Hybrids War - Session 00 #0

Characters' Introduction

From google image

ITALY, APRIL 2018

In one year after the first brutal murder, others followed. Rome has been terrified for eight or nine months. Also, the Lazio suffered the terror of those monsters. All the journals and tv news talked about it. Legends like vampires and wolfmen were staying on everyone’s lips. In the night anyone stayed out until too late.

The population was divided into two factions: those who stayed with monsters and those who fought them for saving themselves and their families. In one year many families were exterminated.

Those who specialized in the area said that those new monsters hunted only vampires and lycanthropes and that they were themselves hybrids of the two races.

Suddenly the fans of the genre augmented and in some universities were born some specific courses. Most of the students attended these courses trying to understand how were born the hybrids. But the universities didn’t give any good information that would have lead the students to real answers…not directly, at least. The students were provided of all the tools they needed for doing research independently. Only the most gifted students could take the least evident tools. One of them, Christian, was a real well of passion. He constantly dedicated to the study and always obtained excellent marks. Was there something that attracted him, or had he been captured by the classical charm of the occult?

When he didn’t study at the university or at home, he went to the Colombo’s house huge library. And there he made friend with the landlord: a young man that received as an inheritance all that property from his deceased uncle. His name was Antonio and he came from a wealthy family. Antonio was a scholar of the occult, like Chris, but his capacities and his resources allowed him to study on his own, at home, in his library.

In the city there were other fans, who for work, who for hobby. In general, if they weren’t formally acknowledged, they didn’t expose themselves too much. The best places where to find those people were the Catacombs. Under Rome they extended for kms and after the appearing of the hybrids they became the home for hundreds of survivors. Virgilio was one of them. All those that were working with him in the souvenir shop near the Colosseum were dismembered a morning of the preview September. It would have been finished also for him if he wouldn’t have been in late.  Shocked because of that massacre, he grabbed some statuettes and took shelter at the Catacombs.

The event of that day increased the attention threshold. Some military forces were called to Rome for the safety of the city. Tony, a recalled soldier from the Middle East for the project “safe roads”, and his colleague Bepi, arrived exactly that day.

The Vatican increased its forces too with the Swiss Guards, even if any priests or others were targeted. Each guard has the job of protecting the Pope from the fiends, and that was well known by Hans.

The internet was another worrying place. It was the principal source of information, especially for those of the Militia that were always hunting those of the Resistance. Gabriele, called “the Rat”, was one of the best hackers that actively supported the Resistance. He couldn’t stand monsters that killed anyone came to shot…vampires and lycanthropes payed attention to it at least.

One day, all seven received a message from an unknown anonymous number that showed them a place and a time for a meeting.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Hybrids War - Prologue

Drawn by me

ITALY, YEAR 2017.

In Rome it seemed a normal Saturday night. The locals swarmed of people, some drunk and some other less. The centre was lighted up and also all the monuments. Trevi fountain was shining among all those groups of tourists, Saint Peter’s Basilica was the master and the Parliament was full of politicians in...at work. Nothing demonstrated that Saturday night would be different from the others.

In the suburbs everything was tranquil. Some passers-by were walking back home, some cars shot with high volume music.

Later in the night, or earlier in the morning, everything calmed down. Going straight on his home street, a man was tottering. When he arrived in front of the gate he took the key for unlock it, but he heard something at his back. He turned but there was nothing strange. Probably it was only the alcohol. He succeeded on opening the gate, even if with some difficulties, and he entered the alleyway. While he was walking with some difficulties reaching the door, a presence shot again at his back. At that point he understood there was something strange. Suddenly he turned and drew a knife from the pocket. His breath started to shorten. The sweat started to cover his face. He asked once “Who’s there?” and a shape assaulted and dismembered the man. All finished in a few seconds and the black shape disappeared as it appeared. From there all begun.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Storyteller

I want to tell you a story. A story born into the wood, from an old weeping willow...

There was a glittering pond in the center of a clearing. All around it, there were flowers of all kind and only an ancient big weeping willow. The place was so tranquil. There could be heard the voice of wind and the delicate sound of the water drops who acted as the music background.

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The voices of small animals were the main instruments. The wing beating of the moths gave the rhythm and the continuous and constant sound of the crickets seemed a harmonious group of strings. The sang of the cicadas seemed to be the voices of solo singers. Inside that silence, all those sounds started to be a beautiful concert.

The fireflies started their dance on the music of those special artists. They twirled and moved so gracefully, like pretty classic dancers, escaping from the bats. They danced and danced, but something stopped all for a moment.

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A strong deep voice broke into the concert. The solo singer, the leading lady. A big wonderful owl appeared and after a little moment of silence, the orchestra started again. And following, the fireflies and the bats started dancing again, for all the night.

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Emily

Hybrids War - Introduction

Took from me

"Hybrids War" is a campaing I created for our group of friends, with the rules of the RPG "World of Darkness".

THE SETTING
The most common setting for this RPG are the metropolis of USA like New York. But I didn't choose any of them. I chose to set it in the odiern Italy, with all its merits and defects. I thought it is the perfect place in the perfect time for the plot. Let me explain why.

Actually, Italy is politically unsettled, more than before. After the elections of March, we still don't have a solid government and, as usual, the bureaucracy is more than very long. Where there are needed particular authorizations, people start to do things even if they don't have them.

"But the authorization?"

"Oh, it will come, it will come, don't worry".

- quote Marco Paolini in "Vajont" -

I wanted to use vampires, lycantropes and mages, which they are really nice in "World of Darkness". These three kind of supernatural beings would be certainly considered "devil's sons" in Italian socieaty but some fools would be able to use these beasts to fight the beasts themselves. 

Furthermore, Italy is full of gloomy places with gloomy stories. Why I couldn't invent some more gloomy stories for some places I visited? In the village where I live there are at least two or three places that are so suggestives. Some of them have a story but others don't. Why I cannot invent one for them?

"All the great stories deserve an embellishment."

- quote Gandalf in "The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey" -

THE PLOT

The main plot talks about monsters who apparently appeared from nothing and started to kill people in Rome. At the beguinning it seems that monsters kill people casually, but some investigations revel that they kill only supernatural beings. After one year people are devided into two faction: those who help monsters killing the devil's sons called Militia and those who want to destroy monsters for the safety of their families called Resistence. Some members of the Resistence are asked to look for some new strong members in the cities near Rome. But when they come back to Rome they descover that the monsters called hybrids, reached the nearest regions. Now they have to find the strongest supernatural people they know and they have to quickly investigate finding the place where the hybrids come from.

If you're curious let's keep an eye on the blog. I will post the story in episodes.

See you soon.
Emily!

The Troll's Bridge

Welcome back readers!
Today I would tell you a very little story inspired by this photo I took last week:

"The Troll's Bridge"

Once upon a time, a troll was living under a bridge near  a village and for each villager that passed the bridge he asked a toll. One day he met a little girl and, as usually, he stopped her and saied:

"If you want pass, you have to pay a toll."

"Why I should pay for passing the bridge?" asked the girl.

"Because it's mine." the troll answered.

"It can't be yours, I don't see any signpost with your name on."

"But it's my home!" the troll was getting angry.

"Don't shout please. I have to go now or I'll be late for school." the girl passed without paying the toll, and the troll retired under his bridge.

The following day, early in the moarning, the troll was still sleeping whe he was woke up by a strong noise of a hummer hitting on something. He went out by the bridge to see what was happening and saw the girl of the day before who was installing a signpost to the starting of the bridge.

"Why are you doing this?" asked the troll.

"Because you're right asking a toll to villagers who want pass the bridge, but you should show that this is your bridge." answered the girl. After she finished to install the signpost she gave two coins to the troll; one for the day before and one for that ones, than she passed the bridge and went to school.

Days passed and all the villagers wanted pass the bridge, payed the toll for the troll. He became reach, but he wasn't happy. He liked scare the villagers who didn't want to pay the toll, and now he was boring. One day he decided to break the signpost for scaring all the villagers who passed there. When she meet again the girl she asked:

"Why did you break the signpost? Didn't you want our coins?"

"I don't want your coins, I want scare all of you." answered happy the troll.

"So, you don't need of this?" the girl asked showing the coin.

"No, I don't need it." he took a big sack of coins and gave it to the girl, than he retired again under the bridge, waiting for the next villager to scare. The girl came back home with the big sack of coins and decided to use them for halp her parents with the field of grain. From that day the troll nevemore scared the girl, he scared only the other villagers.

Hope you liked the story.

Have a nice weekend and...pay attention to the troll!

Love

Emily

A horror tail

Hi everyone!
I'm here with a new tail and I won't say you anything else. Have a nice reading!

REBEL SOUL

The nightfall before I participated to a Halloween party. The theme was "Corpse Brides" and it was organized by a friend of mine. We have been offered ti rest there for the night for the ones who lived far away. My best friend and I decided to accept the offering and we rested in the theatre where the party took place.

When I woke up in the moarning, I went down in the basement for use the toilette. I was still wearing my corpse bride wedding dress and while I was coming out of the bathroom, passing in front of the mirror at the bottom of the toilette room, I saw something strange: in the mirror, my snow white wedding dress was completly bloodstained and the place all around the image was rotten.

I approached the mirror and instinctivley touched it. In the same moment I watched myself in the eyes and I winded up inside the mirror. My mirrored image watched me, sniggering, and then she went away with my snow white dress, leaving me inside that fetid dimension with her grimy dress.

I sterted roam through thet dimension, searching a way to escape. The structure was the same of the theatre, with the only difference that all seemed to be abandoned for ages. All was filthy and seemed that could fall to pieces at any moment.

I reached those that in reality was the stage, where my friend and I rested the night before. She there wasn't in that dimension. The seats were imbued with damp and the floor was covered by a slimy dark red coloured material. The palnks of the stage were spoiled. i took the small stairs on the right of the stage and I climbed them. on the stage, the red curtains were soacked by the same slimy material of the floor. I passed through them and I was hit by a nauseating smell. All the tools were rotten or broken. I put a hand on the nose and I turned to the left seeing something turned dawn itself, feasting with the tools of the theatre. Stepping back I made a little noise and that strage thing turned to me. It was like a bear without fur, with lacerated muscles under the decaied skin. the drool was red and...it had no eyes on its face.

After a few second of fear I started to run out of the theatre and the monster slashed the curtains. I reached the hall, jumping down of the stage, and tried to escape but the doors were loked. So I took the way for the dressing rooms, searching something that I could use as a weapon. The beast run faster then me but it was too massive and the corridors were too thight, letting me taking land. Without I noticed it, I reached the door on the back. It was sealed with an iron cane. i kept the cane, even if with repulsion because of the strange material wich covered it, and I turned against the beast. While I was yet turning, the beast pierced itself with the cane. The big iron cane opened a hole on the chest of the beast. It fell down on the floor and I have been merciless towards it.

While I was hitting it I noticed something sparkling into the chest of the creature. I stopped and started to search into that rotten meet finding a small object. It was a pendant, similar to the one that wore my friend. It had an opening on one side and I opened it. Inside there was a mirror. I watched through the reflection of my eyes and suddenly the stink and the filth disappeared. Only two things were still there: the pendant and the blood on my hands. i watched in front of me, where I left the dead beast and instead of it I saw my friend. She was spreaded out on the floor, with a hole in her chest. All around her blood...blood everywhere. Cought by a strong agony I threw away the pendant and standed up quickly. My dress was bloodstained and also my hands and I could not had gone out of the theatre in that way. My best friend was dead, i killed her. Scared and confused I decided to call the police and give myself up. I could not have done anything else.

The police arrived and I was still there, asking myself if I should have told the truth or if I should have lied. No one could believe to me if I would have told the truth. I have been arrested and brought to the police station. Into the interview room I have been interrogated but I didn't sayed anything. I did not know what I should say. I watched down. The table was made of iron. I saw myself again, reflected on the iron surface, and I understood what I had to do. I watched my reflection in the eyes and I came back in that dimesion. I did not killed my friend, the fault was of the other girl who wanted take my place in the real world. So, she hed to be judges for wat she had done.

In the other dimension I was sitting on a dirty and cold wooden chair. In fron of me, to the other side of the table, there was two puppets. They were there, motionless. On the rotten wooden table there was a mirror. I broke it with a punch and I wet out of that room, surrounded by the laments of all creatures inside that dimension.

Hope you enjoyed the reading.

Have a nice week. 

Emily.

Little story

SEVEN WIDOWS WEEP

(inspired by the song "Seven widows weep" performed by the group Sirenia)

In the northern lands, seven sailors were leaving their home searching adventure and conquest. Their wives promised to wait for their return every day. The mans started their journey with the best weather the could have hoped. Glass-like sea and tailwind went with the sailors for all the time as long as...

One day, passing through a little group of cliffs the wind and the sea abandoned the ship and its seven men. They decided to come back home, but, while they were inverting the course, something surfaced the sea, softly. The sailors inspected the waves who were becoming higher and higher, and discovered that the things were surfacing the water were sirens; beautiful women with an enchanting voice. Scared, the men wanted to escape from that terrible trap but the ship was slammed against the rocks.

Meanwhile. in the little village of the sailors, six of the wives woke up all together in the deep cold night of the North beckoned by a strange force to the promontory. The seventh one, the older, was already there, black dressed, with a long dark veil hiding her face, the arms abandoned long the hips. In front of her the sea was furious and the wind seemed desperate. Behind her the six wives were running to the poromontory.

The seven sailors slowly woke up into a sea cave during the ebb tide. Out of the cave the sea was still rough. At the side of each sailor there was a young women. Dazed the mans thought to be back home in the arms of their wives, so they let down their guard, certain of the cures of their wives. But the women weren't their wives and when the sailors abandoned themselves to Father Sleep, the sirens stole the seven souls.

From the summit of the promontory, a heartrending cry rised, half-covered by the strong sound of the sea. The young widows were despairingly grappled to the older one, crying and screaming. The old widow was motionless and calm. She was staring at the dark eyes of those monsters who were stealing the hearts and the souls of their sweethearts.

Emily