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It is late evening and the group are in Ethan's apartment, though Ethan himself is
not there, and are planning how to break into Kronos Industries. Unknown to them, the demon
mercenary named Cerne the Hunter is across the street listening to everything they say with a
directional microphone.
The next day, while Patrick and Jalen prepare for the break-in, Dana continues her
research and Lauren goes for her job interview. The interview goes well and Lauren gets the job as
an office assistant with the investment banking firm.
Dana also has a good day, discovering a translation of a trio of prophecies about
the Devourer she has found in the transfigured Book of Zar-n'Atoth. The first prophecy talks about
a great battle where many Children (meaning demons) are killed and that the site of the battle would
become sacred ground. The second prophecy is about the Gatekeeper and also refers to an ancient city
of the Elder Gods being found and Dark Cathedral (the original temple of the Elder Gods) giving up
its secrets. The third prophecy concerns Five beings; the Warrior, the Seer, the Scholar, the Shadow
and the Necromancer; who seem to be instrumental in summoning the Father (i.e. the Devourer) to
Earth.
Guessing that the passage regarding the Gatekeeper refers to Azatoth, Dana believes
that the second prophecy may have already passed and that they are in the midst of the events of the
third and final prophecy. Given the descriptions of the five beings, it also appears that the group
(Patrick, Jalen, Lauren, Dana, and Ethan) are the Five and that they will somehow help bring the
Devourer to Earth.
That night Patrick and Jalen break into Kronos Industries and make their way into
the sixth floor computer room where they found the Book of Zar-n'Atoth the last time they broke into
the building. Patrick connects a cellular modem to one of the secure computers using instructions
and gear given to him by Dana. A few blocks away, safe in Patrick's car, Lauren and Dana are
waiting. When the modem is connected, Dana uses her laptop computer to hack into Kronos' secure
network.
Searching the network, Dana finds the records describing the archaeological
expeditions Kronos had been funding in the Middle East, northern Africa, and southeast Asia. She
sees that shortly after a major earthquake and tsunami in Asia one of the teams made some sort of
discovery that had all the teams converge at a location in Afghanistan. As Dana had learned earlier
from news reports, all but two members of the Afghanistan expedition were brutally killed, allegedly
by warlords. From the Kronos records, she is able to learn that the company hired Wolfram & Hart to
get the bodies safely through customs and back to Los Angeles. She also learns that the two
survivors were driven insane by whatever had happened and that the two were sent to the New Hope
psychiatric hospital, the very same hospital that Lauren had been kept prisoner in.
At this point Patrick and Jalen realize they have been discovered and come under
attack by an invisible opponent who has managed to get into room with them. Fleeing, they come
across dozens of security guards. At first glance the guards appear human, but it soon becomes
apparent they are something more when they are seemingly able to ignore the injuries that the two
heroes inflict on them. Running into a conference room, the two barricade the door with the
conference table and begin ripping cabling out of the wall to use to climb down the side of the
building. Jalen goes out the window first, but before Patrick can follow the barricaded door is
forced open by a large powerful figure, Cerne the Hunter. Cerne seems to ignore Patrick and tries
to get to the window to go after Jalen. Patrick blocks him then goes out the window himself.
On the street below Lauren and Dana have arrived. They see their friends scrambling
down the rope, while up at the conference room window Cerne is leaning out with a compound bow and
is about to fire on the two climbers. Lauren uses her telekinesis to throw off Cerne's aim long
enough for Patrick and Jalen to reach the car. The four take off but Cerne leaps from the sixth
floor window, landing seemingly unharmed on the street and starts running after them. Luckily he
cannot catch up with the car and the four escape.
Going back into the building, Cerne takes a secure elevator to the concealed
thirteenth floor. The entire floor appears to be laid out as a temple to the Elder Gods and as
Cerne enters, Leland Richter is just finishing sacrificing a quartet of vampires to the Devourer.
He seems unfazed by Cerne's failure to stop the intruders, saying that they will deal with the
interlopers soon enough.
After making sure they are not being followed, Patrick, Jalen, Lauren, and Dana
head back to the apartment where Dana reveals what she learned from the computers. Eventually the
group decide that they need to find out what actually happened in Afghanistan and the best chance
they have is to talk to the two survivors.
The next day Patrick, Jalen and Dana bluff their way into the New Hope facility
posing as a team from Wolfram & Hart. It appears that people from W & H make frequent visits to
the two archaeologists so this does not seem out of the ordinary. The three are shown to a room
and the two insane men are brought to them. Dana immediately notices that two are mumbling
something in tandem. Listening closely she realizes it is part of an incantation. Questioning the
two is difficult, but the group learn that the archaeological team found something in Afghanistan
at coordinates found by the southeast Asia team. Whatever they found, the archaeologists apparently
came prepared with some kind of protective magic, but it did not work properly and something killed
most of the team before the magic kicked in. Dana finally gets one of the insane men to say what
they had found, and is horrified when he reveals it was the Dark Cathedral referred to in the second
prophecy.
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