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[OOC Can she use Sable as the sacrifice?]

[OOC: Oh that is an interesting idea. Technically Sable should be dead. But it is far more entertaining a story idea to use Sable for such an act. So the GM over rules the DM and says YES, by all means. Write it up! ]

Dizzy

She works out the placing of her ward, her idea is to cut off the bubbles from whatever is powering them which she thinks must be the spirit that seem tethered there. She also thinks she hasn't much time but she does need a sacrifice.

Fortunately Shadow might just have helped to provide one. It seems a fitting, if ironic, end to Sable.

So she starts her working in full Warden of the Wild mode, centering her ritual on Sable and defining her lines of power to cut off the bubbles from the trapped spirit.

This has to work!

Shadow watched, Dizzy worked. Time passed.

It took precise movements and efforts to bring a ritual to life. An interesting turn of a phrase that might be if she thought about it. Slowly the lines are drawn, even as the bubbles vibrate more and more.

Shadow can feel the world around them changing the Veil between this world and that thinning. Midnight is fast approaching. Soon spirits will be able to cross freely and wreck havoc should they have the want.

Dizzy is concentrating too hard on her wards to notice the changes, yet even the hackles on her back raise involuntarily in response.

Finally she is done. She completes the powerful magic using what was left of Sable's life force. She has sealed the spirit away from the bubbles.

That is when all hell breaks loose. The bubbles snap free of their tethers and that weird warbling howl that Sable had given off earlier comes from all of the bubbles at once. The entire cave is a cacophony of painful howling.

[OOC: The cats may act. The ward is in place. Things are happening. ]

Shadow

There was something wrong, deeply wrong, with using anything with a mind to power magic: The law banning it was there for a reason. Still, Dizzy had not killed Sable, and Shadow had had no intention of using him for a working. Shaky ground, questionable ground, but it was at least something and rght now they were shy of options.

Then the howling erupted. Shadow once more whispered himself into incorporeal darkness, able to take spirits on on their own turf. He hissed, loudly, piercingly,

"Quiet, all of you! Control yourselves or be controlled, for this is not your territory and it is protected!"

Using the Dangerous Moves stunt to try and intimidate them all into submission based on Shadow's Fight ability.

Dizzy

She looks around, finally aware of her circumstances as the howling began. Had she done wrong? Had she made things worse? She quivers.

Then Shadow fades physically but dominates mentally as his voice is commanding. She takes courage from his presence and is ready to assist in any way she can.

She jumps to the ground and turns, ready to face whatever comes.

The bubbles didn't seem to care if Shadow might be able to hurt them, though they did quiet some from his tone. He could see red lines from each of the bubbles to the thing in the middle. There was some kind of a transmission going on. The bubbles all seemed smaller too.

Shadow

Whatever was going on, it would be best were it not completed. He went about and attempted to sever the links before the bubbles were drained...

To sever the links Shadow would have to cross the ward that Dizzy just put up.

(Where's everything in the room in relation to everything else currently?)

[I have a hard job picturing this too ]

Imagine a round-ish cave with a high ceiling. The entrance and the battle near it are on the westerly wall. The bulk of the room is now walled off via the ward that was created. In this eastern section are the bubbles and the one large spirit thing. It isn't a spirit, that much is clear, but spiritual energy flow around it, and through it.

The cats are on one side of the ward and the bubbles and thing on the other. As far as the cats can tell this is the end of the mine, no other passages lead from this deep cool room.

(Was that the intended ward placement?)

[I am open to a change if that was not the intention. I understood that she was warding the bubbles so that they couldn't get away or influence the world outside. Was that the case? Tell me now, and I can adjust my narrative, if desired.]

Yes but also to separate them from the spirit. My understanding was that the boy's body was there, Sable had been sitting on it, and that had been used to generate the spirit and the spirit is 'fuelling' the bubbles, hence cut off the fuelling source and contain the potential for damage.

Does that make sense? And are her interpretations reasonable based on what she knows/sees?

Yes thank you for the memory jog. Yes the boy's body is right at the base of the large spirit thing. Yes that is all reasonable.

So we will revisit the scene. Let us start from here.
=====================
The ward was drawn close to the spirit blob, cutting off the little multicolored bubbles. The cats are on the same side with the howling little bubbles.

Shadow

Whatever was going on, it would be best were it not completed. He went about and attempted to sever the links before the bubbles were drained...

[OOC: Sorry I wasn't clear again. The bubbles are cut off from the spirit thing that was connected to them. That is when the howling began. To the cat's minds the energy from the bubbles (sacrifices) was stopped at the point of when the ward was put in place by Dizzy.

Why they are howling? That much is not clear.]

[OOC Protesting that they are not being fed.. Dizzy can empathise with that.. but she will still starve them! I really can't work out what is happening here. I expect AJ feels the same. Is this something where the cats might have more knowledge than their players? ]

[OOC: It is intended to be quite obtuse as far as what is going on. You guys are doing fine. This situation is unlike anything the cats have ever seen before.

Much they already know.
1) A cat has been sacrificing humans. A big no no.
2) Said cat had undergone some kind of a change. Completely unknown to them.
3) Some sort of energy was passing from the bubbles (likely souls) to some kind of a spiritual conduit for some nefarious purpose.

Things to resolve and or figure out.
1) What to do about said conduit?
2) How to release the bubbles?
3) What was the cat up to?

Oh and don't forget it is only just nearing the bewitching hour when the veil between worlds becomes so thin that spirits can cross and affect the living.

See not so complicated, oh wait maybe it is... ]

And the ward is between the conduit and the bubbles?

[OOC: That is what I understood to cut them off. You tell me, now that you know a bit more about the situation out of character. I was under the impression that you were cutting off the flowing energy from the bubbles to the spirit conduit.]

[OOC: Yes that was the intention. ]

Dizzy

"Perhaps we should try popping one of the bubbles and see what happens?"

She really isn't sure what to do but doing nothing doesn't seem a good option either.

"Or.. leave the ward in place and take the small body away. We might be able to do that working together?"

Shadow

Pride held him back from admitting he didn't know what to do either, but he acknowledged the younger cat's ideas.

"It cannot hurt to try. Let's see what happens when we end these bubbles..."

He raked shadowy claws against the nearest translucent sphere.

The sphere slipped apart like a soap bubble should. That one sphere stopped howling, and for the briefest moment they both saw a young woman's spirit. She sighed in relief and floated upward through the roof of the cavern. She disappeared from sight.