The Grey
I've been shot up pretty bad, too bad to do more than crawl, and they've snared me with a collar that sucks the Will right out of me. The demons are laughing amongst themselves, at me, at the mortal I've sworn to protect. They hoist the kid up onto the bonnet of the car, tie him down, amuse themselves. I howl inside, knowing they are going to take their time, knowing I can't do a thing about it. My silent howls turn to despair, and I croak at them to stop: they are taking out knives. I scream, through the blood congesting in my throat and the tightness of the relic, and feel something break inside. My vision seems to darken. The knives come down. The Symphony crashes.
The demons are no longer paying any attention to my attuned. In the echoes a rippling grey shape has stepped out of nothing to pick up a demon and hurl it across the street; the Thunder of the thing's arrival joins that of the demon's remains shattering a concrete wall. A moment later and from the burst of Essence I guess the one desperately trying to convince the newcomer to let it go is a Bal, but then there is a wet crack and it becomes just another corpse. A third demon vanishes in a Symphonic ripple, via Song or Descent I can't tell which in the noise, while the two Hellsworn humans law sprawled on the ground drooling mindlessly. I shudder as I feel Forces being twisted by entropy, the last demon using its resonance on the attacker - then a tortured shriek - from the Calabite, horribly long, before it explodes.
An almost misty puree drenches the bitumen in red during the silence that follows. I feel my flesh and bone knit back together, feel the bullets dislodge themselves. The kid, bruised but alive, slides off the bonnet as the ropes unknot themselves, and I open my mouth to thank this violent but still welcome rescue.
Bach punches the infinite length of the celestial piano...
I blink, recovering from a vague sensation of timelessness. The collar is gone, and my Archangel is staring at me. Speaks, but I do not hear her words. I can feel my attuned beside me, and the sun is shining, but everything's utterly silent. I realise I am deaf. After a song of healing allows my report, my lady Novalis tells me about the creature known as The Grey.
Not that much is known. Blandine suspects The Grey to be from the furthest reaches of the Marches, an ethereal spirit of destruction with a grudge against Hell. Resonances are vague on the matter, which would tend to support Superior-level power, but a Seraphim of Dream reported sensing a human connection. Jean has a theory that The Grey is the result of an ancient ethereal god attempting to absorb the sacrifice of a human soul to regain former glory with Hell's cooperation, but that the soul proved to be of far stronger will than expected or received some manner of Intervention. Blandine and Jean also have another theory, one that fits the data better* but is also more worrisome and being kept quiet for the nonce - that The Grey is a Remnant of Oannes, the Archangel of the Waters, who had been thought entirely destroyed by Belial.
After several appearances so far, The Grey's behavioural patterns appear to be consistent:
- Twice a year - shortly after each solstice - it manifests in the Corporeal realm where demons are torturing someone; a form of Celestial Shields envelopes the local area as it arrives.
- The Grey appears as a rippling grey distortion in the air, large and vaguely humanoid in shape without further features. There is only one record of The Grey manifesting in an Infernal Tether - the results were even less pretty than usual.
- Any demons which don't immediately flee are vessel-killed with extreme prejudice. The Grey prefers direct physical assault and is possessed of enormous strength, capable of tearing through doors and walls without difficulty, though it has also used Songs of Thunder and demonstrated other ghastly powers such as twisting demonic resonances back upon their users.
- Victim(s) of the demons find themselves released from any restraints and healed of any major injuries, and may be transported elsewhere via a variant of Celestial Motion. They are often deaf and disoriented when found, as if shell-shocked.
- The song of Celestial Shields dissolves when The Grey departs, usually accompanied by an immense crash of released Disturbance (at least 20 each for its arrival, songs, and departure, plus more depending on collateral property damage and additional Essence expended by combatants).
There is some debate as to whether The Grey actually knows how to fight celestially in the mortal realm (though it would certainly seem to have the raw power to do so). While there are no reports of observing it in the Marches, the standing order for any angel discovering information on The Grey is to immediately refer it to their Superior. The infernal forces have similar orders, though amongst those in the know there's an unsurprising reluctance to do anything involving harm to a human in the days immediately following solstice...
Vague Plot Seed for an Infernal campaign: this requires the PCs to be travelling (because if they don't they'll end up in Trauma) - perhaps they've been given courier work, but it doesn't matter so long as it involves regular travel from place to place. Solstice comes and goes, and just after the PCs leave a demonic hangout The Grey makes its appearance, flattening the place and toasting the demons inside (perhaps a Calabite of Belial tries to resonate The Grey and *kaboom* no more hangout). However this time something's different. As the PCs continue their travels, The Grey seems to be following their trail, and anywhere they stay (e.g. motels, tethers, houses) gets a visit from The Grey - and with each visit the gap between the PCs leaving and The Grey arriving gets shorter... just what did the PCs unknowingly pick up in that hangout? Can they discover and get rid of it before The Grey catches up with them? Why are their Superiors no longer returning their calls? And how come they can't Descend to Hell anymore?!