Invocatio Potentiae Infernalis

Posted on Thu Sep 22nd, 2022 @ 3:12am by Dominique LaFramboise & Nathaniel Cunningham & Gideon Asher & Astaroth/Lily-Mae Arnett

Mission: Daemoniacus Tribulatio
Location: 2nd Avenue

Jim was relaxing, sprawled across the leather chaise lounge at the end of his sectional with a book on the French resistance in his hands as he waited for his youngest brother to call to let him know his plane had landed at BNA. There was no sense in going to the airport and driving around in circles, since it would take longer for the passengers to deplane and collect their luggage than it would take him to get there. A quick glance at the clock showed he still had another good hour to hour and a half before he had to even think of worrying about it. Still, there was an unsettled feeling about him, like he had missed something. With a sigh, he put the book down, determined to figure out what it was. Since he'd become a werewolf he'd been far more attuned to the supernatural, sensing power around him and its nature as clearly as if he was smelling a flower.

Stretching out he paid attention to that part of his senses, hoping he was just being paranoid. Unfortunately it appeared that wasn't the case. Once he paid attention to it, the faint unease turned into a feeling of building power. Nearby, it seemed, possibly in one of the adjacent buildings. As best he knew there were no magic users living in the rentals to either side, but there was a werewolf, Lily-Mae, and her vampire boyfriend two units over, and a few wererats in the apartments on the other side. The power definitely didn't feel like a shifter or a vampire, but rather gave vibes of oiliness with a threatening undertone. He'd never felt anything like it, but didn't seem like something that belonged. With that thought, the power suddenly jumped much stronger while his lycanthrope hearing picked up a male scream from the general direction of Lily-Mae's apartment.

A few moments later, Jim was outside their door in his partially shifted form growling at it. He reached towards the door and hit a magical wall impeding him as he tried to reach. He was no magician but he knew better than to try to force that. Instead, he shifted one of his hands back and reached into his pocket for his cell phone. He thought for a moment and dialed La Framboise first, since he seemed to recall her intimating she knew something about magic.

He waited for the phone to pick up. "Nicki, this is Jim. I'm sorry to bother you, but something very strange of what seems to be a magical nature is going on. I find myself encountering some sort of barrier preventing me from getting into the apartment of a pack member, and I can't sense anything beyond the door. It's like my smell and hearing just stop at the door."

"I knew something was going wrong today," replied Nicki, agitated. "I've been following my senses for the past hour. Let me guess- you're somewhere on Second Avenue?"

"Yes. Two doors down from my loft, above the Wild Horse. Apartment is shared by a werewolf and her vampire boyfriend," he voice trailed off for a moment as a large amount of static filled the line. In person, he felt another large pulse of energy as his sense of smell began to register the unmistakable waft of sulfur. Not yet strong, but definitely present. "It's getting stronger, and I can smell sulfur. Please tell me that doesn't mean what I think it does. There are easily over a thousand people on this street right now."

"Shit," muttered Nicki. "I'm on my way." She pocketed her phone and shifted to Hound form, catching the attention of tourists ("I had no idea there were Hounds here!"). She completely ignored them, however, and dashed off at top speed.

Finding the building would have been easy even if she hadn't known where Jim lived; the power from the apartment made it blatant. She found Jim standing in the hallways outside the apartment. "Are either of them a witch?" she asked. "I don't know if Vampires keep those powers after the change, but lycans regularly do. I'm proof of that."

"As far as I know, Lily-Mae isn't a witch, but she has always been interested in new age occultism," he said, not taking the time to find a more diplomatic way of phrasing it. "Crystals, grimoires, palmistry that sort of thing. I don't know much about her boyfriend, except that his name is Earl, and being undead is not turning out to be everything he thought it'd be. They moved in 3 years ago, and I've never sensed anything from them that would make me think either of them was regularly practicing magic, and neither strikes me as having the capacity to keep that secret under my metaphorical nose for years."

"Then we have to assume something else is in there with them," she replied. She chewed her lower lip for a moment and then shook her left hand. "I'm going to try something. No matter what, do not touch me. For any reason." She flicked her fingers a few times, then put her hand against the door. As was her usual wont, she muttered under her breath in German and attempted to extend her sight past the door. Just as she felt herself starting to push through, though, a sort of malevolent pleasure stayed her. Something in there wanted her to get through, was reveling in the thought that she would. At once, she backed away from the door, both phyisically and mentally. "Shit," she said flatly. "If that's what I suspect it is..."

Jim resisted the urge to roll his eyes, which, considering he was still is his partial shift, was probably for the better anyway. "I'm Catholic, this is plainly black magic, and it smells like sulfur. I assume that IT in this case is a demon. The question, is there anything we can do about it? Preferably that involves not manifesting a denizen of hell, and keeping the idiots doing the summon alive, at least long enough to ask them what the everlasting FUCK they were thinking?"

“Demons aren’t the only magic that smells of sulfur,” Nicki pointed out. “They’re not even the most common, in fact. I was hoping- and suspected- that they had a potioneer in there. But this. This is bad.” She chewed her lip some more. “What we need is more witches,” she mused. “And a priest or three. But I only applied for my witching license yesterday so I don’t know any witches. And priests tend to not like working with witches. Unless you know any Anglican or Episcopalian priests who have experience with demons?” she asked almost hopefully.

Jim hadn't actually known there were potions that smelled like sulfur, but that was largely irrelevant at the moment anyway. "The only priest I have on speed dial is Father Aloysius at St. Mary's. I would warrant if I called him, witchcraft would be the least of his concerns about the situation considering we're only a few blocks-"

Jim was cut off as another pulse of power was thrown out followed immediately by the full volume scream of a woman that went on for several seconds before it cut off abruptly. Almost immediately thereafter the power folded in on itself while a man seemed to start to scream out before being abruptly silenced with a wet squelching sound. The werewolf gave a grimace to the hound even as a voice rang out from inside the room. "I know you're there witch. You as well little sodomite."

Nicki was torn on a how to reply to that. She was tempted to inform the little weasel that she was well aware of who had authority in this situation, just to hear it squirm, but decided against it. She didn’t have enough people to properly dispose of a demon. The best she could do would be to order it away. No, in the end she decided to go with the underestimation route. She gave the door a wry grin and put on her best nervous voice. “You say those like they’re insults,” she said.

Jim resisted the urge to snort. "Sodomite? Really," he muttered under his breath. "They don't even use that one at the Klan march in Pulaski," he groused. Still, probably better not to get too fresh with a demon. They'd covered the basics in Sunday school, but not really the particulars of what one should do if faced with one. It wasn't covered in werewolf 101 either.

For her part, the demon Astaroth shrugged. "They were not intended as insults, in particular," she said in a bored tone. "You are little, and a witch, and the werewolf engages in sodomy regularly and isn't too picky about gender or species I might add," she said with might have actually bordered on approval, not that Jim really cared for or desired approval from such a being. "Now, where are my manners? I am Astaroth, also known as Astarte to the Babylonians, Princess of Inquisitors and Accusers. I would say at your service, but, well, fortunately for me the soulless ginger bloodsucker and his furry
cunt accomplice screwed it up and let me loose."

Nicki gave a nervous laugh, still hoping it be underestimated. “We had figured that out,” she said. “But, wait… let’s circle back. I’m far from little. I’m five foot seven and wear a size 12.” She winked at Jim, hoping he understood that she wanted to keep the demon talking. The longer she talked, the more likely she would let something slip.

The demon shrugged. As far as it was concerned, anything on Earth was "little" compared to itself, an ammortal embodiment of sex, lies, and secrecy. Still on to business. "Cling to whatever you will, it is of no consequence."

Picking up the cue, Jim slipped in. "Something tells me you really don't care about who I sleep with at night either. So how about we skip ahead to the part where, apparently, Earl had to die and you possessed a member of my pack. What's a newly liberated demon plan on these days? Place is kind of already well on its way to hell in a handbasket."

The demon laughed. "Your pack? Please, we both know you're not the alpha of this pack, and you're too much of a coward to do what needs doing to change it," it shot out, causing Jim to grimace momentarily as he took a few moments to remind himself of what he was talking to and how it operated. For its part the demon barrelled on, "though I suppose you are right about the latter bit. Souls are showing up in hell in unprecedented numbers, with bells on even." It paused and then spoke with a surprising honesty. "It's been so long since anyone was stupid enough to summon me, much less screw it up bad enough to let me wander the Earth, I honestly don't even know where to start anymore. I'd say I'd start an orgy in your little thing over there, but with how far into since you lot have managed to fall even without my influence, I doubt anyone would notice. I suppose I should start by disposing of the two of you, just to tie up the loose ends."

Before Nicki had a chance to stop and think, she threw all the authority she could muster into her voice and replied, "no, you will not." But as soon as she did it, she cursed herself silently. The demon was probably trying to figure out exactly how much they knew about it and she had just given it that knowlege with four words. So much for underestimation.

Astaroth stopped for a moment. Her intent had been to knock them out and try to rifle for information. She hadn't been careful enough when inhabiting the meat suit and the soul, instead of being sent to the pit to serve, had been tossed out to wander the Earth. She needed to hunt it down and bind it to hell. Nicki's command prohibited THAT, but she hadn't been specific enough. She laughed as she began to summon up infernal fire, "Oh, the bitch thinks she knows how to play!" Though, really, she wasn't even violating the spirit really since two lycanthropes should be able to escape a burning building. "Save yourself, witch, since you couldn't save him!"

Jim raised his brow at that pronouncement, but it'd be better to keep the demon from bring the place down. He rather didn't want to risk losing his apartment as well. "Daemon! In nomine Christi desine," he called in, very rusty, Latin bringing a halt to the pyromania as well. "Blessed Michael, Archangel, defend us in the hour of conflict. Thou, o Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God thrust down this servant of Satan and restrain it from doing harm to us and those in our protection."

Well, the damage had been done. She may as well protect as many people as she could. "You will not harm a single person in this building!" she ordered, again putting all authority into her voice. "Do you understand me?"

"Fine, fine," the demon grumbled. Between wolf boy and the hound, she couldn't start the conflagration she wanted, since, apparently, he lived in close enough proximity that burning it to the ground counted as harming him. She could still cause enough to distract them. She grunted, throwing off enough fire to set the upholstery on fire and produce copious smoke before she made for the nearest window for escape.

The smoke quickly made its way into the hallway. "Shit," said Nicki. "You got a fire extinguisher handy?"

Jim nodded and used werewolf speed to gather two fire extinguishers and toss one to Nicki. "I'm going to call the Blood Rangers. There's a dead vampire here to go with my demonically possessed werewolf. Metro PD should be here soon and I'd rather jurisdiction them completely out if we can," he said. He supposed at some point, Fred would have to be called as well, but useful things first.

Nicki took the extinguisher from Jim and used it to knock the handle off the door and then pushed her way in. She quickly found the worst of the fire and doused it as quickly as she could. She stepped around bits of what she assumed was Earl, trying not to look at it, and continued to put out the smaller fires around the apartment.

The werewolf grabbed his cell out of his pocket and sent a text message with the address to the number he had for gaining the attention of the Blood Rangers. He wasn't sure if he'd get a text, call, or anything at all back, or if a vampire would just show up.

"It doesn't look like there's any major damage," Nicki told Jim as she returned to the hallway. "But it's not pretty in there. I think the body parts are worse."

"I've eaten worse," Gideon said, appearing as if from nowhere with another vampire, a woman. She was obviously turned in her 20s and was clearly both intelligent and extremely dangerous. "When I was young and I had to hide what I was. I have more Rangers on the way to secure the scene. Fill me in quickly so we can discuss how to address this with the local human police. The very moment this becomes official, we'll have Nashville PD Homicide fighting with their Supernatural Crimes Unit for jurisdiction and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation sticking its nose in it, too." Gideon stopped and looked at the two weres, then smiled. "Havildar-Major Gideon Asher. This is Risaldar Natalie Kahn. A seer in our employ sensed something amiss. We were in the area and decided to check it out myself. I was already here when I got your text."

Jim gave a perfunctory bow out of politeness. "Havildar, Risaldar," he intoned. "Beta Nathaniel Cunningham of the Cumberland River Valley Werewolf Pack, but please call me Jim. The short version seems to be Earl, that would be the," Jim stopped and sniffed for a moment, tamping down his inner wolf's urge to eat. "disemboweled it smells like, dead vampire, and his girlfriend Lily-Mae Arnett of the wolf pack, for reasons unknown, summoned the demon Astaroth. It would appear they made rather a mess of it. The aforementioned demon is now running loose in possession of Miss Arnett's body." He looked at Nicki, "Ms. LaFramboise, possessing occult talents may know more?"

"Barely," admitted Nicki. "I'm afraid demonology isn't my strong suit. Astaroth is supposedly part of the unholy trinity. Satan- who some call Lucifer, but that was his name before he fell and he was technically stripped of it, so I prefer not to use that one- Beelzebub, and Astaroth. So he's first tier, top rack, so to speak. And that's where my knowledge ends, unfortunately. But why they would want to summon such a powerful demon- well, that's the real question."

"I believe 'he', in their male form is, in fact, the Great Duke of Hell," Gideon said. "But they go back farther than that. In the second millennium before the common era, they may have been known as the Phoenician goddess Asarte. In the Tanakh, they are also described as female and known as Ashtoreth. They are referenced as male in a book called the Book of Ambramelin, said to be originally written in the 15th Century in German, but later translated into Hebrew. It told the story of an Egyptian mage, presumably a witch, named Abram-Melin teaching his magic to a Jew from Worms in Germany, known as Abraham of Worms. Later Kabbalistic texts also refer to them as male, calling them an archdemon and ruler of the 'adverse forces' of Jupiter. I've never encountered the demon directly, thankfully. But I have crossed paths with lesser demons that, in theory, served this 'Duke of Hell', though with demons, loyalty is questionable. They usually represent the worst of 'human' nature. Are we actually sure that it's Astaroth we're dealing with? Along with loyalty, honesty is not really a demonic virtue. If it's not actually Astaroth, it wouldn't be the first time one demon claimed to be another to avoid being bound or to generally screw with us."

“Wow,” said Nicki, completely humbled by the Vampire’s knowledge. “That’s a lot of information. But helpful. A witch’s first mantra is “knowledge is power.” The more you know about a subject, the more power you have over it. Speaking of witches,” she added, finally setting the fire extinguisher down. “Does anybody know how to get ahold of the head of the Witches’ Guild? I only just applied for my license today, so I haven’t been in contact with her. Or him, as the case may be. We’re going to need demonologists at the very least.”

Sirens were heard as the Nashville Fire Department and the Nashville Metropolitan Police arrived on scene. Gideon rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Alright," he said. "Natalie, contact the witches guild. Tell them we want a meeting with someone highly skilled and powerful enough to know what we're supposed to do about this, and we want it forthwith." Natalie nodded and left the room. Gideon turned to Nicki. "We weren't properly introduced. You are Dominique LaFramboise? You are the Hound pack leader, yes? Nevermind. At least you're a Hound. Human public safety officers respond better when there's a Hound on scene. We're going to go and talk to the scene commander from fire and police." Several Blood Rangers entered. "Secure the scene. Begin forensics." Gideon turned to Jim. "You'll need to represent your pack. They aren't going to like the truth, but we might want to give it to them straight anyway. Better they hear it now than figure out later that we lied to them." Gideon turned to leave. "Are you coming? We need to meet them outside. I don't want them to see this."

“I don’t even want us to see it,” said Nicki wearily. “Let’s go.”

Jim sighed as he followed behind. "Better me than our 'alpha'," he muttered. He quirked his ears. "It seems one of your lieutenants has kept them from entering for now, but Metro is getting annoyed."

---

Outside a very harried-looking police officer was arguing with a ranger. Or rather, working hismself up to arresting the vampire for obstruction. Fortunately, the fire department had already been able to confirm that there was no active fire. With the age of the building, an active fire would have been quite obvious considering how long it had taken them to get through the tourists. Not that it mattered much since half his uniforms were involved in keeping the tourists from walking all over the scene.

“Excuse me, officer,” interrupted Nicki, turning on the charm. “Nicki, alpha hound. I can answer any questions you might have.” While she actually did appreciate and respect human law enforcement, she knew that it was easier to charm them into cooperating than to try to pretend to follow their orders. And since her appearance was unassuming, it was actually a very easy task for her to accomplish.

The officer looked up. "Great," he muttered. "A hound. Ma'am, what's going on here? Why is this vampire claiming she has any authority to obstruct emergency services access."

Nicki gave the officer a sympathetic grimace. "Well, because unfortunately, she does," answered Nicki. "Only one person was injured and that was a vampire, so this is a matter for the Blood Rangers."

Gideon stepped forward. "Havildar-Major Gideon Asher," he said. "And this is the Lycan Beta Nathaniel Cunningham, who for reasons I've yet to discern goes by Jim. Now that we've politely introduced ourselves, perhaps you could do the same?"

The officer spared a glance at the werewolf. They hadn't met, but he knew who he was. Regardless, he sighed. "Officer Driver," he ground out. "Lopez, call it in to get Johnson and the Halloween squad down here," he grumbled before turning back to the others. "I'm afraid I have to insist you let the fire department examine the building. The fire alarm went off, so criminal jurisdiction aside, they're required to examine the building even if it's clear it's not actively burning down. I don't suppose in the meantime you'd like to tell me what happened so I can file the report and get my people out of here?"

“Of course,” replied Nicki, motioning for the fire squad to enter the building. “Just stay out of apartment 315,” she advised, “unless you’d care to find out what a demon does with a vampire.” She added a grimace to drive the point home.

"You don't," Gideon said. "Trust me."

The poor point man of the fire squad had turned a very delicate shade of green as he made his way into the building. In the mean time, Jim turned to the officer. "As for what happened, officer, in short, it seems that the Vampire one Earl Franz and his girlfriend, werewolf Lily-Mae Arnett summoned the demon Astaroth, but fucked it up. I am not sure what their original intent was, but the demon appears to have possessed Miss Arnett, killed Mr. Franz, and is now at large." He glanced at Nicki and Gideon. "That's it in a nutshell."

"Basically," agreed Nicki. "Jim and I were first on the scene. We tried to make it underestimate us, but it tricked us into showing our hands." She hesitated a moment. "Metaphorically," she added. "That's not a weird demon thing. Anyway, we'll have to bring in the witches' guild if we hope to defeat it."

"We will be looking into the matter of what they were doing," Gideon said. "To make sure there's not something more to this than just two stupid young people doing monumentally stupid, not to mention stupendously dangerous, things for kicks. As for Astaroth, the witches may be able to exorcise and banish, or at least bind him. But we first have to find Miss Arnett and contain her and Astaroth. If this is, in fact, Astaroth. As I reminded my colleagues here, demons lie like the living breath. Naturally and without giving it a second thought. We should really get to work. One of my Rangers, Risaldar Natalie Kahn will be on hand if you need anything else, Officer Driver. She can also represent the Blood Rangers to... what did you call it again? Ah, yes. Now I remember. The Halloween Squad. Very colorful."

"Better than the corpse corps," came the reply. "I'm happy to leave the demonic to you and and my priest, though my priest would probably have something to say about the irony of that statement." The officer collected himself as the fire brigade came back out signaling an all clear. "Officially I have to stay 'til they get here, but as far as I'm concerned knock yourself out. I'm going to go commandeer a squad car and get started on the paperwork. Best of luck."

“We’re going to need it,” replied Nicki wearily. This was not going to be easy.