Fear in the Dark

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PHASE 2

Fear in the Dark
Dates run:	May 4, 2019 - July 17th, 2019
Run By:	Rei and Rossi
Read the logs:	Fear in the Dark

It is Asgard drama, it is complicated and annoying and quite the telenovela - Marie-Ange 2019

Tandy Bowen's past with the entity known as the Dweller gets majorly complicated.

Timing

May 4, 2019 - July 17th, 2019

Breaker of Stone

Cast

Tandy Bowen, Julian Keller, Alex Summers, Arthur Centino, Barbara Morse, Callisto, Hope Abbott, Lorna Dane, Maya Lincoln-Lopez, Quentin Quire, Susan Storm, Warren Worthington, Scott Summers, Garrison Kane, Angelo Espinosa, Jean-Phillipe Colbert, Clarice Ferguson, Jean Grey, Logan, Sooraya Qadir

NPCs: Dweller-in-the-Dark, Cullen Zaher/Cul Bor'son, Cindy O'Neal/Skadi, Cain Marko/Juggernaut/Kuurth, D'Spayre, Michelle, Society of Thule

Plot Summary

In May, the Dweller and D'spayre were freed from their prison in the Empire State Building by agents of the Society of Thule, including a young woman called Cindy O'Neal who was fascinated by the Dweller and its history. With powerful enchantments hiding the escape, the Dweller again possessed Tandy Bowen, but was still partially restrained by the spell. In return for its full release, the Dweller agreed to help O'Neal and her associate, Cullen Zaher to find the prison of Cul Bor'son, elder brother of Odin, deposed king of Asgard and former ally of the Dweller. The Dweller agreed, lending the pair D'Spayre to aid in their search and returned to Tandy's apartment to avoid suspicion. A day or two later, a phone call revealed Cul had been found on a forgotten island in Norway. Joining O'Neal and Zaher there, the Dweller witnessed O'Neal pick up the Hammer of Skadi and transform into the goddess of winter, but had not anticipated that Zaher would prove to be the avatar of Skadi's father, Cul himself. Agreeing to work together to locate the remaining hammers, the Dweller returned to the mansion with an amulet to shield it from the wards against evil, to use the resources there to aid in the search.

Over several weeks, X-Factor became aware of a series of disappearances of mutants, all with enhanced strength. The situation became more urgent when a young woman named Michelle came to the office, asking for help in finding her boyfriend - Cain Marko. Lorna, recognising the name from her time with her father's Brotherhood of Mutants, alerted the X-Men, while the investigative team began following leads. The search provided fruitless, however, until during a situation meeting a ruckus was heard in the streets below. X-Factor discovered that Cain Marko had returned, dressed in Asgardian-type armour and wielding a hammer with similar powers to Thor's Mjolnir.

Calling for back up from the X-Men, X-Factor split into three groups - two to evacuate civilians in District X and rescue those injured or trapped by Cain's rampage, while Lorna, Alex, Sue and Callisto tried to steer him away from populated areas and keep him contained. Lorna was injured during the fight and Cain showed no sign of recognising his former teammate, instead referring to himself as "Kuurth". The X-Men arrived and were successful in removing Kuurth's helmet, allowing Marvel Girl to take him down psychically. However, as they discussed next steps in the immediate aftermath, a mysterious woman, also dressed as an Asgardian warrior and bearing a hammer, appeared and teleported the unconscious Kuurth and his hammer away.

Breaker of Oceans

Cast

Tandy Bowen/Dweller, Cyclops, Wolverine, Rogue, Bevatron, Nightcrawler

NPCs:

Cul Bor'son, Raymond Goud/Nerkkod

Plot Summary

While the media reported on the destruction in District X and the lack of police leads, a local Alaskan paper reported the disappearance of a local fisherman after he destroyed his boat at sea, nearly killing the crew. Doug Ramsey did some investigating and unearthed phone footage of the boat's crew hauling a large box up out of the ocean with their nets and then the captain, Ray Goud, transforming into some kind of warrior and destroying the boat. It did not bode well and on a remote beach, the truth was revealed as Cul welcomed his newest Worthy from the arms of the ocean.

In the meantime, following the events of "Breaker of Stone", the X-Men were on alert for any sign of Kuurth (or Cain Marko) resurfacing. When reports were received of a super-strong individual attacking a Russian base, it seemed like their caution had paid off. A team was sent to investigate and discovered a scene of carnage - security guards dead and their bodies scattered around the base. As they investigated further, they realised the facility wasn't a simple weather station or military outpost - it was some sort of storage facility which ran deep underground.

At the bottom of the deep pit they found inside the facility, the X-Men came across their target. It wasn't Marko, however - it was another Asgardian warrior, calling himself Nerkkod; he seemed to be trying to retrieve two large boxes of Asgardian design. After a pitched battle, Nerkkod was overwhelmed and fled, leaving behind the boxes. The X-Men decided it would be best to take the boxes back to the mansion for study.

Elsewhere, Cul was extremely disappointed in Nerkkod's failure and swore destruction of the pesky mutants who had interfered with his plans. The Dweller, however, was philosophical and promised that Cul would soon be fully restored, along with his Worthies.

Breaker of Men

Cast

Tandy Bowen/The Dweller in the Dark, Susan Storm/Skirn, Molly Hayes, Darcy Lewis, Tyrone Johnson, Laurie Collins, Amanda Sefton, Marie-Ange Colbert, Doug Ramsey, Wanda Maximoff Scott Summers, Julian Keller, Logan, Xavin Majesdane, Angelo Espinosa, Jean-Phillipe Colbert, Monica Rambeau, Sooraya Qadir, Artie Maddicks, Kevin Sydney, Clea Lake

NPCs:

Cul Borson

Plot Summary

With two of the mysterious hammers in their possession, the science and magic teams went into overdrive trying to ascertain what was going on. They had mixed succcess - while it was clear the hammers were Asgardian in nature, none of the residents with experience in that area could find any information about them. It didn't help that the Earth's premier Asgard expert, Thor was nowhere to be found. Undaunted, work continued.

A week after the finding of the hammers, Clea discovered a mysterious letter had added itself to the pile and shouted for Amanda. The letter had trace magic and a familiar seal and a quick consultation with Doug revealed that it was indeed from the Ancient One. All it said was Check Empire State, but Amanda knew straight away it related to her previous encounter with the Dweller, during which she imprisoned it and its 'daughter' D'Spayre in the Empire State Building. Worried about the state of the magic keeping the demons imprisoned, Amanda took a small team - Marie-Ange, Wanda and Doug - to check. There was a cloaking spell in place, but with the help of one of the ravens haunting Marie-Ange, they discovered that the prison had been breached and the occupants escaped. It was at this opportune moment that the mansion's alerts went off.

Back at the mansion, Sue had wandered into the lab where one of the hammers was being studied, looking for Reed. Strangely, the hammer seemed to be singing to her, and while the rest of the science types pondered the phenomenon, Sue reached out and touched the hammer. An energy wave swept through the room, lightning erupted and everyone was knocked flat as Sue Storm became Skirn, another of Cul's Worthy. Her awakening also destroyed the magic shielding the Dweller from the mansion's wards and every alarm - mundane and mystical - went off. The Dweller retrieved the second hammer while Skirn amused herself by flinging friends and colleagues around the place, and then the two made their exit, meeting Cul outside the grounds and teleporting away while the mansion's residents tried to understand what had just happened.

The Dweller wasn't done, however - there was one last chore to do. The three arrived at the Snow Valley offices and while Skirn and Cul held off the resistance of the three X-Forcers present, the Dweller retrieved the staff taken from it five years before from Amanda's safe, ensuring it could not be used against it.

In the aftermath, Doug was able to find footage of Cul on the mansion's security cameras, and was able to identify Cullen Zaher. It was another piece of a very large puzzle.

Breaker of Faith

Cast

Reed Richards, Darcy Lewis

NPCs: Jane Foster, Dr Paul Pierre Duval/Mokk, Skadi, Nerkkod, Kuuth, D'spayre

Breaker of Wills

Cast

NPCs:

Breaker of Souls

Cast

NPCs:

Breaker of Worlds

Cast

NPCs:

Breaker of Gods

Cast

NPCs:

Related Links

Asgard

Light in the Darkness

Darkness Within

The Thralls of Asgard

External Links

Fear in the Dark

xp_communication posts

xp_journal posts

media reports

xp_teams posts

Trivia and Meta

Trivia

IC notes stemming from the plot. Eg: "As a result of this Character A developed a crippling fear of ottomans".

Meta

Plotrunner: Rei and Rossi (who deserves all the gold stars)