Watch Dogs 6- Trial by Ice
#5 of Watch Dogs
Where it's cold, and ice hits your skin
Few can stomach how harsh it is
In the woods lies a Great Old One
Who'll tear the flesh, right off your bones...
-- 3 Inches of Blood , God of the Cold White Silence
After they had gathered their sparse equipment (Erik complained about that and was promptly reminded that he needed to prove he's worth it before he gets the bespoke A.I. rifles) We met back in the dank little room beneath the barracks, the clones corpses nowhere to be seen to our mutual relief, sergeant Mathews told us to gather inside a chalk circle surrounded by faintly shining runes, and when we had done that, before we could say anything, she mumbled some words that I only heard the faintest whisper of it, enough that I' was grateful not to have heard the rest. Suddenly the world winked out and with a feeling of plummeting in a burning elevator while something dreadful was clawing through the floor, and again I was back in the world, and I almost fell to the ground and kissed it, only stopped by hearing the sergeant in his head, "you have been scattered throughout the Ary-mas forest you are roughly all 5 miles apart from each other, this forest is in northern Siberia so I would give you around four hours before night falls and the temperature drops to -50 degrees, in the middle of where you are scattered is a cache of winter supplies, you will need these are you will have to trek 200 miles south to your extraction team, they will assume you are dead and leave after five days, so I'd better hurry. Good night and good look." With that I realised the temperature was already dropping, looking through my pack I saw there was no winter equipment so I quickly stripped, and after packing my clothes in my pack for later, changed. As soon as I did that I felt Markus, he noticed me and quickly told me which direction to head, I asked If he could reach the others and he replied that he had contacted all of them but Erik and Otto, but given he could pinpoint our location on the map, they were deep in the centre of the wood, I hoped they would make it, strapped my kit bag to my back and loped off In the direction Marcus gave me, and after an hour and a half of slogging through the dead forest reached a clearing where the rest of the unit were pounding at a large armoured crate, I growled a query at Lucy, who was battering at the crate, she turned and replied" turns out this cache needs a key to open, and I'm worried about James and Adam, they're not taking the cold well. Markus who turned out to be a variant of artic fox, had his face screwed up in effort and a vial and syringe at his feet, I looked pointedly at them and he noticed me. "Phycostimulant", he explained "I've managed to locate Otto he says that they are around a mile away, but Erik found something in the heart of the forest, Otto found him all cut up and had drew a name on the ground with his blood: Ithaqua. With that Corvus who hadn't changed as his form would have been suitable for the climate went if that was possible even paler, he looked like he'd been told that he had terminal cancer, his expression, so unlike his normal look of aloofness that it drew all our attention to him, he spoke quietly "Can you contact the outside world Markus" Markus said he could but he would use up all his psycostimulants and wouldn't be able to do much for around twelve hours. Corvus then said in a leaden voice "At least our deaths won't be in vain then. Markus, make contact and tell them what you just told us, Lucy, Skye go and fetch Otto and Erik, no one should die alone." I looked at him "what's with the fatalism, Corvus" he turned to me and his expression stopped me cold "Ithaqua is the name of one of the great old ones, he is mainly known for the way he gruesomely slaughters travellers now go and get Otto, every minute counts" and with that he turned away, so I ran off after Lucy to reach Otto and Erik.
When we found them I was grateful of Lucy's carrying power, Erik was slashed deeply across his face and arms, like he'd been shielding himself from claws. He stirred as we approached him, Otto glanced worriedly at the surrounding trees, Erik became lucid for a second and gurgled run, run, the Gnophkeh are coming, with that a terrible baying came through the trees, blurred shapes appeared in the distance Otto helped Lucy hurriedly fix Erik to her wide back and we all ran like the devil himself was on our tail, which for all I know was what was happening. The pursuit never flagged as we raced back to the grove containing the cache, the rest of the unit had heard the Gnophkeh cries and were arming themselves James lent against the crate his face grey but holding his kukri defiantly, Adam had drew one of the rifles issued to us and was trying to steady the sights on the furred horrors pursuing us, Corvus was looking his old self, wrapping his shadowy aspect about him and moving his hands in rapid cats-cradles as shadows flowed around him. Lucy and I had turned to face them and needed no weapons but those nature had endowed us with , Otto face had token on an odd expression and changed back to human, he tore off one of his gloves, revealing a claw of gleaming steel crackling with a corona of strange energies. The first broke into the grove and Otto laughed maniacally and splayed his hand at them, lightening crackled and flared at them and left behind charred bodies others, breaking into the other side of the grove and were swamped by Corvus's magic with shadows flowing over them suffocating them and tearing other into pieces. Finally enough of them fell to Otto's deranged technology and Corvus's shadow magic they rushed again before they could recover, Lucy and I tore into them and Otto had changed back and was tearing through the abominations like a whirlwind with teeth, occasionally a head exploded or a beast crashed to the ground clawing at his eyes or turning and frenziedly attacking anything in reach which more often than not was its fellow attackers. After some time the tide abated and we retreated to come together at the centre of the grove , after the assault only me and Otto were able to fight, Lucy had taken to many wounds and we were out of magic, ammunition and luck. We heard a scream growing in pitch as a beast was flung into the grove, bearing wound similar to Erik's , then a corpse-like giant with eyes like hellfire and foot long claws from contorted muscled hands. This was an abomination like no other, one of the old horrors of the world to horrible to be allowed in our human, sane world, I think anyone else would be driven mad by his image, but in body at least we were protected from horrors like this. With a cry Corvus fell to his knees and there was a feeling of pressure, then a man in a white longcoat burst into the world, his face obscured by a mask like the skull of an angel, he pulled out a crucifix of bone and began a booming incantation of Latin, with every word the abomination shuddered and its beasts fled screaming, finishing, he placed the crucifix back in his coat and pulled out a pearl-handled peacemaker, fired a single shot, and the old one howled from the wound, he began to speak quietly in a language that seemed to burn his ears and threatened to drive him mad but at last he finished speaking, the monster turned slowly and shambled back into its kingdom in the heart of the wood. He waved a hand and said a powerful word, and just with that our wounds were healed, He nodded to us and drew a sheathed knife from the recesses of his coat, tossed it to me and vanished as suddenly as came