortals you've ever heard of.
But you can't afford to worry about Dervish now, he'll undoubtedly
take care of himself.  Your first consideration is to the native soul
you've displaced in possessing this body...it wasn't your idea,
either, but however much Dervish has changed your outlook on life, you
remain a succubus and remain bound by the rules of sorcery.

You start your first (rather one-sided) conversation with her:

@i[Little One?]

@i[Are you there?  I know you can understand me, and resent my
presence... In that, I suppose I cannot blame you.  I would not like
it were I the one possessed...]

@i[You've not much choice but to hear me, have you?  I thought not.  You
see, I can guess at your reactions; this situation is not new to me.
I have possessed those of your world before, and I must say, you are
the most congenial host to date.  Your form is pleasant, and warm.  He
who has bound me has told me something of you; I wish you could tell
me more....]

@i[Ah, how rude of me.  My name.... hmmm, what shall you call me?  I
could give you my truename, but then, should you live beyond your
possession, you would have great power over me... but I have power
over you, I suppose.  It is only fair that I tell you.  My name is
Natasha.  Beautiful, is it not?  I like it.]  

@i[Ah, you wonder at my use of the term "fair"?  Little One, there is
much you do not understand, and much I am at a loss to explain.  I am
not your ordinary succubus...]

By all the Gods, this is more difficult than you expected!  How do you
explain to a mortal about your life as a succubus, summoned by one
sorceror after another, all with the same purposes in mind?  How do
you explain the day you were summoned by Ophir the Dark, High Priest
of the God Chthon, to corrupt one of the Tualohic Paladine and steal
from him the Orb of Kryssonyx?  

And how do you explain your failure?

Pfaugh, that last has remained a mystery to @i(you) for centuries; how
can you expect @i(her) to understand?  'Twas bad enough that you
failed to corrupt Nehemiah Dervish, the last of the true Paladine.
But instead, he succeeded in corrupting you, in making you forget all
the values you had been taught -- and commanded to follow -- by your
Lord Lucifer!  You knew what you were doing throughout, to say
otherwise would be a blatant lie, but the very fact that such
prevarication comes to you with difficulty goes to show what happened
to you when you fell under the spell of Dervish's personality.

It is not love.  For a thousand years you have told yourself that it
is not love, for how can a creature from the Abyss know love for a
mortal?  And yet, if not love, than what shall you call the force that
led you to renounce the commands of your summoner Ophir, knowing that
in declaring defeat you would be subject to thousands of years of
torture?  Faith?  That, too, is forbidden to those of the Abyss.  

In any event, somehow you managed to play a loophole in the laws of
sorcery.  When you declared that you would no longer play the
seductress and corruptor to Dervish's soul, you fully expected to be
drawn back into the Abyss and bound for an age.  Instead, you felt a
counterpull from the Orb that Dervish was holding, and following it,
found yourself in Limbo, the realm of the Lord Kryssonyx.

Shortly thereafter, to your shock and amazement, you saw that Dervish
had followed you in.  A child of Gaea, a follower of Tualoha,
following a servant of Lucifer into the realm of Kryssonyx?  It was
unheard of -- it was practically unspeakable!  

@i[No, I am not a normal succubus.  And yet still am I bound by the
laws of sorcery to obey he who summoned and bound me, and I will
likely be forced to do things I do not like.  And do them with your
body, which no doubt will cause you no pleasure.]

@i[Let me tell you something of myself, that you may understand why I
must do the things your body will be doing, and formulate convincing
explanations. You @p(will) need such explanations when I am gone, I
fear; what we shall be doing will scarcely go unnoticed.  The one who
has called me hither, Koraha Ophir, thinks himself quite the little
Chaos-bringer.  High Priest of Chthon, he has much knowledge of the
ways of the Chaosgarral, the Tome of Chthon, and seeks to create a
Chaosshenna, a "Hellgate" as he puts it.  Therein lies the salvation
of us both, and our chance to become once more masters of our own
fates.  Should the Chaosshenna be created and opened, then I could
return to Limbo -- or the Abyss -- of my own free will and you will be
left alone, and Ophir will have no power over either of us save what
you choose to provide him.  But to do so would destroy your World,
unless you could close the Hellgate behind me... things are not as
simple as they were.]

So simple that is to say.  Why, then, can you not bring yourself to
share with the soul you control the full truth of the matter?  You
keep it no secret, for you have given her access to your mind -- yet
how can you say to another, even her, what you have only recently
admitted to yourself?

You were very nearly content for a few centuries (as mortals measure
time; it functions in a stranger fashion in the other Realms), as
Dervish's follower and protector, but you should have known better.
Limbo is Kryssonyx's realm, and your existence there could not long
remain a secret -- but you @b(were) able to mask Dervish from
detection by focusing the Demon Lord's attention on you.  At first,
you were ashamed; for all that Dervish had changed your life, you
remained a succubus.  But over time, you came to understand that
Kryssonyx, too, could benefit from a love he neither commanded nor
bought.  While you didn't really feel much for him, you stayed with
him and tried to please him, and in return your teacher Dervish stayed
free.  

You helped him survive in other ways, as well -- as a child of Gaea,
Dervish was unable to maintain his natural energies in Limbo, and was
rapidly losing his psychic energies.  At first you sustained him with
your own, but that quickly proved an unstable arrangement, and you
feared he would die despite your aid.  Instead, he discovered a
peculiar kind of magic that turned his blade into a magical weapon,
that drank the souls of his victims.  With that blade, Dervish managed
to maintain his own survival.

At least he did while you were around.  But about a week ago(in the
mortal frame of time), you were summoned to the Realm by Ophir's
magics.  What has become of Dervish since then, you don't know...save
that here, now, on the Castle, there lives a sworddancer who calls
himself Nehemiah Dervish.  Can it be?  You don't dare to hope.  You
have seen his mortal shell, but that tells you nothing -- if it be
truly he, you shall recognize his soul.

And if Dervish @i(is) here, how shall you consign his World to
destruction?  How shall you return to Limbo, without him?  'Tis a
better option than returning to the Abyss, for an age of punishment
still awaits you there unless Ophir can be made to free you at the end
of your time of service.  

You need to find another solution.  Perhaps the lady whose body you
share has ideas?  It is difficult to speak to her, however -- the vast
bulk of her knowledge is barred from you.  Ophir has told you of this
Rose Bluemist, told you enough to maintain some semblance of her
life... he has told you of the history of the Realm, and explained
that Rose is a Clanswoman, a being from another nation with which the
Realm is at war.  He explained further that she had been kidnapped by
the armies of this Realm over three decades ago, and that he had freed
both her and a man named Lord Soeth to be the start of the Church of
Chthon, for each of you had discovered a page of the @b(Chaosgarral)
and had used its power.  But rather than begin a church in all its
dark glory, for such enterprises had been shattered many times before,
he chose to have you begin it in secrecy.

Each of you achieved your strength in a different fashion.  Rose became
affiliated with the House of the Veil, an organization of doxies, with
the intent, it appears, of using her position for blackmail... a
kindred spirit in many ways to the succubus you once were.  But she --
@b(you!) -- became too powerful, it seems...and Ophir chose to
remove the threat Rose had become by bringing you and her under his
control.  

@i[You are impatient.  There is little I can discern of your thoughts,
but that I can see -- has the Dark Priest spoken truthfully, then?
Are you unwilling to hear your own mistakes repeated?  Very well.
You were, I think, once learned and respected. That I can tell from
the resentment you feel when we... you do not mind the use of the
pronoun, I hope, for it is truth ... when we are not treated with the
respect to which you were once accustomed.  There is loss, too... a
great loss, both of your position, and also of one who was very close
and very dear to you.  There is frustration at having lost, and being
reduced below your means, although you seem comfortable enough to me.
Is this what brought you into the path of the followers of Chthon?] 

@i[Yes, that seems right, and yet also wrong.  Clearly, there is
something Ophir does not know of you, but I cannot see clearly.  You
are, indeed, a mortal of considerable power, much of which is denied
me; yet still I am not without power of my own.  Is that not it?
Perhaps, then, it is connected to the book which you carry, which I
can sense is your most treasured possession -- but @p(I) cannot read
it, little one.  The code is your own.]

@i[There is much that remains a mystery yet.  The small beast who
follows us now, is he yours?  What is his nature, that he continues to
follow a spawn of the Abyss?  At times, I almost feel there is a
mystic bond between you.  It is said that the dog is a mortal's best
friend, but...there is something more...something...]

@b(By the Abyss!)  'Tis frustration most foul!  By what means shalt
thou take the place of this Rose, if thou canst not discern her
secrets???  

Of course, it will be even harder if you don't remember to speak with
the accents of this era.  Already, you may have botched things; the
woman named Lilith, Rose's procuress from the House of the Veil, made
reference to some "research" that Rose was engaged in for some kind of
black hand, a reference you failed to understand.  You could ask
Ophir, but at this point whatever secrets you can keep from him are
best kept.  They are precious few, you fear; he has performed the
binding properly and left you few loopholes you are willing to take.

@begin(quotation) 

"Thou who art named Natasha, succubus born of the Abyss, are hereby
bound to the service of I who have summoned thee, Koraha Ophir, High
Priest of Chthon in the World.  By your truename and the power of the
Chaosgarral I summon and bind thee into the shell of this mortal, in
accord with the laws of sorcery.

These are the conditions of thy confinement: @*

@begin(itemize)

You shall in no way seek to cause me physical, mental, emotional or
spiritual harm.

You shall in no way seek to interfere with my plans, or do anything
that may hinder their execution.  In particular, you shall not reveal
my identity, my plans, or my role in bringing you here to any being,
for any reason.  You shall actively seek to prevent the revelation of
such information, disguising your nature and maintaining the facade of
Rose Bluemist's identity to the best of your ability.

You shall in no way inform, or allow to have informed, any other
being regarding your status in this World:  that you are of another
realm, that you are possessing a host or that your host is possessed.

@end(itemize)

These are the services that I require of thee, that thou shouldst
perform them in accord with the conditions set forth above:@*

@begin(itemize)

You shall protect me from harm to the best of your abilities.

You shall aid me to the best of your abilities in uncovering the lost
pages of the Darkhold.  Those pages you acquire you shall immediately
deliver to me, by whatever means necessary.  Those pages that you locate
but cannot acquire you shall inform me of immediately.

You shall aid me to the best of your abilities in discovering the
location and nature of the Creation Gate, which is said to be on the
Castle, and in destroying it when I decree it is to be destroyed.

@end(itemize)

These are the conditions of thy release:@*

@begin(itemize)

That the Chaossgarral, the Tome of Chthon, be complete and in the
possession of my Church.

That the Chaosshenna, the Hellgate, be created and sealed.

@end(itemize)

When these conditions are met thou shalt return to the Abyss which is
thy home, and be freed of the compulsions of this binding, save that
thou shalt take no manner of punitive action against me.  If these
conditions be not met before thy departure from this World, or if thou
dost fail to follow the strictures and compulsions of this binding,
thou shalt then be returned to the Abyss to suffer the tortures of the
damned for an age.

By the power of my Lord Chthon, and the Tome of which I hold a part,
so mote it be!

@end (quotation)

Your options are limited.  Ophir has left himself open to betrayal,
for by freeing you to return to your realm after the establishment of
the Hellgate he has not prevented you from opening it to do so,
thereby destroying his World.  He would survive, to be sure -- at
least until the God Chthon tired of him, and then his death would not
be @i(your) fault...

But to destroy a World, and indeed, the balance of a Universe, for the
sake of your revenge is no longer your way.  Yet if you do not do
something, you shall be returned to the Abyss and Lucifer's rule!
That cannot be allowed.  Without the Orb of Kryssonyx, 'twould appear
your sole option is to return to Limbo by means of the Hellgate.
Which means you will have to find some way of sealing it soon
afterwards, for to do so otherwise would be to doom the Rose who is
your host, as well as Dervish, if he truly be in this World. 

And having done this, you can rely on the woman named Rose to take
revenge for you, if you can ensure her survival -- surely, Ophir will
wish to slay her when you have departed her shell.  Perhaps the secret
to achieving that vengeance shall become clearer to you this week.

  The powers at your command are
Conceal Aura, Mindblock (re: the Darkholders), Seduction w/ Selective
Burgle, Attack to Subdue --- you @i(cannot) attack to injure --- Lie
Detect and Read Languages.  You have a small amount of mithryl, a
puppy, a book full of illegible scribbles, some clothes and jewelry,
and a variety of potions and herbs, whose use is utterly foreign to
you....  Good luck!!)

@newpage
@section (Organizations)
@include (/mit/abstract/Organizations/darkholders.mss)
@newpage
@section (Lore & Knowledge)
@include (/mit/abstract/Guides/lore.chthon.mss)
@include (/mit/abstract/Guides/lore.creation.mss)
@include (/mit/abstract/Guides/lore.magic.mss)
@include (/mit/abstract/Guides/lore.sorcery.mss)