It's been a long, long War, and I've been in it from the very beginning. I was a brash, young officer working for the CIA's Cairo station. Oh, to be sure, I was listed on the Embassy roster as a cultural liason, but you can always spot the spooks at an embassy - they're the ones who work the weekends on a regular basis. Anyway, the Invasion came and all my (grunt level) reports about narco-terrorism and the Suitcase From Allah became irrelevant. It was the end of the world, and no one knew what was going on.
Well, that's what the Agency is for - figuring out what is going on. These outlandish, jackbooted caricatures of thugs from a bad B serial were running all over the city, the phones weren't working, the computers weren't working, our cars weren't working, and word was even worse things were happening elsewhere in the world. Well, there was always the old-fashioned way of doing intel - go out and stand on a street corner and watch. We did. I went with a friend of mine, one who was showing me the ropes. We watched a group of these thugs, these shocktroopers, get ugly with the poor folk at the souk. Finally, we couldn't stand it anymore. Stupid, yes - our job was to learn, not to get arrested or killed for eighty-year-old Arab women, but some impulse demanded we act. Like something out of Indiana Jones, we rallied those people at the souk, and none of those shocktroopers got away. Something happened to us that day. Something which was restraining me in ways I cannot describe broke, and I was no longer a helpless bystander.
Our allies from other cosms, those with more experience with warring realities, say I "transcended" that day - I became an antibody for our world, our reality, able to hold my own reality and perhaps manipulate it to a degree. They tell me that day I took up the burden of being a hero. Silly, maybe, but that's how I felt that day in the souk. A hero, a righter-of-wrongs. With more time to reflect - outside the Nile Empire - the argument is different, but the result is the same. There's a job to do, I'm one of the few who can do it, and the stakes are as high as they get. So, I'll do what must be done, whatever the cost. Isn't that what a hero is? At least here, in "Core Earth?"
My friend? Ah. He transcended, too, but he had already succumbed to the reality of the Nile Empire. I won't tell you his name - even aside from restrictions about revealing the identity of a former intelligence officer, he has a secret to keep. You see, you know my friend - you know him as The Eagle.
Eventually, I got back to the U. S. By that time, the Delphi Council had their slimy hands into everything. I was sent to debrief refugees coming out of the Living Land. The CIA isn't supposed to operate inside the U. S., but the Delphi legislation made us all one big, happy, rouge outfit. My bosses - my real bosses, not the Delphi idiots who'd [expletive deleted] up a one-car funeral, tried to cover for me and make sense out of the senselessness coming from Houston.
Along the way, I got sidetracked. I got put on a case that seemed to involve the invaders working clandestinely out of Atlanta. I teamed up with other "storm knights." That ended up as a long, hairy, drawn out mess, but we won. I guess. Anyway, along the way we did a Big Favor (Favour?) for Her Majesty's Government. A good word from London got me posted as Delphi liaison to MI-6. A year passed while we helped Britain hold on by the skin of its teeth and the Delphi Council did more to destroy the fabric of American society than all the invaders put together.
The break came in near the end of the second year of the War. I'd already helped put the screws to a couple of Kanawa's plans, and the indications were the Council was in bed with Kanawa. I sent a team - no, I asked my friends to go - into the Living Land and check out rumors of something Big and Bad going on. They did. They wiped out the cult of the Living Land death god. It took them months to get back, and poor Jake met his end there. They finally got back to the world to find they'd been outlawed. I'd been accused of treason for giving aid to the enemy.
Look, it's still hard for me to talk about it. Especially without throwing things. My country called me a traitor for looking out for their best interests. I was a wreck. I wanted to die. What was the point of going on? Sure, helping me out was the cold, rational, self-enlightened thing for MI-6 to do. They knew I was an effective agent - I was still alive, wasn't I? They knew the Delphi Council was nothing more than a junta in control of their best ally, but in my heart I know they did what they did because it was the right, the decent, thing to do. Her Majesty's Government offered me sanctuary. Offered me citizenship (as some of my outworld friends had already taken). More, they offered me a Life Peerage for my good work.
I took it. I took the job with MI-6, too. Same office, different plaque on the wall. They gave me a chance to go on fighting for my world. How could I not? Life, fortune, sacred honor - whatever it took, I was willing to give it up for my world, and if along the way I got a crack at those [expletive deleted] Delphi Council [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted] pinheads, even better. Trust me, there'll be no shortage of volunteers to pull the triggers when they get stood up against the wall. Give me a spoon and I'll do the job.
What do I do? I'm not a magician, not really, although I have learned a few tricks. I am not a holy man, through whom the Divine flows, except twice, when all seemed lost (such moving, beautiful, humbling experiences!). I am not a psychic, and I am no Bruce Lee. I have loyal, talented friends that mean the world to me, and, of necessity, I have become a jack-of-all-trades. Since I'm still alive, I am a competent jack-of-all-trades.
One more thing: I am a face-man. I've always had some talent getting people to like me and getting my way, but now . . . I can sell ice cubes to an Eskimo. I can talk proper Victorian ladies out of their bloomers (which is why I wear this wedding ring, but ask my wife about that story), I can redeem unrepentant villains of the Nile Empire, I even convinced Her Majesty to covert my Life Peerage into a hereditary title. I can give hope to the hopeless with stories of bravery and sacrifice, and that may be the most important service I render my world in the end.
There's a lot of blood on my hands. Sometimes the nightmares get really, really awful and I feel sorry for myself, but then I look at my wife and everything is put back into perspective. When she worries about her "monthlies," it is with very, very good cause. Then, too, there are the places I've been and the things I've done. Me, a graduate of the SUNY system who somehow got into the biggest Ivy League alumni club in the world, I've seen Romans at the center of the Earth, dickered with King Arthur, and had the most spectacular big church wedding since Charles and Di! It keeps me going, despite everything. Besides, where my friends go, so go I.
So, if I come across as a bit of a smartass, you'll just have to live with it - the psychic scars are as real as the physical ones, and I've got plenty of both, and there are a lot of people who need convincing to do the right thing. Whatever it takes, I'll do it. There's a job to do.
Eight years gone by and I'm still alive. We haven't lost yet. Maybe, just maybe, the tide has turned. The Warrior of the Dark is dead, the Tharkoldu are gone from North America, and President Powell is purging the broken remnants of the Delphi Council. Maybe I'll live to see peace again. That will be nice, but not as nice as finally getting to use my spoon.
| DEX | 10 | |
| STR | 8 | |
| TOU | 9 | |
| PER | 11 | |
| MIN | 10 | |
| CHA | 14 | |
| SPI | 9 | |
| Reality | 16 | |
| Intimidation | 12 | |
| Faith (Anglican) | 12(13 w/ Honor add) | |
| Honor | 12 | |
| True Sight | 11 | |
| Beast Riding | 12 | |
| Dodge | 15 | |
| Fire Combat | 16 (18 w/ .44 Magnum with LasTag sight) | |
| Heavy Weapons | 12 | |
| Lock Picking | 12 | |
| Maneuver | 12 | |
| Melee Weapons | 13 | |
| Missile Weapons | 12 | |
| Prestidigitation | 12 | |
| Running | 11 | |
| Stealth | 13 | |
| Unarmed Combat | 13 | |
| Climbing | 9 | |
| Charm | 18 (19) | |
| Persuade | 18 | |
| Taunt | 18 | |
| Occult | 12 | |
| Test of Wills | 12 | |
| Willpower | 13 | |
| Air Vehicles | 14 | |
| Divination Magic | 13 | |
| Evidence Analysis | 13 | |
| Find | 14 | |
| First Aid | 12 | |
| Forgery | 13 | |
| Land Vehicles | 12 | |
| Language | 15 | |
| Research | 14 | |
| Scholar(Aysle) | 12 | |
| Scholar(Computers) | 14 | |
| Scholar(Core Earth) | 14 | |
| Scholar(Etiquette) | 12 | |
| Scholar(Magic) | 15 | |
| Scholar(Orrorsh) | 13 | |
| Scholar(Tharkold) | 12 | |
| Streetwise | 13 | |
| Trick | 13 | |
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