What REALLY happened in Veruliam...
By Dan Clayton

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*****the Gangrels suicide mission to Tremere chantry: Verulamium*******

Part one: 
We travelled to the umbra no problems, Uziah casting the spells, and 
arrived in the hills. Travel to the chantry was uneventful, although we 
did notice a storm coming our way, with huge creatures with ragged bat 
wings, and skeletal heads. We decided to speed up, and reached the safety 
(?) of the chantry just in time. The storm crashed around the old 
building but could not enter. We were in.

Part two: 
Uziah informed us at this time there would be 7 seals to get through, 
each more difficult, and more deadly, than the one before it. Uziah did 
some incantation and we easily traversed the first seal.
The second seal was so easy and yet we didnt get it until it was almost 
too late. (Looking too hard, no doubt).
The third seal was a bit harder, but we got it eventually, (actually Paul 
got it), however I was very VERY nearly lost into the abyss for eternity 
(there was a bottomless pit-type thing and i lost THREE tests in a row!)
Luckily I managed to save myself by jumping across the abyss to the gate 
and the fourth seal. (by spending a willpower point). 
The fourth seal was a bugger! A paradox loop, and bugger me if we could 
find a way out of it. And the more we traversed the loop the deeper 
entrenched in the paradox we became. Finally, after much deliberation on 
the nature of paradox and linear space-time we came up with the idea of 
walking through the wall. It worked. Huh? How simple can you get? DOH!!!
Thing was, if you felt the wall with your hand, it felt solid. Tricky, eh?
Anyway, on to the fifth seal. The river Styx. A desert of red sand (sound 
familiar?), 
the only feature was the 20' wide river of thick, black icky stuff. The 
physical manifestation of the stream of consciousness, leading from the 
conscious mind to the unconscious. Now if you were in this position, the 
LAST thing you would do is touch the river, right? Well GUESS what Paul 
did? Yup, you guessed it, Paul was reduced to vegetable intelligence.
I finally had the idea of breaking the stream, interrupting the flow. We 
spent an eternity digging a trench in the sands, which kept shifting, and 
finally the river was diverted and it drained away. We ran across the dry 
bed and there was the gold door with the fifth seal. We broke the seal 
and proceeded to the sixth.
This was the Throne of Command. I was the one who sat on the throne and i 
was overcome with feelings of complete control, and power. Whatever i 
commanded, happened. So i commanded to see the sixth seal, and a mirror 
appeared, showing my reflection. There were some knights there and I 
commanded them to tell me the way to the sixth seal. They shouted "DEATH".
Oh dear, i thought. I am the seal, and i have to die to allow the others 
entry to the next level, to the final seal. So I did. I commanded the 
sixth seal to break, and the knights chopped me up! Of course I turned to 
ash and blew away. Oooops!
But that opened the gate on to the next seal.
The final test. The seventh seal lay before them. Now just Uziah, and 
Jason. Two of the group already fallen. They stepped into a room of 
blinding white light. A single door, made of bone, stood in that room, 
and upon that door the seal, a dried blood stain, glowing with sigils and 
glyphs of unknown magic and long forgotten power. 
Their goal lay beyond that door, but this was surely the most deadly of 
all the guardians. It looked so simple...
A figure appeared from the light, it walked towards them...it was Matt. 
WA-HEY! I'm still alive. This room was creation. I figured out to make a 
key and unlock the seal. There wasnt an actual keyhole on the door or 
seal but the application of thought and intent was enough. The seal 
broke. We were into the Inner Chamber.
A huge area of blackness, with a single glowing box, made of gold. We 
opened the box cautiously, and there lay the head. A shrivelled, burnt, 
and throbbing skull. The empty eye sockets seemed to glow dully. 
Suddenly, a shrieking wind sprang up from nowhere and spirits screamed at 
us from all directions. An opening appeared from the darkness and we ran 
through, finding ourselves back outside, with the crumbling chantry 
behind us. There were tracks in the soil around the building. Curved 
markings, like horseshoes, but the size of cars...there were four sets of 
tracks...
The towers were starting to crack, and the roof was collapsing. The whole 
structure seemed to be screaming in agony, and the storm of spirits was 
coming our way again. Linking hands, Uziah screaming out the incantation, 
we faded into the real world just as the hordes crashed down upon our 
heads....

Part three:
We looked around nervously, letting our eyes become adjusted to the 
gloom. We appeared to be in the ampitheatre. But the date? What was the 
date? Uziah left quickly and probed the mind of a mortal. His face 
drained till we thought he would pass out. "Dear God.." he whispered 
hoarsely. "Its thursday...the 25th"..........

And the rest, as they say, is history.....

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M      ****       LIVE HAPPY, DIE-HARD.... | "When we touch each other, M
O    *      *                              |  in a state of ECSTASY...  O
R   *  *  *  *    "If you're gonna go,     |  I want this night to      R
P   *        *     go with a SMILE!"       |    last forever,           P
H   *  \__/  *            The Joker        |  Only love can set you     H
E    *      *                              |    free."                  E
U      ****       |    *MORPHEUS FOREVER*      U
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"...to walk the weave, to live the dream of Morpheus."