Response Level: 6
[i]This was a trap a year in the making, and your journey was destined to end here.[/i]

[b]The Order of Hermes:[/b] The Order of Hermes is present here in force.
[b]The Huntress Awakens:[/b] You are being observed, no matter where you are or what you do.
[b]Patterns of Enforcement:[/b] Investigative channels have opened from the Magos to the Order's forces; they will attempt to arrest any player character they encounter
[b]Deathless Murder:[/b] The dead will arise as bonsai
[b]The Jungle Hungers:[/b] Demeter is immanent, and she brings with her hunger
[b]True Hunter:[/b] This area has a second Boss

[b]Redana![/b]

It is Thriss who stands by your side as you look at the radiant wreckage of burning stars. An entire sector of space alight and ablaze. The laws of gravity tugging at the unleashed powers as the moon holds back the tsunami. Half the galaxy dead and bleeding all the blood-soaked colours of Poseidon. The Spear of Civilization thrown through the heart of the cosmos and sending it down to the House of Hades.

A lesson. A vision. A reminder.

"Humanity may have been the first," said Thriss and her voice was [i]exultant[/i], "but even they are not peers to the gods. When the end comes calling it shall be Zeus Storm-Mother who shatters the heavens and Poseidon One Eye who shatters the earth and Hades Root-Gnawer who consumes all within his gut and Demeter Fairest who brings forth new life, rampant and wild. And the wreckage shall be ours to inherit. From the fires of Ragnarok shall come the Wolftime."

She looks at you with a terrible vigor that you do not feel in your ancient bones.

"For all things, there is a season."

[b]Alexa![/b]

A smile cracks those ancient lips and brown-green eyes twinkle through the smoke. "If you're willing to die for something, Alexa, then the worst thing that can happen to you is being kept alive while you lose what you were trying to protect. So be honest about what you're prepared to die for, yeah?"

He stands up as flashes of sickly yellow-green light up amidsts the purple-grey smoke. Coherent - dozens of them. Setting up their grand and unwieldly weapons as priests scuttle for safety in all directions, the clanking shadow of a MRU looming over them, sculpted into the face of an empty fish.

"After all," he said, "your life isn't at risk here. The assassin can't hurt you until she's killed Dolce. All of this is delaying action."

That's not entirely a comfort - there are plenty of really bad non-death things that can happen when walking into a Coherent phalanx, and Isty and Ramses are well within the blast radius. Aphrodite's smoke is currently keeping the three of you concealed but not so much that you can close the distance to the Hermetics easily - but you do have a moment to think.

[b]Dolce![/b]

"You know, it's not often anyone takes an interest," said Artemis, going over the paperwork from behind discreet silver glasses. "Normally it's all running and screaming, and I guess that's at least quick." 

She seems so normal, just like any other person. Some gods have a presence like a pulled bathplug, sucking reality in all around them, but Artemis emanates such a mundane stillness it's so easy to overlook the intense violence that dwells underneath that suit.

"Most of my assassins master a single art. This one has all four - and the price of that is that she must go through them in cycles, as the moon does. Planning, disguise, poison, violence. Planning did for Redana, disguise did for Birmingham, poison was for you, violence was going to be for Vasilia, coming around to finish off Alexa with planning again. Now the cycle is broken she has to kill you with violence before she can move on to any of the others. That means she's going to come at you directly and as soon as she's tooled up, and you will not be able to fight her - but at least she can't kill anyone else until you're dead first."

[hider=The Master of Assassins]
[b]The Master of Assassins[/b]
[i]First, murder death.[/i]
[b]Chosen of Demeter: [color=red]Overlord Stat[/color][/b] The vessel of unrestrained life, unblemished by death.
[b]Threat to the World:[/b] You must pay a price to act against her
[b]Cycles of the Temple:[/b] The Master of Assassins can take on the aspect of each of the Temple Assassins in turn, though without their Rampancy.
[b]Gardener of Fate:[/b] Anyone killed by the Master of Assassins rises again as a bonsai tree - still alive, in a sense. 
[/hider]

[b]Vasilia![/b]

This knife is an [i]Anathame[/i]. It is your death, a fated dart that you cannot defend against, something that will be your end. An awful, wretched thing to have, but better that you have it than any other. For as long as you hold the fate of your death like this no other blade will claim your life and no copy can be forged. It will seek to betray you in ten million ways but it is limited to the manifestations of chance that can befall a knife. As your blood already speaks, it cannot be trusted - but it can be controlled and it can be destroyed.

Once you have time to come to yourself, you must make a decision of how to handle this wicked blade. If you break it damage a stat, but such will be the end of it. If you hold it, gain Protection from a Location Stat though it will seek to betray you when it can.

[b]Bella![/b]

Demeter sits kindly here and there, maiden of spring. Her hair is crowned with flowers and strawberries bloom about her feet and every glance at her is a <##########> of raw [i]sensation[/i]. Here she pours you another glass of wine and there she places a blackberry in your mouth and now your bare feet are crushing the grapes beneath your toes. She is so easy to lose yourself in, the way she touches your neck and her teeth brush your ear and she's biting it so hard it really hurts but that's the only way she can whisper just how incredibly mad she is that you denied her promised murder -

But all of those sensations cannot lift your heart, heavier than all the gifts of Hermes. The storm of thorns slough off your regal clothing and Hera helps you lift your head tall. If nothing else, Bella, you are still [i]beautiful[/i]. 

And your beauty is illuminated. Lights in the dark ahead - knights in armour and plate, lanterns held across from their mighty swords, leading an army. The Lantern Knights light you up and you see a ripple of awe run through the crowd of menials. Silently they kneel before you in their dozens, their hundreds. You may be heartbroken, but you are a heartbroken [i]queen[/i]. 

"They cannot help you," said Hera. "But you can help [i]them[/i]. [b]That[/b] is power, Bella."