Pentacle

Fight the Supernatural with the supernatural!

CLEA DATA FILE

Team Identities:

• Bethany Woods (Vampire)
• Reza Seyyedi (Totem Bearer)
• Stella Hamon (Shaman/White Witch)
• Tamsin de Boer (Witch)

Additionally the team has these “members” that by human standards do no exist

• Joshua – Angel
• Tobias Kastner – Revenant
• Maitland Fawcett – 16th Century Wandering Spirit

CLEA Classification:

• Magic Users

Special Skills and/or Abilities:

• Reza – Magic Totem bearer. Armour magically protects the wearer from dark magic. Sword cannot kill those pure of heart.
• Stella – Shaman, can talk to wandering spirits
• Stella – White Witch, skilled in Light Magic
• Stella – Shaman, possession, can allow a wandering spirit to use her body.
• Joshua – Angel, warrior and being of intense Light Magic.
• Bethany – Vampire, slow to age, superior strength and agility. Accelerated healing
• Tamsin – Witch, skilled in Dark Magic
• Tobias – Revenant, Undead, immune to magical attacks. Superhuman strength and endurance.
• Maitland – Wandering Spirit, can spy on others and report back. Can possess mortal bodies if permitted.

Limitation(s)/Weakness(s):

• Joshua – can only make brief visits to mortal realm in order to keep the Demon/Angel truce.
• Bethany – sunlight blinds her. Needs a source of blood to survive.
• Stella – weak to Dark Magic
• Tamsin – weak to Light Magic
• Tobias – cannot be stopped once performing a task

Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits:

• Many deaths, albeit of people/beings that are never reported.

Notes/History

Thousands of years ago, frustrated by the fact that Demons kept finding loopholes in their truce with the Angels in regards to direct interfence in the mortal realm, Angel warrior Joshua decided it was high time they did the same. A group of Twelve Demons led by one called Kruniss was the source of Joshua’s frustration. Those higher up in the Light Realm wanted to avoid war and remain at peace which is why the demonic group had been allowed to wreak havoc in the lands around Italy and Greece. They had got around the truce by turning themselve mortal thus ensuring nobody could touch them without breaking the “rules”. Joshua though could see that the Demons were searching for a magical Nexus, a well of natural magic. He had discovered it long ago and knew if the Demons took charge they would be unstoppable in the mortal realm.

Leaving a team of renegade Angels he too found a way of circumventing the truce but at a cost. Twelve Angels sacrificed themselves to create exceptionally powerful magic totems that were passed onto mortals who could then fight the threat directly. Joshua then retired to the Light Realm satisfied he had dealt with the problem. The early battles were at first successful but over time the Totems became weaker. Joshua therefore returned and created a pocket universe around the nexus in order to both hide it and provide a means to recharge the Totems and give the warriors a base of operations.

Those twelve mortals would become known as the Olympian Gods, the ordinary people assuming the users of Totems were Gods due to the unexplained power they wielded. Of the Demons, only Kruniss was able to hold out and the Olympians.

Kruniss eventually realised his defeat was inevitable. With a mortal body but no soul he knew if he was killed he would face oblivion and so cheated by magiclaly binding himself to a human host. He then had that host killed and was pulled into the Spirit Realm since he now possesed a soul. Though he had escaped his fate, he had made a mistake and was now trapped for the Gatekeeper could not send his soul. History would eventually remember the Demon “Kruniss” as “Cronus” and along with the other demons, collectively they would be known as the “Titans”.

After dealing with the Demonic threat, Joshua retired allowed the Olympians to keep their Totems, hoping they would use their gifts for the betterment of man but inevitably they turned on each other as they sought to grab more power. Joshua once more returned to the mortal realm to correct his mistake but the Totems could not be destroyed or taken to the Light Realm so he cast them into the pocket dimension where no mortal could retrieive them. However by the time he had acted “Poseidon” and “Demeter” had chose to abandon the constant infighting and so their Totems remained in the mortal realm.

Centuries past before Joshua grew angry once more at the Demons’ manipulation of mortals. The “rules” were better policed but that only meant the Demons interfering in the lives of mortals simply got better at finding loopholes. This time they had learned how to get their supporters to create “religions” in their name, and it was those supporters that helped them to amass power through dark magic.

Ideally he would have wanted to spite the mortals that worshipped Demons in order to put a stop to the source of power ,but doing that would see him expelled from the Light realm. Joshua was also all too aware of the mistake he had made eons earlier with the Olympians and knew he simply could not hand out power to mortals. He therefore decided to try a different method and use the same manipulations the Demons did and act out his will via a proxy.

The choice of proxy was critical. Joshua chose Reza Seyyedi, who (ironically given Joshua’s history with the Olympians) possessed a Magic Totem. In Reza’s case it was armour that once belonged to a powerful sorcerer who fought evil. Upon death the armour had become infused with Light Magic which protected the wearer from harm from Dark Magic. The sword accompanying the armour was both a “real” and Magical Weapon. It could emit Light Magic to smite evil and at the same time it could protect itself from misuse for the weapon could prevent itself from killing someone pure of heart. Evil could therefore not use the sword on a “good” person.

Having made his choice, Joshua set about trying to get Reza to fight the allies of Demons. Using his angelic power he had the means to create premonitions in mortals, but the trick was not to get caught doing it else face the wrath of breaking the edict. Joshua took the risk and sent the warrior a “warning” that he would be attacked by evil. The imagery was made deliberately vague in order to avoid alerting an Demons in the mortal realm of what he was doing.  Keeping everything low key in order to keep his activities hidden, Joshua chose Bethany Woods, as that “evil”. She was a lone vampire and like all vampires she was linked to the demon Y’Creft. Though she had the abilities of a vampire she had not taken the blood of an innocent in anger and so her soul did not belong to the Demon yet but that technicallity did not matter to Joshua as she had been tainted by evil. To assess Reza’s use as a tool in the war against the allies of Demons, Bethany was a good place to start since she did not belong to a coven and that meant she was an easy target.

What Joshua did not know was that Bethany had chosen to fight against the Vampire Covens. She had hated being turned into a vampire as it had been done against her will. A member of the Forstner Coven had done the deed without permission and the Elders of Coven were not happy.To keep the existance of vampires a secret in the modern world turnings could only be done in certain situations for the benefit of the Coven, not on a personal choice on the individual. The Elders therefore considered her a mistake that needed to be dealt with. Therefore instead of welcoming a newcomer to the fold, the Coven Elders arranged for her to be captured by Citadel. She escaped with the help of Kirkwood, a vampire warrior also from the Forstner Coven who had gone rouge. Since she had parted company with him she had spent her time carrying out her revenge on the Forstner Covern. This was why she was in India.

Bethany had learned that the Forstner Coven had business interests here and wanted to eliminate those resources to make life very difficult for them. Maintaining a Coven took lots of money so stopping the flow of cash would severely restrict their operations. As a vampire she was practically blind in daylight, even with wearing shades but most businesses shut at night so she could not get all the intel she needed at night. It was a risk being in the open during the day but one she figured was not without reward.

This was how Reza found her. Even with superior strength and agility being “blind” meant the fight did not last too long. Once he got her down he swung his sword to administer the killing thrust through her body but the blade stopped in mid air and resisted. He tried again and it refused to carry out its duty. Being well attuned to the “habits” of his armour, Reza knew the sword would not kill someone pure of heart. He guessed that though she was a vampire and so “touched” by Darkness her heart was pure. That left him confused as to the premonition that she was a threat to him. Having attracted a crowd, Reza grabbed the downed vampire and carried her of to his house. He hoped when she recovered he would give her some answers.

Bethany had none to give. She had only fought back against Reza as she though that he had been sent by Citadel to “reaquire” her. Certainly he was not from the Coven since he had no problems with daylight and therefore was not vampiric in nature. Putting it down to a misunderstanding from a dream that he now assumed had not been a premonition, Reza offered his apologies and his services to help her with her Coven problem, He felt that was the least he could do. Though Bethany did not want a partner, she was tired of having to look over her shoulder and so accepted the help, even though she was not at all sure if she trusted him.

Despite the damage to the Forstner Coven by the pair, this was not the outcome Joshua wanted. Out of desperation he risked all to appear before Reza and asked why he had not eliminated Bethany. Now everything made sense to Reza but he explained that Bethany was not directly “evil” so therefore his armour would not allow him to kill her. He also dared to challeng the Angel and suggest that his judgement was clouded since it did not seem very Angelic to have someone with a “pure heart” murdered.

It was at that moment that Bethany walked in on the “meeting”.  Seeing an Angel, Bethany begged Joshua to rid her of the vampire curse but he could not undo what had been done by her. Instead, seeing an opportunity to take advantage of her need for revenge, Joshua suggested that as well as vampires there were other “sources” as evil that created the same amount of misery on normal mortals as had been done before and she might like to work with Reza in dealing with those as well.

The pair asked him why a mighty Angel could not do the work himself. Joshua explained the truce the Angels had with the Demons and the fact that neither side were supposed to interfere directly in the lives of mortals. It was certainly clear to both Reza and Bethany that the Angel was breaking the rules by even talking to them and it was equally obvious to the pair that Joshua had been bending the rules in setting up Reza to hunt Bethany. The latter would make Bethany think that the Angel did not care what happened to either of them so long as the Angel’s agenda was met meant that she would not take his words at face value.

However the idea of protecting others from falling victim to sources of dark magic hit a chord with Bethany and she agreed to help despite the misgivings. Reza had already been fighting that fight so it only remained for him to continue. With a decision made Joshua vanished. As he faded out he said he did not know when he might return as it depended on whether the Demons had sensed his presence in the mortal realm or whether his superiors in the Light Realm had done the same.

Over time he made a few appearances to the pair, alerting them to sources of Dark Magic, which they duly dealt with efficiently. Then nearly half a year after he had tried to have Reza kill Bethany, Joshua brought news of a powerful witch who wielded Dark Magic. Her name was Tamsin de Boer and Joshua suggested that she was so powerful they might need the benefit of someone equally skilled with Light Magic in order to defeat her. With no more help from Joshua, the pair tracked down Stella Hamon. As well as being a Shaman and able to communicate with wandering spirits, Stella was also a White Witch.

The trio eventually located de Boer and set about stopping her evil practices. As Joshua warned, de Boer was indeed a powerful adversary. Through Dark Magic she took out Reza first. Bethany used the distraction as a means to attack but de Boer “detected” the vampire link to blood magic and neutralised her next. Having used a good deal of power to deal with the first two attacks, she was weakened. Stella used this to her advantage. Light Magic neutralised Dark Magic and as an added distraction she brought her friend, a 16th Century wandering spirit, Maitland Fawcett.

De Boer, had equipped her fingers with claw like extensions. Witches often used such things as both a weapon and as part of rituals.  She wanted to slash Stella with them but could not see clearly due to the ghost’s interference. On one attempt she did get lucky and caught Stella’s arm but that was going to be the only luck she was going to have because the White Witch had gained enough time to recite a spell which turned de Boers Magic in on itself.

Every time she tried to strike out her own claws attacked her. Now totally distracted, Stella pressed home the attack. Using some chain she saw lying around she sent it form and sent it to wrap around de Boer, totally incapacitating her and bringing her to her knees like some large iron snake. If she struggled either the claws got her or Stella tightened the chain.

Assuming that de Boer had aligned her soul to a Demon, Stella started to recite the Gatekeeper incantation, which separated a person’s soul from her mortal body and sent it to the Gatekeeper who would then send it to the Dark Realm. Unlike sudden death where a Soul can trap itself in the mortal realm, the incantation ensured that it cannot anchor itself whilst the body of the individual bursts into flames.

De Boer begged Stella to stop but she kept chanting. Reza then approached and when his sword did not react as expected near de Boer, he forced the White Witch to stop. Something was wrong. Stella halted but did not release de Boer. Instead she put a spell on her that forced her to tell the truth.

Under the influence of the spell, de Boer admitted that she was indeed a skilled practitioner in dark magic. She did so because she believed its destructive and violent power was the best way to deal with beings wielding similar power. Darkness knows darkness was how she put it. Also Dark Magic had the advantage in de Boer’s logic as she though that the best way to hide victims of evil was by masking them in a shield of negative power. This she had been doing for a friend of hers who needed money to pay for her mother’s expensive medical bill. With nowhere to turn the friend had made a deal with a Demon, a soul for the money.

De Boer explained that to try and break the deal, she had shielded her friend in dark magic and then sent her into a magically induced coma. This would cause the connection between Demon and “follower” to be broken and that would force the Demon to venture into the mortal realm to investigate why he could not sense what “belonged ” to him.  Then she would have vanquished the Demon and her friend’s soul would be saved

The others quickly concluded that the massive usage of Dark Magic and the likely link to a Demon had attracted Joshua’s attention. A tragic mistake avoided, Stella released de Boer but the dark witch did not stick around. She cursed them for making her weak and dooming her friend’s soul. Then using an incantation she vanished by teleporting herself away.

Stella could track the spell. She had sensed the panic in de Boer before she fled and felt they could well have done more harm then good and proposed they undo the damage by helping, not that they would be welcomed. They agreed and the tracking spell brought the trio to the apartment de Boer had been watching over her friend. The Demon was already there and de Boer was not strong enough to vanquish it. Reza tried killing it but it kept “blinking” to avoid the attacks. When Stella  tried defeating it with Light Magic, the Demon simply started feeding of de Boer’s friend to recoup its power. Stella knew if she kept it up it might just kill the woman.

With Stella, Reza and de Boer in a stalemate, Bethany decided to employ some sound logic of her own in a high risk strategy. Being a vampire meant she was faster than Reza which allowed her to get more strikes in before it teleported away by blinking. She knew she stool little chance of defeating the creature but her goal was to annoy it.

The ploy worked and the demon went to fully attack her. Bethany could not last long, but she did not need to, for she was a vampire, a “child” of Y’Creft the blood demon. Having vampire blood linked her to a demon of her own and a powerful one at that. Whilst she had never “fed” in anger and thus allowed her soul to be his, Bethany knew that Y’Creft would not risk  losing a potential soul.   As she guessed the Blood Demon appeared and attacked the lower ranking Demon, tearing it to pieces. Annoyed at having to come out of the Dark Realm for no reward, before vanishing Y’Creft  assured Bethany that one day she would succumb to her blood lust and kill to feed and then he would have her soul.

Despite her friend having been saved and the fact they had all worked effectively together, de Boer refused an invitation to join their little group. She simply could not trust them after trying to send her soul to the Dark Realm. The invitation was left open and a few months later they asked for her help in dealing with another of Joshua’s problems. Though she figured she did owe them for her friend’s soul she again wanted no part in a team. However after they worked together a few more times she finally decided to forgive them, albeit it took a long time for her to learn to trust them.

The last full time member of Pentacle, the name they chose for themselves, was Tobias Kastner. Joshua had sent the team after him because he was a Revenant causing serious damage to good souls. A living ghost, Tobias had been brought back to life by Helios, a powerful sorceress. He had died in a plane  along with 236 others after a bomb had ripped it apart. At the moment of death  Tobias was struck with the need to avenge his fate. This had anchored his soul in the mortal realm and prevented the Gatekeeper moving it on.

Helios, too wanted revenge after the Seductress had killed people under her protection. In grief she decided that no innocent would ever be lost like that again. She repatriated Tobias to his body and sent him to hunt all sources of evil, using Tobias’s own need for revenge to her own gains.

Calling himself Nemesis, Tobias hunted down those that bombed the plane. He could not take down Seductress as she, being a member of the Witches Coalition was too well protected, so he found other sources of evil to eliminate. The problem with Tobias’s rebirth was that Helios had been given a mission that was too black and white with no leeway. Anyone from mass murderers to simple pick-pockets were classed as “evil” since their actions were not “good.”

Pentacle met with Helios but she could not undo the problem without “killing” Tobias again. For him to carry out his mission she had deliberately left out parts of his soul that would give him a conscience which was why he was acting like he did. As a Revenant she had created, Tobias was also immune to her power now. This was why creating such an entity was not normally performed by any witch, good or bad.

The team managed to track down Tobias on his killing spree. Using some very old texts, Stella thought she had a way of stopping him. As a White Witch and Shaman her knowledge of wandering souls was quite extensive so whilst the others kept Tobias busy, she entered the realm just beyond the mortal realm, Using her spirit friend, Maitland they were able to find the missing part of Tobias’s soul and reintegrate it with his body.

Now complete Tobias  gained a conscience once more and started to regret all that he had done since Helios brought him back. Though the police or any other agency would not be able to  pin the blame on him because it was hard to put a murder charge on someone who was already dead, he felt  they should “kill” him again and  return him as a wandering spirit.

The others suggested that  he had  perhaps a unique gift and if he wanted to make amends maybe he should use the gift for good.   Immune to almost all magic meant a lot of the teams enemies would have no effective “weapons” against him. After a good deal of persuasion Tobias agreed on the proviso that if he ever took a wrong life by mistake they would send his spirit back to wander the Spirit Realm.

Eventually Joshua’s fight against Demons came full circle when during the Breach Day event, Cronus (Kruniss) found a weakness between the Realms and used to influence mortals to help him return. Though stick stuck in the Spirit Realm he was still a significant threat. Knowing that the group now calling itself Pentacle could not deal with the Demon if it did find a way back, Joshua had to come clean about his past error. He announced his intention to release the Totems he had hidden in the Pocket Dimension and hoped that Pentacle would watch over the new “gods” and keep them true.

His fears though were not justified. Though the Totems were active and had the living will of the Angel who had sacrificed its power, they had originally been “given” to their first bearers and had no option but to comply. Now the Totems had free will and could choose their hosts. Pentacle even provide them with the means to travel vast distances to speed up the search and so once scattered they were able to ally themselves with individuals that were worthy of their power, not the volunteers Joshua had chosen.

This meant that with the world safe Joshua could concentrate his efforts on watching over Pentacle. Cronus would manage to break free more than once, (the first time leading to the Olympians finding a new Demeter and Poseidon) but each time he would be sent back to the spirit realm. Ironically the Olympians would in time fight alongside Pentacle when world threats arose and they in turn would stand shoulder to shoulder with other heroes.