City of Fear Part VI

### NPCs

Seven Three Three, Night Six, Muninn, Walter Marchand, Dr. Llywelyn Howarth, Nadra Al-Hashem, Zepheniah Gideon, ???

The Black Lotus Tea is a potent drug, and Mitch finds himself within his memory of the mission in the Middle East, reliving his own death. But the Tea has other plans for Mitch and his curiosity leads him to discover more secrets about that fateful day.

## Official Summary

Mitch completes his odyssey of the mind as tensions in the Nightmare City come to a boil.

## Detailed Recap

Within the haze of the Black Lotus Tea, Mitch explores his memory of the events in the Middle East, where he died. The tea expands Mitch's memories of the mission, first pulling him into the tomb where he sees **Excalibur** and **Clarent** being drawn and a younger version of himself and Walter Marchand gearing up to face the assembling mass of bones and ash that he remembers fighting. Mitch, instead of looking into the fight, instead goes the other way, opening the door that sealed the tomb to step outside. The Black Lotus reveals to Mitch that there are Orpheus soldiers on the exterior of the tomb, laid down in neat rows on the sand, apparently asleep.

Using the tea's mystical powers and feeling from it that the tea knows more than he does, Mitch and Seven Three Three leave the scene at the tomb to investigate further. He comes across a command tent with computers and divination altars, with people there analysing data. And, in command, is Muninn. Mitch also recognises one of the agents at one of the computers as Dr. Llywelyn Howarth. The Black Lotus' power allows Mitch to glean information from way before he arrived here, during the briefing for the mission: the tomb is the resting place for Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and final Grandmaster of the Knights Templar. He was burned at the stake for heresy, betrayed by Pope Clement V and King Philip IV of France, and pronounced a curse against his enemies as he died, that within a year and a day that they would feel the wrath of God. Both the Pope and King died within that same year. Orpheus arcane monitoring equipment detected a time distortion at the Grandmaster's tomb and that was the official reason why they went. But it is revealed that Muninn wanted to contain whatever strange force that reanimated Jacques de Molay within Walter Marchand's body and soul.

Resolute in his quest for knowledge of the events of that fateful day, Mitch decides to follow the flow of the tea's power, willing time back to just before the soldiers being supine on the floor. He sees a younger Zepheniah Gideon standing at the door to the tomb, blocking the gunfire of the many Orpheus soldiers that were flat on their backs before. Still unsure of the sequence of events, Mitch wills the flow of time forward to the point where the soldiers were hypnotised or put to sleep. He then sees a silhouette of a person on a sand dune nearby, psychic energy flowing from their being, and although Mitch doesn't recognise the person by their silhouette, the tea's power allows him to recognise the energy, and by extension, the person, as Nadra Al-Hashem.

Mitch then returns to the tomb, curious as to his memory of the fight within, and is thrust headfirst into the memory of the fight itself. As he and his comrade Walter draw their swords, the collection of bones comes to life in a swirl of ash and bone. The duo fight the reanimated Templar and swiftly best it; Walter attacking its back and driving it forward into Mitch's decapitating strike. Walter kicks the skeleton's ribcage from his sword and then stabs the younger Mitch, triggering the present Mitch's memory of the event. He blacks out for a moment and comes to with Seven Three Three above him, a strange black teardrop gemstone in her hand above his face with small drops of liquid falling into his mouth. The two head back outside to find Walter, aghast at what he's done, and Nadra, standing just behind him with a hand on his shoulder as if to comfort him. Mitch hears Nadra speaking in Walter's mind before Walter sets the bodies of the sleeping Orpheus soldiers on fire. Curiously, the smell of burning flesh isn't present.

Mitch and Seven Three Three both wake up to the sound of horns and alarms. In a rapid series of events, guards enter the princess' room, she explains that a captive has escaped and commands the guards not to do anything to Mitch. They resist her attempts to control them by magic, steadily advancing towards the princess, but she wards them off by threatening to disembowel herself and ruin her womb. They leave her chamber as she opens a window to allow him to escape. One of the guards returns with Mitch's bat and he escapes out the window, climbing down the side of the tower. But the climb is hard and long and Mitch loses his grip, falling down the side of the tower and landing in a refuse chute that takes him into a pool of rotten excrement and dismembered human limbs. As the soldier regains his bearings and gets to his feet, a mysterious voice speaks to him from somewhere in the refuse chamber.

## Quotes

> "*You must be the blade that pierces the heart of the anathema. You must remember this. You have already done what is most difficult. How hard will it be to take the next step?*"
> ― Nadra al-Hashem to Walter Marchand
>
>

## Music Credits

* Zero-project - Princess of my Heart
* Three Chain Links - Magic Hour
* Kevin MacLeod - Ibn Al-Noor
* Kai Engel - Shining Dawn
* Three Chain Links - It’s All Too Much
* Myuu - Cornered
* Josh Woodward - Me and Billy Barnun (Instrumental)
* Kai Engel - Delirium

* Myuu - Now or Never
* Tri-Tachyon - The Warbird
* 1-Minute-Music - Rise of the King
* Alexander Nakarada - The Great Battle
* Sergey Cheremisinov - Train
* Kai Engel - Warm of a Mechanical Heart
* Hiroki Matsui - My Voice is Dark Ambient

* Myuu - Morbid Mind
* Sergey Cheremisinov - Search and Fight
* Three Chain Links - Breaking a Synthetic Heart
* Three Chain Links - Dance Harder
* Opening and Closing Themes by Nathan Kross and Rob Stith