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Tiger-Lily/Dizzy

It worked!

Her exultation is short lived. No sooner than those leeching power lines are cut off that the creature starts to thrash.

Instinctively she marshals her defences.

[OOC Already cast Prowl & Not Slin & Bones - assume they are still active? She will add Shadow Armor, Preternatural Awareness & invisibility in that order - not sure what restrictions apply here.]

"Oh c***", the spirit exclaimed. "You weren't supposed to hear that. It isn't like when I was alive. I can't just think whatever I want to. Look, I didn't mean anything by it. It is how they look at things. Well I am not supposed to say that either. Look. It is ok. Ok?"

Tiger brings up her mystical defenses as the thing begins to become more agitated. So far though it has not broken free of the ward, if it can even do so.

[OOC: Got me, don't make me pull out a rule book. I say we go with it. :)]

Jayden


"You were never this crazy when you were alive, Gramps," he grumbled.

"This? What you mean boy? I was crazy then too?" In a softer voice the spirit continued. "Look there are all kinds of rules on this side of things. I don't want to see you get hurt..., or worse."

Jayden


Jayden grimaced and shrugged.

"I don't want to get hurt, either, Gramps," he said after a moment of thought.

"But I'd damned sure like to understand what's happening around here."

"See that is part of the problem. The cats have rules. If you find out what is going on, they are supposed to kill you, to preserve secrecy."

Jayden


Jayden shook his head, rolling his eyes briefly ceilingward.

"Cats have rules. Cats have rules?"

He made a noise something like a cross between laugh and snort.

"Cats don't have rules. Cats have attitudes."

The spirit sighed. "They are much more than they seem. They are guardians of all you hold dear. I am not supposed to tell you any of this. It could get you killed, for just knowing. But what can they do to me, I am already dead." Jayden could swear he heard the sound of fabric rubbing as his grandpa shrugged. It came from a particular direction, and Jayden could almost picture the old man there, slightly stooped.

Jayden


The voice in his head sounded like his grandfather and it sounded sincere, but that did not mean that Jayden really understood or truly believe what it said.

"Tell me what you can, Grandfather," he said or thought (by now even he wasn't sure which way he was phrasing his communication).

"The town is in trouble... and I need to understand."

Tiger-Lily/Dizzy

Feeling a little more confident with her magics in places, she hisses to Shadow.

"What now? Do we attack it? Or leave the ward to do its work?"

She doesn't have much experience in the arena of baleful creatures, just the teachings of her mother.

Shadow

He paced around the perimeter, regarding the thing balefully.

"We wait, we make sure it doesn't break through. Whatever it is doesn't look like it could hurt all those Burdens to get them brought here, so I think it has a master, something that could hurt everyone the way it did, something that put it here, something whose plans we have just put out of joint. Give it a nap or two and see what happens."

Tiger-Lily/Dizzy

She nods. He makes sense and she is very glad he is here with her. She would be lost on her own.

"So we deal with this and then go find the one behind it?"

She settles onto the floor watching the thing, ready to do something if it gets loose.

"You think this might bring it here?"

Shadow

The ginger tom swished his tail, betraying the tension of the situation even as he replied,

"Yes. Whatever hurt the Burdens, hurt Our Burdens..."

Swish, swish.

"...We need to find it and end it. This thing here shows there was a reason, a method, a plan. Hurt the burdens, get them to this place, drain them empty. We don't know why they are draining them, but we do know there is a why. In shutting off this thing, we have occupied the high warm place. If it thinks like one of us, it will be planning to knock us down and retake its perch."

Tiger-Lily/Dizzy

She nods. Shadow knows so much more than she does.

"Then we need to be on guard."

She positions herself a little more defensively, her back to a wall and where she has a good field of view.

The grandfather spirit sighed "I am not supposed to tell you. It could get you killed. They can't kill me, I am already dead. Besides getting out of this existence might be a good thing." Jayden could just make out the spirit shrugging.

"But something has put people into some kind of a sleep state, coma maybe they might call it. Something is feeding off of them."

The spirit was silent for a moment.

=======================
In the room the thing thrashed and flopped, if it could be called that. It didn't look like it was getting loose. Instead it seemed to be looking around for its food source which had suddenly been cut off.

For the moment things seemed stable.

Jayden


"Okay, okay, Grandpa, if we assume all that is gospel, I can't just stand around and let it happen, can I?"

Jayden shook his head, grimacing in frustration.

"What can I do to help?"

"Got me. This is my first rodeo. I have been hanging around, but don't have any real answers. Maybe we try and convince your cat that you can be of help instead of just trouble. Though I know your trouble, you always were." The spirit snickered.

Jayden


He'd stick out his tongue at the old man but he had no idea in what direction to point it.

"Well... can you ask her?"

[OOC: As a note, Jayden can almost see the old man as he begins to become more attuned.]

"Fine," he says.

Inside the room the spirit says to Tiger "the boy wants to help. Anything you can let me tell him?"

Jayden


For just a moment, he thought he saw a wispy, ghost-like apparition moving past him and he shook his head to clear his vision.

Ghost-like was the term, all right, but Jayden did not believe in ghosts. However, either he was conversing with a ghost or a spirit or a something outside himself or he was just crazy and arguing with himself.

Tiger-Lily/Dizzy

She looks at Shadow.

"It might be better to give him something to do. Otherwise he might interfere and make things worse."

Shadow

"We can't risk it learning anything that would render its life forfeit. You are probably right: I don't think it has the sense to avoid danger even if it was aware of it. So, give it something non-threatening that will keep it at a comfortably safe distance."

Tiger-Lily

She thinks for a few moments and then suggests to the spirit.

"Perhaps he could watch the stairs and warn us if anyone is coming up?"

Grandpa

"Ok, I can get him to do that."

Returning Jayden could definitely see the gossamer form of his stooped old grand pa. "Let us go watch the stairs to make sure that no one comes up and gets in the way. Ok?"

Jayden


His eyes widened momentarily at the wispy sight of his grandfather approaching him, but went back closer to a normal aperture fairly quickly.

Apparently, he was getting used to all this crazy s***.

Or he was just getting crazier by the minute.

"Why not, Grandpa. Better than just twiddling our thumbs."

He followed the apparition toward the stairs.