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Joshua's first Cabal
chose the United States as their focus for activity due to its growing
prominence as a superpower. As the Cold War began, they prepared to take
on the Technocracy.
The science of war and mass destruction advanced at a frightening pace, and the Cabal found much to do as they tried to slow the progress of the technomages. The Cabal grew in influence and power as the years passed, and they chose their battles carefully. |
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The war became one
of information, and as a result they found an implacable foe in the New
World Order. War broke out in Korea in 1950, and naturally, America got
involved. Wars spurred the advancement of weapons technology, thus allowing
the Technocracy to push its own super-science closer to acceptance by
the Sleepers.
As the Korean war lingered for years and public support for it declined, Joshua's Cabal encouraged the anti-war sentiment growing in the country. Finally, his Cabal had done enough damage that the Technocracy targeted them for deletion; a powerful strike force was dispatched to deal with the Tytalans. |
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Chased up the west
coast by the Technocrats, Paradox began to take its toll on Joshua's Cabal,
and in time they were brought down. Joshua's magicks in particular became
most vulgar when his friends' lives were on the line. As his Cabal was killed,
he simply vanished as static reality asserted itself. The NWO agents noted
the occurrence, and set about correcting the damage to reality caused by
the Paradox backlashes.
Joshua was gone, lost in a Paradox Realm for perhaps thirty years. Suffice it to say that it is not something he talks about. But at long last, he reappeared in this reality in 1982 where he'd originally left it, in the outskirts of Seattle. Seemingly having not aged a day since Paradox took him, he wandered aimlessly, baffled by the vast changes to the world around him. |
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Some things had
not changed, however. Joshua sensed magick in the air around him, and
he sought it out. It was a chance encounter, to be sure...on the other
hand, Joshua will be the first to tell you that there is no such thing
as coincidence.
He happened upon a pair of shaggy-haired Cultists of Ecstasy, and in turn helped them in rescuing a young, inexperienced Son of Ether. The Scientist had just arrived the hard way after fleeing a Horizon Realm that had been overrun by the Technocracy, and the four of them had to evade the Men in Black sent to investigate the escape pod's landing. In such ways a new Cabal was formed. Joshua dreamed for better things this time around, as he became acquainted with the particulars of life in the late twentieth century. |
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Initially, the new
Cabal's goals were focused on the basics of survival. Their first years
together were spent securing a safe haven in which to live and learn to
prosper. Joshua's Cultist friends owned a pathetic, run-down building,
and used the top level of it as their loft. He and Benjamin Carlisle,
then a Scientist of the Sons of Ether, took pains to restore the building
and make a livable space of the basement.
Originally a mechanic by trade, Carlisle's skills proved essential in repairing the house, and before long he and Joshua had split up the basement level to make their Sanctums. Carlisle found work in town fixing cars like he used to, and of all places, Joshua ended up working in a New Age-style occult shop run by a pair of flirtatious Wiccans. The amusing irony of his situation never escaped him. Time passed; the four mages learned to live with each other's differences, and even thrive in time. |
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Of course, the Cabal
also found enemies to deal with as the years wore on. Joshua lent his
talent for Ars Essentiae to the battles they fought, warring against the
New World Order with a passion. The Cultists dabbled with drugs and music,
their dream to form a band in no hurry to be realized. Joshua and the
Doctor worked to build up their resources and esoteric knowledge as well.
Still, each of the mages learned something from the others. Were it not for his time spent with the Ecstatic mages, Joshua would never have bothered to acquire such skill with Ars Temporis or Materiae as he has now. In the end, though, their downfall came from an unforeseen power entering their lives - that of the Kindred. |
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The four mages united
in time to pursue the improbable dream of the Cultists, forming a punk-metal
band. Joshua merely served as a manager of sorts, of course. Surprised
by their initial success, they had no idea what they were getting into.
One of the clubs they frequented was owned by a Sabbat Brujah, part of
a pack sent to infiltrate the Camarilla-controlled city. This Sabbat pack
proved a devious and careful one, hoping to gain the power of the willworkers
for their own darker purposes.
The Blood became a new drug for the young, inexperienced Cultist mages; they were drawn in by the power of the vitae without their even realizing it. Before long, two of the pack were chosen to perform the Creation Rites on the mages. They found out the hard way about what effect the Embrace has on the Awakened Avatar. Though disappointed by the loss of their pawns' magick, they used the two new Cainites in a ploy to draw in the remaining two members of the Cabal, seeking to Blood Bond Joshua and Professor Carlisle and so make reliable, loyal pets... |
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At first, Joshua
and Carlisle noticed no difference in their friends. As they were up at
all hours of the night already; what was there to arouse suspicion? The
newly Embraced Cultists began the gradual, careful process of Bonding
the two mages, under the supervision of their fellow pack members.
It was a close call; only a flash of preternatural intuition warned Joshua, barely in time to foil the plan of the Sabbat. The slight traces of vitae in their Patterns told the tale well enough for Joshua. His training had included some information on the Kindred, and it was enough. In short order, he and the Doctor captured one of the former Cultist mages, and devised a plan to rescue the other in a daytime assault on the pack's communal haven. |
| The raid went badly.
The two mages went alone, not counting on any living beings guarding the
haven. One ghoul trained in Vicissitude wounded Joshua horribly. When
he conjured a wall of fire to keep the awakening Sabbat pack at bay, blocking
a doorway between them, a functional sprinkler system nearly put the fire
out...until the Professor transmuted the water into jet fuel! He and Joshua
barely escaped the results of that fit of inspiration with their lives,
as the fuel exploded and the building was demolished. Nothing else escaped
alive, or undead for that matter. The friend they had hoped to rescue
died with the others, and never had a chance.
Carlisle worked on the surviving vampire, eventually managing to restore him to mortality. But the magick was still gone, lost forever. A later assault by another vengeful Sabbat pack burned down the loft where the Cabal lived, as the Cainites managed to do what the Technocracy could not. Joshua was forced to flee the blaze, and once again was faced with the loss of his Cabal. His life in Seattle, for all intents and purposes, was over. |
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