Flight From Below Synopsis [G:tSE]

Sometimes, Death is just the beginning. Such is the case with the peculiar Sin-Eaters, human beings who have pierced the veil of death only to be brought back from the other side by entities called Geists, creatures that lie somewhere between Ghosts and Spirits of Death. The human is brought back to life with one condition; they'll be sharing their bodies with their Geists. Upon returning to the world of the living, a Sin-Eater becomes very aware of the activities of the Restless Dead around them, and due to their previous encounter with Death, they are the middle ground between the living and the dead...

San Juan Capistrano has its fair share of activity in regards to the Restless Dead that a Krewe of Sin-Eaters called the Swallows has had extensive experience in dealing with. However, something's gone wrong with the population of the dead, namely that foreign ghosts have seeped through into the town from the Underworld, where the Restless Dead go when their tie to the living world is forcefully severed. The Swallows have discovered holes in the barrier between the world of the Living and the Great Below. Living people occasionally find these holes and find themselves suddenly stuck in the underworld, and what's worse, what comes out of it are ancient, almost alien ghosts drifting through and attempting to seize territory from local ghosts, or endangering the living around them with the hazardous habits they picked up from the vices of the Underworld.

The Swallows face a two-fold mission: Restore Order among the ghosts by sending the Invading Entities back into the Underworld from whence they came, then sealing up the gaps that formed in between, because if not, the peril will be shared by both the living and the dead...

Down Below (Geist: The Sin-Eaters)

When the Swallows come back to Capistrano
That’s the day you promised you’d come back to me...

As Jason walked into the old ranch house, the song seemed to echo through all the hallways, a fuzzy, scratchy quality to the sound. Each step he took through the building was done gingerly and deliberately, each time he stepped on the floorboards, they’d creak when he finally put pressure on his foot...

When you whispered “Farewell” in Capistrano
That’s the day the Swallows flew out to the sea...

Each creaking step brought him into a rather large chamber, a dusty, rotten set of furniture littering the room, coated in spider webs and cached in a layer of dust. After examining the room, he found a vague, emaciated figure sitting on the lounge chair next to the record player, the song continuing to play on it. It stared at the record player, the sleeve for the record “When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano” lying by the chair before it acknowledged the presence of the flesh-and-blood human that seemed to be able to see him. The apparition stared at Jason and tilted his head, barely rasping something out in a thick, German accent.

“Who are you...?”

Jason adjusted his coat as he examined the ghost a bit further. “I’d ask the same thing... You’re not from around here, are you?” He walked back and forth... He knew something wasn’t right here. Ghosts stick to the places that hold significance to them, namely where they died... And this wasn’t a ghost he’d ever seen before.

Oh, the Mission Bells will ring
The Chapel Choir will sing

The emaciated German ghost just sat there, confused by the whole situation, its ephemeral head turning slowly toward a staircase that led down to a cellar... Jason’s brow furrowed deeply, feeling compelled to move toward the staircase and see what was down below...

The happiness you will bring
Will live in my memory

Jason gingerly walked down the stairs, pulling out a flashlight and turning it on, pointing down the stairwell. As the stairs went further down, there seemed to be no more wood planks covering each of the steps, eventually just turning into, for lack of a better term, natural rock formations. A cavernous hole that just went further down stood in lieu of a door, though pointing the flashlight into it revealed nothing else but the floor right beneath it... The creaking of wood turned into the crunching of gravel on solid rock, the air around Jason suddenly becoming heavier and thicker. He slipped after the last step, sliding into a steep tunnel that shot straight down, Jason barely sliding down into the pitch-black tubes. The record still echoed down the tunnels as Jason’s clothing was torn up by the rocks he slid across, though he could barely make it out in the midst of the noise...

He saw light approaching at the end of the tunnel, though it was very faint, simply a lighter shade of gray in the surrounding absolute blackness. Spat out by the tunnel into the new depths, Jason tumbled across the rocks, his clothing being ripped as the skin on his arms was scraped off. He groaned in pain as he picked himself up, dusting himself off... After he wobbled up to his feet, he blinked a few times to absorb his surroundings... The entire area was littered with ancient, crumbling residential buildings, most of them made of hewn, hand-crafted stone. The windows were simply holes cut into the rock, strange glyphs carved into the walls. Jason wandered around the streets of the strange subterranean city when he heard the ringing of chains, followed by the sound of bones being cracked and flesh being rent. As Jason heard this, he turned around, staring at the creature with wide-eyed terror, his jaw dropping at what he saw...

The creature that stood before him looked like three human bodies, the skin the a cold, violet pallor fading to black as it went down to the legs... The arms seemed to blend into each other, forming a triangle between the three bodies that seemed to face inward, except for the faces. They turned outward, massive rips in the flesh around their necks where their heads turned around to address Jason. A massive length of chains wrapped around each of the three bodies’ legs, reaching out and beginning to glow a bright orange as though they’ve been heated in a forge. It began to speak, each head contributing one word to the sentence, each utterance sounding like a metal hammer slamming against a lead vault door...

“ONLY. THREE. ARE. ALLOWED. HERE. AT. ONCE. YOU. ARE. THE. FOURTH.”

The chains reach up, blazing hot as they lashed out toward Jason. He tried to scramble away, but his combined injuries and the fact that he was paralyzed with fear by the creature that just addressed him wouldn’t allow his legs to move. The white-hot chains flew in closer, the whole world around him went silent, the last thing he heard being the final verse of the song on the old record...

When the Swallows come back to Capistrano,
That’s the day I pray that you’ll come back to me...

A Quick Guide to this Blog

Hello, all, and welcome to the Worn Tapestry! This is a blog for those who have participated in my new World of Darkness (nWoD) games, which do, in fact, take place all in the same universe, and there will be a common element in them; strange, impossible phenomena by any standard in the midst of the already strange lives (or unlives) of those who move about in this world. Now, a lot of what will be posted here are short stories taking place in each of the given universes. I will be doing recaps of games mostly for the benefit of those who wish to join them. So without further ado, here's a list of games that I've finished making and those that are currently works in progress!

Promethean: The Created [P:tC] [Currently Played!]
Sanctuary of the Pyre
Synopsis: The city of Detroit has experienced a great deal of decay, urban and otherwise. Many of its buildings that were once the hallmarks of a thriving industrial center have become derelict and abandoned, and some of the land beneath them is, for lack of a better term, dead. Prometheans, proto-people who were made from human cadavers, find this locale perfect to gather to share information about their quest to finally obtain humanity. With the attempted inception of a sanctuary for the Created to share knowledge and experiences, an ever-growing danger lurks over the horizon of the potential of the humans discovering the Promethean Sanctuary, and of course, something else hides in the deepest shadows of Detroit...

Vampire: The Requiem [V:tR] [Ready to Play]
In the Black Light
Synopsis: The Danse Macabre takes an odd turn in the city of San Francisco. The leaders of the Lancea Sanctum and Invictus, who had held a great deal of power over the city, were suddenly assassinated in massive numbers, killed by an assailant who remains unknown. From the ashes however rose the Circle of the Crone’s leader, Valerie Wong, who managed to seize a position of power after not only taking a leadership position when the Lancea Sanctum and Invictus had no one to do so, but also gained a great deal of new members for the Circle of the Crone after numerous sightings of the mythical Crone herself (in numerous incarnations)... But several of the Kindred believe that the threat that slaughtered the Lancea Sanctum and Invictus leaders still lurks in the dark somewhere... But is it a hidden enemy or one that’s right before their eyes?

Changeling: The Lost [C:tL] [In Progress]
Nightmare Kingdom
Synopsis: Savannah, Georgia has been the epicenter of a great deal of terrifying events, not the least of which being Sherman’s march through the south. A city notorious for being one of the most haunted in the United States, the Autumn Court had taken position over it, declaring Savannah as the City of Eternal Autumn, or as many outsiders have come to call it, “The Nightmare Kingdom.” For years, the Autumn Court actually ruled with near-beneficence by Smiling Jack, a Darkling who had the Autumn Court spread stories of haunts and of grisly, terrifying events that occur in the city, even making elaborate schemes to frighten the populace with harmless (if terrifying) pranks and hoaxes. However, Smiling Jack had suddenly disappeared after being called upon to help the Winter Court, and a rival of Smiling Jack’s, Otis Bogart, took over as King of Autumn in his place, and his reign is quickly becoming one that was far more bloody than any that came before him...

Pursuit (P:tC)

It’s still after me.

It’s been following me for hours on the road. Every attempt I make to lose her fails. It always, always manages to catch up to me. This thing is just as good as I am at fighting, just as good at riding, and just as good at finding places to run... And it always catches up. It’s been after me since I found it, and the worst part is that I know exactly what it wants...

I see her in my mirrors now... That same black, leather jumpsuit with the same tinted helmet, and the same position she had on her bike. I’d say she’s been staring at me the whole time we’ve been riding, but that’d be inaccurate... That’d imply that she could see. No, it’s just been following me on sheer instinct. I bank on every turn I can. If I hit a red, I just turn right. If I’m lucky enough to find a green, I turn left just to throw it off... At least for a little while. It doesn’t seem to show much regard for traffic laws, but at least it might get slowed down by oncoming cars...

Of course, I was wrong.

It’s always, always able to navigate complicated turns, weave in between cars and even go the wrong way on a street without any trouble... As long as it’s coming after me. I’m getting desperate now... I can still see her in my mirrors. My throat starts to burn on the inside, my neck tightening as though being wrapped by vines... Not now, why’d it have to be now...

Actually, I knew why. It was getting closer. That always happens when it starts getting too close. It started catching up... I got desperate, taking whatever out I could... I looked for somewhere, anywhere I could turn to lose her. I found an alley... I bucked up my bike, jumping for the sidewalk and making a sharp turn into it, hoping I can pop out on the other side... I’d piss off a few people walking, but it’s not like things could get much worse if it caught up with me...

A dead end. Great. Should’ve seen that coming... Naturally, it caught up with me and blocked off the only way out. I heard its voice... My voice, echoing in the back of my head as it spoke...

“My head is on your body. Give it back.”

I stared down the tinted helmet, my eyebrows creasing as I heard the voice echoed in the back of my mind, the tightening around my neck and the burning in my throat gritting my teeth. I positioned myself and got myself ready to hit the accelerator, revving up my motor as I gave her my answer.

“No.”

A Fabric Torn: An Introduction

The World of Darkness is one not unlike our own, where Shadows stretch farther down and the worst fears humanity had ever conceived of are all too real. Monsters of all sorts lurk in the darkness that pervades this strange world, but even they have something to fear. In the vast tapestry of the universe are woven strange, unspeakable patterns, the restless dead feeding on the living, shape-shifters who hunt between two worlds, and human beings who re-constitute the fabric of the universe in ways both wondrous and terrifyingly alien...

However, even among the beings in the World of Darkness, there are even greater threats that lurk in shadows far deeper than whatever human beings could have imagined. In the darkest depths of the world dwell beings that lurk just beneath the fabric of the grand Tapestry. Some humans have peered deep into the secrets of the universe and saw just what lies beneath that tapestry, and from whatever they saw on the other end, they draw the power to reshape reality as we know it.

Among those who possessed such power, however, a great conflict had erupted over who should be allowed to discover this ability, or if it should ever be discovered at all. Pulling more and more of these dark secrets from the other side, an attempt by those who believed all people should learn of this strange, dark secret had attempted to impart this knowledge upon their fellow man, both to awaken them to the truth that lies behind the world they see, and to combat those who wished to keep the secret hidden.

They succeeded, but at a terrible cost; the Tapestry had been torn asunder, holes ripping through each part of it and from these holes seep the monstrosities that lurked beyond the darkness, creatures beyond even human understanding now walk among them, warping the Fabric and unraveling it thread by thread...

You now walk this tapestry as those who dare delve into the dark. The world goes largely unaware of the new tragedy that's befallen it, and indeed remains unaware of that which lives in the shadows, and in the deepest parts of these shadows are holes in the very fabric of creation through which the unspeakable seep through...

You now walk the Worn Tapestry.

Watch your step.