3.6 Static

A room in the basement of the Boyd-Townsend manor has been transformed into a full-fledged mad-scientist lab, complete with whirligigs and whiz-bangs and a huge machine. It is this last machine that has Deaver gesturing animatedly, explaining how it works to Bethany and Brandon. The machine is still turned off, and it sports an obsidian magical relic in the middle. The pair are paying very close (if somewhat confused) attention, and asking lots of questions.

Brandon starts quizzing Deaver about the obsidian disk, which is covered in hieroglyphics and is clearly some sort of artifact. He explains that the disk is called the Eye of Osiris, and has historically been intricately tied to the relationship between magic and the physical plane -- Deaver’s favorite area of study. The purpose of this machine is to allow inter-planar travel, from the physical plane to the astral plane and so forth.

Brandon gets permission from Deaver to take the disk out of the machine and examine the markings close up. Bethany peeks over his shoulder, and notices a pair of markings that match the contents of a journal article she was recently reading. According to current research findings, when the two markings appear in tandem they have a different meaning and are usually tied to the Cult of Isis. She and Deaver get in an in-depth discussion about the artifact. She deliberately takes his hand, and sparks fly. Unfortunately, they aren’t the only sparks -- as Brandon goes to put the disk back in its spot in the machine, there’s suddenly a bright arc of magic and electricity between Brandon and the artifact as the lights and monitors on the machine flare to sudden life. His hand jerks. "It shocked me."
 
He turns back. Bethany soundlessly mouths his name. She moves towards Brandon. Goes straight through him, like she's diving for something on the floor. Pops back up through him, and looks him in the eyes. She screams, now audibly, and backs up. Deaver stands there, yelling, but it can't be heard. Deaver starts to turn insubstantial. Like he's vanishing into static. Bethany backs up straight through him. Flails a little bit in the static, and runs out of the room. "Bethany? Bethany!"

Rewind.
 
As Brandon looks over the crystal, Bethany's hand slides into Deaver's. "This is great! Egyptian, right?" The machine is amazing, in this mad-scientist sort of way. Brandon's hand jerks away from the machine as he places the crystal back. "It sho-"
 
The lights of the machine go on, and Brandon passes out. Bethany dives towards him, grabbing his shoulders just before he hits the floor. "OW!" Bethany releases him and jerks upwards. Directly in front of her is a human-sized ball of blazing black magic, like that stuff that got thrown at all of you when Devon tried to kill you. It reaches towards her. She SCREAMS and backs up until she's standing inside of a static-y light. Flails her way through it. Turns and runs out of the room.
 
Rewind.
 
As Brandon looks over the crystal, Bethany's hand slides into Deaver's. Brandon says something about Egypt. Bethany is pretty. And brilliant. And she speaks ancient Tibetan, which is just...
 
Brandon is passing out. And now the machine's on. It doesn't actually turn on yet, so this is a concern. Bethany reaches out to grab Brandon, and as soon as she touches him, she collapses. The lights on the machine grow brighter as you walk towards the collapses pair. Then the lights snuff out. And the machine turns off.

Chase is in Common Grounds, grabbing her umpteenth latte of the day. She turns from the counter and notices an oddly familiar couple at a corner table. As she moves to say hello, her phone rings. It is a very distressed sounding Deaver. When she hears Brandon and Bethany are passed out on the floor and he can’t wake them, she goes all business, telling him to keep them warm as she heads straight for the door.

Deaver calls the rest of the troops and the Scoobies congregate in the mansion basement. Bethany wakes up with a gasp and looks around, disoriented. As Gabe goes to get her a drink, Bethany explains everything she saw – the pulsing pool of blood, the melting walls, Brandon’s disappearance, running out of the house and being pounded by all the strange lights and colors. She realized something wasn’t right and returned to the basement, where her eyes fell on a necklace that had belonged to her mother. Bethany realized the necklace probably represented her, so she reached down and picked it up. That’s when she suddenly awoke here. Discussion on Bethany’s experiences leads the magically inclined to hypothesize that she visited the astral plane; that Deaver’s machine has achieved “projection” through science. Which means Brandon, whose physical form is still peacefully sleeping, must be out there with no idea what is going on …

Discussions start on how to go after Brandon. Deaver thinks that after seeing what happened, he should be able to complete the machine fairly quickly. Some tense moments go by while he fiddles and futzes. Once again, the monitors light up, this time thanks to the plug. Rachel, concerned that she shouldn’t risk going, volunteers to stay back and keep the power levels on the machine steady. Bethany stays with her. Rachel gives a hurried lecture on astral travel as everyone lies on the floor and gets comfortable. Bethany pushes the button …

The group looks around them at the basement, which is the same yet different. The walls vibrate with color and sound and there is a brilliant pool of blood in the center of the floor. At each person’s feet is their own planar anchor, some object which is meaningful to them and binds them to reality. The array of articles is interesting: At Will’s feet is a metal chain of thin rings. Stefan has his family sword, and Chase her ancient one-eyed “Boo Bear”. Rive looks long and hard at a gigantic diamond ring, and Gabe is confusedly faced with the ornate cross that his father always wears. As for Geoff, well, Rive’s diamond isn’t the only one on the floor, but he blushes and quickly drops a jacket over Chase’s intended ring before she spots it.

Chase sees a drop of blood hit the pool and ripple outward. She looks up to see that hanging from the ceiling are countless implements of torture, looking freshly used. So *that’s* what the Boyd-Townsends used to do in this basement. Since the more horrible or long-standing the physical instance of the thing was, the more vivid an impression it leaves, the grisly articles on the ceiling look very recent and very real. Ew.

Chase quickly and bluntly fills the uninformed in on Brandon’s (uncommonly long) history. Discussion starts on where Brandon might go in this crazy world where you can think a place and be there, so the group starts with the portrait of his brother on the ground floor. Heading up the stairs, strange tentacular “astral fuzzies” keep trying to attach themselves to Gabe, Stefan, and Rive. Reaching the ground floor, the group can tell that the walls are definitely screaming. Creepy.

In the living room, Brandon’s brother William still stands in his frame, but he’s moving around easily and is full of life. He haughtily examines them down his nose (which is easy from his position over the mantle) and recognizes them with a sigh of boredom as some of Brandon’s “little friends”. He tells them than he has indeed seen Brandon, but that his brother has unfortunately been taken by The Keeper, who has need of his special abilities to fix the “situation” in McKennit. Brandon’s “gift” has always made him… popular. Before they can get any more information out of him, the conversation is interrupted by a strange bubble that works its way through the wall and into the portrait, throwing William backwards and out of view.

The group comes up with two places that Brandon might be held, based on the centers of power in the physical McKennit: the Phillipi bell tower or City Hall. They decide to start with City Hall, and reach it quickly by just visualizing themselves in front of it, per Rachel’s instructions. The place is writhing with astral creepy-crawlies. They give it a quick run through (more like a fly-through, once they figure that part out). Unfortunately they run into Trisha, who says something exasperated and tacky and then quickly disappears from view. They find no trace of Brandon however, so they picture themselves in front of the main building on campus.

And there they are. Where City Hall was full of life, the campus is strangely quiet. They’re met at the front entrance by a pair of guards, who ask if they have an appointment with The Keeper. Bingo. Since no amount of cajoling will allow them to pass the guards, the group *visualizes* themselves past the guards and around the corner, and that takes care of that. Standing in front of the entrance to the bell tower, the intersecting ley lines are clearly visible as brilliant streaks of light that arc across the floor. The Scoobies open the door to the bell tower (which is locked, but if you visualize it UN-locked, that’s not a problem) and find themselves looking into an inky, bottomless shaft. They float gently downward, and begin to hear the sound of barking hounds. Below them they see a head peek out and upwards into the shaft. The head shouts something in an unknown tongue, and the dogs stop barking.

The Scoobies drift to a stop at the basement level (where the head was) and find a room full of humanoid critters of various sizes, colors, and shapes, all chittering in a strange language. At the far end of the room, a giant throne sits on a dais, flanked by two smaller chairs. In the throne sits an elephantine figure with thick legs and three heads on snakelike necks. Next to him, on one of the smaller chairs, sits what looks like a glowing purple-black blob of black magical energy.

As the group of astral travelers enters the room, all conversation stops. A Technicolor doorman steps into their path and asks if they have an appointment with The Keeper. Over the doorman’s shoulder, the gang sees one of The Keeper’s heads reach down and gently wrap its mouth around the glowing black blob, breathing in deeply. The black aura fades briefly, and they can see Brandon at the center of it. He looks shaky and sick and exhausted.

Out of patience, they demand an audience with The Keeper to discuss their friend, and what the terms need to be to secure his release. Stefan politely asks if there is some way they can help The Keeper, rather than leave Brandon in his “care”. The doorman remains impassive, but another figure in the room overhears the conversation and approaches. He is a tall, regal Native-American man. A brief discussion with some of the veteran scoobies reveals that this man is a friend of Nathaniel’s, the guardian of the Berzerker’s cave. Nathaniel spoke highly of the group, so the man smoothes things over with the guard and they approach the dais.

The Keeper examines each person in turn (well, three at a time) with eyes that seem to look straight through to the deepest part of them. He tells them that he needs Brandon’s magical ability to give him enough power to manifest and fight in the material plane. The process would undoubtedly kill him. When Stefan repeats his question about helping, The Keeper tells him that the end foretold in The Prophecy has already started. That the Children of Saint Saul will rise like the waves, and will bring about the end of everything as we know it.

The gang ends up negotiating a deal with The Keeper -- they swear to do their best to defeat St. Saul and his Children on the material plane. If they fail, they will return Brandon to The Keeper so that he can continue the fight.

Stefan gently helps Brandon out of his chair and everyone thinks their way back to the basement of the Boyd-Townsend manor. They move to their respective anchors and pick them up, waking suddenly in Deaver’s basement. Rachel and Bethany are thrilled to see they found Brandon so quickly … since they’ve only been gone for 15 seconds …