Storytime with Lumina
San Francisco, Stanyan Park Hotel, Night after Kramer’s First Death
“Anything you want to contribute, or are you just trying to see what makes me tick?”
“I mean, mostly the later,” Lumina admitted, “but I suppose I owe you a story now.”
She was less prepared for this than she should have been. Lumina didn’t want to tell him a boring story, but she also didn’t want to tell him one that made her look bad. “Umm, alright, my turn… my turn… How about that one time I felt like a badass after taking on the big bad?”
“Okay, so, long story. At the time, I was still apprenticing under Cheryl Somerset, a Warlock like me if you haven’t heard of her, only, well, a lot better, ‘cause she’s been doing this for a long time and she’s awesome. Anyway, we were alerted of strange acts of occultism and terrorism occurring in Eastern Germany, so Cheryl and I brushed up on our German and made our way over to investigate. It took us a few days to make much headway, but eventually we were able to predict a place where the terrorists would attack next, and we were able to ambush the raiders. Once we got the upperhand, some of the crazy buggers committed suicide and a few of them ran away, but we were able to interrogate one guy who we had incapacitated, who informed us that some villain had apparently reactivated Operation Werwolf, which had been an old Nazi plan to maintain a guerrilla war as things were going south for them.
“The history books would tell you that the plan was poorly organized and implemented and never amounted to anything, but like a lot of things, this wasn’t actually true. Apparently there was a lot of occult spells, artifacts, and drugs involved that were used to turn Werwolf commandos into mindlessly loyal, nearly superhuman berzerkers (although thankfully it didn’t turn them into actual werewolves) which the Templars of 1945 considered enough of a threat that they intervened personally to put down the program. Sixty-five years or so later, some former Stasi guy found out about all that stuff people weren’t supposed to find out and eventually decided to reinitiate the program for reasons he tried to explain to me, but I confess I didn’t at all understand it.”
“Oh wait, I’m getting ahead of myself.” Lumina didn’t consider herself to be much of a storyteller, as she generally preferred to listen and inquire, and avoid talking about herself, but there was something about Corinth’s rapt attention and all the alcohol she had consumed that encouraged her to continue her rambling. “So we were able to figure out where that guy’s home base had been, after which we handed him over to the local police to deal with. We then planned our attack and stormed the base. Cheryl did the heavy lifting, of course, cause she’s awesome. Some of the spells that woman can use are utterly terrifying, but I had her back and did my part to keep the bad guys suppressed while she blasted them all. Things started to happen pretty quickly after that. We found notes that indicated where home base, aptly referred to as the Wolf’s Lair, was located and we found samples of the drugs these terrorists were using. We came up with a plan to spike the chemicals the terrorists were using, and then we’d call in a team of heavies to clean up the operation while the terrorists were sick from the corrupted chems they were going to juice up on.”
“After stocking up on a pretty impressive amount of a pretty impressive poison and getting a team of Templar heavies on standby, Cheryl and I approached the Wolf’s Lair and began snooping around. You might not know this about me, but I can be quite stealthy when I want to be. I find I have a naturally light, almost silent tread if I’m wearing appropriate shoes, and invisibility spells make my red hair a non-issue. Nonetheless, we eventually got spotted. We ended up splitting ways, with Cheryl creating an illusion of me getting wounded and teleporting off while I actually turned invisible and snuck past our assailants as Cheryl led them on a merry chase. I proceeded to our objective, and after quite a bit of sneaking about the old bunker, discovered the labs where the vats of Werwolf juice were located. Unfortunately, there was a guard standing watch nearby, so I had to take him out stealthily, which I did, then I got to work getting poison into the vats. While I was doing this, two more guards came in and spotted their dead comrade, but fortunately, I wasn’t spotted, and so I had time to put up another invisibility spell. They did hear me cast the spell I think, but I was still able to get the drop on them while they were investigating, and I was able to cast a charm spell that put one of them out of action and then got into a pretty tough fight with the other guard, but I was able to get an edge over her quickly, although not before she fired a few rounds off at me which thankfully my Mage Armor deflected, after which I fried her.”
Lumina smiled as she recalled the next part. “That fight did put me in a bind, yet it was one I was able to get my way out of with a rather clever bit of trickery if I don’t say so myself. I was able to cast Modify Memory on the dude I had charmed, and I convinced him that he had wounded me after I had dispatched his comrade and that I had immolated myself to avoid capture. I then incinerated the bodies and snuck back out of the room as the remaining guard explained his version of events to the fellows that heard the commotion and came to check.”
“Fortunately, nobody discovered what I had done to their doom juice, so I then had to hide in the bunker for quite a long time before the cavalry arrived. Everything went almost as planned. I don’t think I spiked all of the chems, but as the Templars scythed through the front line of insurgents, the backup team juiced up in preparation to counterattack, only for most of them to get sick or die. I had found a decent vantage point from which to monitor much of the activity in the Wolf’s Lair, and as the Templars began mopping up, I then spotted a figure that looked like the leader of the operation as he had been described to us by the insurgent we had interrogated and by tidbits I had overheard throughout the day, making his way deeper into the bunker with a few of his bodyguards. With the benefit of invisibility, I was able to follow them unnoticed as they went into what I could only assume to be an emergency escape tunnel. As we emerged back into the world, the bodyguards left their charge to scout the area and cover his escape. I continued to follow him for a bit, and then my invisibility expired.”
“The bad guy noticed me pretty quickly after that, so I ordered him to surrender. Instead of calling for his bodyguards, the guy then gave me his villain spiel about why he believed what he was doing would make Germany a better place and some other nonsense. I confess I didn’t really understand much of what he was saying, as he had a thick accent and was very excited and thus spoke quite quickly, and my German comprehension isn’t quite that good. I’m sure the plot was the maddened dream of some lunatic anyway, although it was apparently one he had been able to sell to quite a few folks.”
“Oh, one thing I forgot to mention. Cheryl and I had deduced that it was highly likely that this guy was a wizard of some kind due to the occult shenanigans involved in the making of the Werwolf juice, and so I had prepared the spell Counterspell in case I got into a fight with the guy or any cronies he had that might wield magic as well. Let me tell you, Counterspell is a wonderful spell to have in a wizard duel. Anyway, so yeah, we started fighting each other when he wouldn’t yield, and even though he was a spooky old wizard, he didn’t have access to the resources and training of the oldest and most prestigious Secret Society in existence like I did, and using Counterspell, Fireball, Hellish Rebuke, Dispel Magic, Scorching Ray, some luck, close calls, and some injuries, I was able to defeat him. Unfortunately I had to kill him, as I didn’t know if his bodyguards were coming back or not, and I didn’t think I could take them on if they did with how banged up and exhausted I was. So yeah, then I called Cheryl and let her know where I was and what I had accomplished, and then I cast invisibility one last time and limped away into the sunset I suppose.”
“This mission ended up being the last time I worked with Cheryl. After infiltrating a bunker, achieving our objective, and then single handedly preventing the bad guy from escaping, she felt I was ready to work on my own. I did too…”
Lumina leaned back into her chair and sighed. “Wow, I sound like a total psychopath, don’t I? Killing all those people. It was self defense. Mostly. Except for the guard defending the chem vats. I snuck up on him, cast sparking touch, put him in a headlock, and electrocuted him to death.” She shivered. “I don’t think I will ever forget the way he struggled in my grasp until he didn’t. It was easier killing the old wizard, as I put him down from a distance, and he was an evil old codger who definitely deserved it. The guard in front of the vats? I don’t know why that stupid kid was working for terrorists, but because of me, he never got the opportunity to learn from that mistake.”
“I guess that’s the nice thing about hunting monsters. Those rats had it coming, and no doubt all the other monsters you’ve taken out are better off dead. I suppose a lot of people are better off dead too, but people have the potential to change… I guess I’ll just have to keep coming up with justifications to cope…”
Corinth poured another shot of tequila for her. Lumina gave him a grim smile. “This works too I guess,” she murmured and then put it down. She was going to sleep well tonight.