The Moloch: a setting sourcebook for KULT
Chapter 12: An Angel in Charge
They leave the flat with Peter and Kurt really scared and hopeless about the situation. They prepare to enter the sewers again when a voice from the shadows stops them: a person who could only be Nicholas steps out of the dark and tells them he was told to wait for them here. He was sent by an as yet undisclosed third party who seems to have known exactly that the PCs would come here and that they would want to visit the Dortburg, which is what Nicholas' patron wants as well. He leads them into the sewers and past one of the strange talismans forbidding entrance to certain sections which the PCs have encountered several times before - and then down a crudely hewn passage even deeper, far below the sewer system.
Nicholas is one of the Nephilim - a people living in hiding because they are deformed in a multitude of ways. Their mythology tells them they are descended from angels, and whatever the truth, there is a fallen angel by the name of Zarenar with them who seems to have been cast from Elysium (paradise) some weeks ago and has now recovered from his wounds as far as possible. He wants to go back, and he knows that he can do so through the citadel of one of the Archons, god's ten highest servants, controlling the illusion that binds humanity. The highest archon is Kether, and von Habsburg is one of his envoys on earth, so there must be a gate in the Dortburg leading to Kether's citadel, and through that citadel Zarenar hopes to be able to reach Elysium again. He feels drawn towards the Dortburg, so he could find it, but he still needs human guides to help him on the surface - in come the PCs who he knows all about because he can see through the illusion and its component parts such as space or time. He sent Nicholas to fetch the PCs, and they meet Zarenar in a large vault where he is waiting in the company of Phoenix, the leader of the Nephilim.
Zarenar, a highly arrogant person (if you can call an angel a person), is a sexless, otherworldly beautiful being, but its skin is covered with a fine network of blood-filled scratches and its wings are battered. When it gets angry its eyes glow red, and it gets angry easily. It is absolutely unwilling to cover its features (that is, have them hidden by the illusion).
When the PCs and Zarenar reach the surface the sun begins to burn the angel. It hides in the shadows. Kurt goes away to fetch his car (they took a route which brings them close to it) and returns with it. Everyone piles into the car; the angel seems to glide in without any mundane movement and somehow fits inside, wings and all.
Zarenar leads the PCs towards the Dortburg; of course it has never heard of one-way streets, red traffic lights or the problems of driving straight through buildings, which leads to some tension. Somehow the PCs manage to reach a dilapidated block of 19th century houses for factory workers. One cobblestone street passes straight through the houses which become more and more run-down until only ruins remain. Someone (or something) moves in the ruins and the PCs feel watched, but they drive on until the cobblestone makes way for a dirt track (just big enough to allow one car to pass) and the ruins become featureless grassland. On they go until they reach a medieval wall with a gate (a bit like a smallish Arc de Triomphe). The gate itself is open. There is a medieval village beyond, very clean (anachronistically), and people there are performing various period chores although they wear cheap but modern clothing. They glance at the car but are none too curious.
The PCs reach the Dortburg castle and can enter. They park next to two black limousines (like those they kept seeing in the first few days of their flight). Inside the castle some servants are cleaning things etc., and they do not even flinch when they see the angel pass in its full glory. Some bow or curtsy, apparently out of habit - others simply watch. The PCs reach a hall behind a door marked 'private' and the hall itself stretches far longer than the outside of the rather compact castle should allow. Zarenar strides on, the PCs follow.
The PCs reach a hall separating from the one Zarenar is walking down and they hear female screams. Natalie immediately recognizes them as her sister's. The PCs stop, though Zarenar turns and orders them on. There is something in his voice which compels the PCs to go on (Zarenar has used this to completely enthrall Kurt and Natalie, but Peter managed to retain some of his free will) but concedes to let the PCs have a look, while the screaming is growing more desperate.
The PCs open a door and enter a chamber furnished as a princely medieval chamber may have been. Among other furniture there is a wide four-poster bed with silk curtains. They see the impossibly large bulk of a person behind the silk curtains, heaving his body up and down, while the screaming dies down to a weak whimpering. Kurt draws the curtain - revealing the naked, sweaty, semi-transparent non-human body of von Habsburg who is raping Natalie. Natalie herself is lying on her back, and her belly is swollen in an impossible pregnancy - the skin has turned white, almost translucent, and one can see the dark form of the fetus inside, lying on its back spreadeagled, and von Habsburg's finger-thin penis is moving inside Natalie and inside the fetus as well, impaling both in an anatomically impossible perversion of the act.
Kurt and Natalie both fail to withstand the shock of this scene; Natalie breaks down and tries to make herself as small as possible, while Kurt freezes - but he is flung to the side when the voice of Zarenar makes itself heard and von Habsburg hears it, jumping out of the bed and going for the door. Von Habsburg and Zarenar enter a contest of voices laden with authority which thunders down the halls; obviously some kind of magical contest whose power of command is stronger. Mercifully, space itself seems to stretch and the combatants, while not moving at all, are pulled away while their corner of the hall stretches into the distance like rubber.
Peter who had remained outside enters the room and tries to get everyone vertical again. Natalie's mind has snapped - forthwith she will have no will of herself at all in stressful situations and will do what she is bidden by anyone. Kurt is in an even worse shape although it's not apparent yet... Natalie's sister Susanne is almost unconscious and must be carried between Natalie and Kurt.