It's raining in London... again (RP)

- Rhiannon -

You drag the thrashing demon inside, your cold iron chain prevents it from fighting back. The clumsy, hard-hitting brute appeared to be nothing more than hired-muscle...

Until it is inside, and passed the exterior wards. In the moment before the door can be closed and the room sealed —while everyone is exchanging pleasantries with their guard, apparently, down, the demon closes its eyes for a moment, as though steeling itself for something unpleasant, then, when they open again, they have changed color, the eyes quickly scan around the shop, taking note of every detail. You get the idea that it is seeing more than you do.

Then, with a grimace, it literally tears off one of its hands and reaches out with remaining one —your now slack, chain, dangling in your face— and grasps your head. It does not 'hurt', as such, but you feel it probing your mind —like lichen penetrating a rock— searching for your secrets, for your fears.

Then, with a silent scream of pain, it rips open the fabric of reality. A circle, decorated with thousands of smouldering runes, and extending from floor to ceiling, scythes up around it and it vanishes. The vacuum left by its departure sucks books and other items off the shelves and scatters them all around.

You have to step back with alacrity or risk being dragged with it to a hell-dimension.

What do you do?

- Jacob -

You have allowed this enemy into your Establishment, it now appears that that may have been (part of) its plan.

• What do you least want it to see in your storefront (you already said the 'raven' was safely kept elsewhere, so don't worry about that one)?

What —if anything— do you do to maintain this secret?

- Rhiannon -

You focus on what the demon was hoping to get from coming here, and you feel... satisfaction. They went down way too easy for them to have been a real threat to Jacob and his protections. It got what it wanted: Information.

You try to get an impression of who's pulling its strings, who sent it here. It resists your efforts, but, in the last moments before it is ripped away, you see a face. It does not look like a demon, though that can be deceptive, they seldom do up here, but, even in the demon's mind, it looks human.

Benji has found a quiet corner of Jacob’s shop to sit and recover his senses a bit while the others try to figure out what brought the demons here in the first place. He’s soaked from the rain, but not cold – he doesn’t get cold—and he takes care not to drip rainwater on Jacob’s books.

- Rhiannon -

You do recognise the face. They go by the name Chaudry, they are a wizard, but not anyone very important. You don't know what order they belong to (if you even know there are different 'orders', wizard politics is complicated) and have not heard a lot about them. But you have a place to start if you want to follow up.

• How do you know their face?

What do you do? Do you tell the others?

Benji takes a tentative sip from the bag of blood Jacob gave him, torn between disgust and acute hunger. It’s not very pleasant and it doesn’t do anything for his headache, but it does help him focus a little better. He tries to recall if he has ever met this Chaudry person that everyone’s talking about.