-Made an Edit in Red to Add Missing Information - Long Days at the Motel

Bobby will break out his acoustic guitar and sit by the room Math is in playing.

"Government man
Government man
Got a job keeping an Al ee Anne
Alien man
Alien man
Comes from a dark and watery land
Water land
Water land
Wants our sunshine I say not cool man
not cool man
not cool man
We guard our sun like a government man
...Whoa...came full circle on that one..."

"They call me Bobby Sunshine
and everyone likes me
probably because
I bring all the drugs.
Take
Take
Take
But you don't really know me
Take
Take
Take
Take a toke for free
Would you still be my friend
If I had no LSD
Would you be my friend
If I said give that thing of yourssssss.....
To me."

"Oh that was a bit dark...sorry about that...This next one is called The Man that Keeps Things in Familiar Places."
In my RV
I grow a weed
Cause I think it's funny
To say yes I have weed.
But if you want pot
You gotta look in the pot
And if you want LSD
It's behind the photo of Lucy Sam and Dee.
Cause I'm the maaaaannnnnn
That keeps things in familiar places....
I'm the man....
that hides a smile on the faces...
If you want a crowbar
Look behind the bar
And if you need rolling papers
They're rolled up in the paper
Cause I'm the maaaaannnnnn
That keeps things in familiar places....
I'm the man....
that hides a smile on the faces...
So if you need a nail
Look in the box of press on nails...
and if you want a ding dong...
...check with Hostess cause this is a kid friend song....
---He stops and laughs---
1,2,3
Cause I'm the maaaaannnnnn
That keeps things in familiar places....
I'm the man....
that would hide a smile on the faces..."

"Alright...I'll do one more...This is called People Judge Me."

"1,2,ah,1,2,3
When people see me
They don't see a millionaire
Just a dirty hippie
With long thick hair.

When people see me
They don't see a family man
Just dirty rambler
Driving all across this land.

When people see me
They judge me
But I don't judge them
Cause I don't care
I don't care
Cause I got a million dollars
I don't care
Cause my family are shits
And I don't care, so fuck them."

Lol

Eerling will eventually return.
He looks a bit out of it and starts frantically making some notes.

"...I think there are some things I can't, or shouldn't tell you. I'm not sure if it was an accident, or intentional or....but I saw...the inner workings....I think. Not like saw them but saw them...like a moment of visual clarity or something....it wouldn't surprise me if Polk saw this or guessed it or...he was always a few steps ahead."

"The short of it is, (OFC I'm going to list them as points, though Eerling doesn't actually say the numbers)
1. I'm not sure Nosfender even knows of this world, and if he does he doesn't seem interested.

2. Darconoff thinks Nosfender has lost his ambition.

3. Aosh-mo-nagith and Thigraral haven't left Nosfender's palace for who knows how long.

4. Nosfender's palace is also...I don't know...going through something somewhat. His underlings seem agitated.

5. There doesn't seem to be much communication between the demons right now.

6. ...And...ok...there....might be....two of me. And...if there is...there might be two Polks...and if so...there might be more others too. See...I, and Polk, have always been under the impression that Daulben or rather the world Daulben sits on, was destroyed. But...if that bureau goes there then....well it has to be going to something and if Daulben is still there it is possible I am too and that might explain this mix of memories I seem to keep having.
But, don't think about too much and....you might have to kill me at some point and if I think I know what you are thinking and it's what I'm thinking...I'm going to kill you.

6B. If Nosfender has any interest in anything at this point it seem to be in getting back to Daulben.

7. I'm pretty sure, more so now, that Polk is still alive and...we probably will have to...fix that. I don't trust him to do the right thing.

8. Also...I need you to leave Habasdrid alone. Don't ask why, don't try to figure it out, just leave it alone.

9. The good news is: I don't think we have as much to do as you might think. Now that the Bells are returned, we concentrate on finding Polk and eliminating him, and finish off the witches. I don't think The Bowl actually needs to be put back together. Probably get rid of any Hasmitall followers, especially if they have his book.
And....we...ok...it's not exactly good news...we don't need to get the Tril but...we probably need to close up the hole there...and to do that...I'm not entirely sure how to. Polk might know...I suspect we'd need to put back in place whatever it is they disrupted, or repair it, or...well I have this suspicion it is..." He seems to not know how to describe it...
"There should be these like voidal things...like shards, maybe one will work...maybe we need more. But I'm 99% sure Mr. Owl has one somewhere. And I'd suspect the Russian government has one...and maybe the US...."

“The bells haven’t been returned. They were stolen. Gavin has them and has been wreaking havoc across the country ringing them and killing scores of people. We haven’t found him. We tried to force summon him, but he was able to resist it. We then tried to summon the bells and instead received Loralie, which was a gut punch of an experience.”

Percival shakes his head, “ we were then attacked by witches, which we fought off, but I believe two got away.”

Percival returns to thinking, with a few moment where he makes the beginnings of an “ah ha!” expression that quickly fades into more furrowed brows, he eventually says, “So we hunt down witches, HasMitAl and Ankroptic casters, destroy their “bibles,” go to Russian and get the tril or at least close up whatever was opened there, we need to kill polk or rather the second Polk, but is he in here or in that other world?”

“I’m not gonna lie, what you consider not too much, it’s still quite a lot.”

“So who’s Daulben? And who are Aosh-mo-nagith and Thigraral?”

(Sorry to post so much)

Quote :

"There should be these like voidal things...like shards, maybe one will work...maybe we need more. But I'm 99% sure Mr. Owl has one somewhere. And I'd suspect the Russian government has one...and maybe the US...."

“Voidal things?? Like the cube in the weird place that the cube gate will take you? Or the weird void we found in South Dakota?”

"Daulben is...the muddy world...flat world."

"Aosh-mo-nagith and Thigraral are demonic council members."

"No, not two Polks....just the one...maybe."

"We don't need to get the Tril...well if we are there we might as well toss it into the hole before we close it up."

"There can't be that many copies of Hasmital's book around and that isn't like urgent. That's a safeguard measure. But yes...the witches have to go."

"Witches....there should only be seven? That we need to worry about...kind of.
There's...
1. "Miranda"...she's going to be the worst... (He seems to hurry onto the next one just to avoid thinking how bad she might be.)
2. Alicia Dimitree who has 3 daughters...and it's possible we killed one of the daughters in Montana.
3. Cassandra Beneviento
4. Mihaela Minca ....in eastern europe somewhere, last I remember. Very old.
5. ....there was an Isobel...I think...no idea where she might be.
The other two...I can't remember...they might have changed anyway by now, but if they have, good, it takes a bit for their replacements to really get very strong.
I'm thinking....we just spring a trap. Call them out and get them to come to us. Like, just buy a full page ad in the New York Times and say hey, screw you, come get us. Or hold a press conference?

(OTC - Will address Voidal, bells, and witch attack later)

Quote :

Witches....there should only be seven? That we need to worry about...kind of.
There's...
1. "Miranda"...she's going to be the worst... (He seems to hurry onto the next one just to avoid thinking how bad she might be.)
2. Alicia Dimitree who has 3 daughters...and it's possible we killed one of the daughters in Montana.
3. Cassandra Beneviento
4. Mihaela Minca ....in eastern europe somewhere, last I remember. Very old.
5. ....there was an Isobel...I think...no idea where she might be.
The other two...I can't remember...they might have changed anyway by now, but if they have, good, it takes a bit for their replacements to really get very strong.
I'm thinking....we just spring a trap. Call them out and get them to come to us. Like, just buy a full page ad in the New York Times and say hey, screw you, come get us. Or hold a press conference?

1: Percival asks “is Miranda known as Anja M. Voskresenska?”

2: “I believe we killed Alicia and one of her daughters.”

3: “we’ve not heard of Cassandra.”

4: “if Mihaela was in Romania, Polk killed her.”

5: “we nearly killed Isobel Southeil, she was in Colorado, and tried to kill us. I have her recipe book. She likes to appear as younger women and lure people to their deaths where she skins them and uses their skin to make her look younger.”

”we’ve killed a couple other witches but none of them seem to have been very powerful.”

1. "I'm not superstitious but can we maybe not use her name?"
2. You killed Alicia Dimitree? I find that hard to believe.
3. (OFC - She was mentioned by the queer) Cassandra Beneviento, probably the weakest the main three...she...she's...a bit of a black sheep. Almost feel sorry for her.
4. Interesting
5. Nearly?

The Bells:
"You...didn't return them? One job, one fucking goddamn thing to do. You even said you had them."
Eerling sighs, closes his eyes, and takes a deep breath.
"Ok...I'm trying...I'm trying...ok. I'll do it. Who is Gavin, where is he, and where were the bells? Is Gavin able to move them? Is he strong? Does he have a handtruck? That should not be an easy thing to get around with. Where does he live? Where does he like to hangout? Where has he used them?"

Void:
(OOC - I'm going to assume you actually tell him something more or less true so as to avoid you having to recount and type a lot.)
"That sounds like what we need...My current thinking is, what's over there in Russia is a...well like an open flood gate of sorts. But I don't know if just closing it would work...if it would...why wouldn't the Russians have just closed it? But maybe if we get a bit of void in there...anything leaking out just...poof...gets lost in it instead...."

Witch Attack
(OOC - Again I'm going to assume some basic truth would be told to him. IE: witches poured out of the woods at the farm.)
"That...sounds like..." He shakes his head. "I glance through my notes. Alicia....fuck now I'm saying it... it's very easy for her to control people but well, those weren't witches. They may not even have been pupils or apprentices."

The Bells: “they were at my house, we went to go get them, but the army had been there apparently with Gavin and took them. I have no clue where he is. Gavin has some innate magics, he’s able to walk through walls, turn invisible, he has that strange Ankroptic symbol with the eye tattooed on him, before all of this he was in prison, in an induced coma, but some army general wanted someone who knew about magic and demons as an advisor, so they woke him and they also wanted me and Lucien and were trying to abduct us, so they all went to my house, and obviously Gavin was able to sense the magic of the bells, through the crate they were in. He rung the bells at my home in Atlanta, I’ve heard he did it in other places too with the demand that I be turned over to him. But I have no idea where he is. Again I tried to force summon him be he resisted it and sent some apparition of of dead friend of mine in his place.”

The Void: “which did you need, the void in south? No.. North Dakota? Or the nexus inside the cube?”

Witch attack: “so you’re saying that all these ballet students are just thralls by she who shall not be named? The attack was very similar to what I was shown about Polks death, by the demon of memory.”

Keeper wrote:

1. "I'm not superstitious but can we maybe not use her name?"
2. You killed Alicia Dimitree? I find that hard to believe.
3. (OFC - She was mentioned by the queer) Cassandra Beneviento, probably the weakest the main three...she...she's...a bit of a black sheep. Almost feel sorry for her.
4. Interesting
5. Nearly?

1. Confirmed.

2. “We killed one of her daughters, she came and tried to kill us. She almost got us, but Lucien’s light guns made short work of her. I kept her skull, then I noticed something inside it and put my fingers inside the eye socket only for it to grab a hold of me. When I freed myself I smashed her skull into pieces.”

3: since it’s not recorded on the forum i personally didn’t remember she was mentioned.

4: “I’m assuming that the Strega that sent us through the portal back home is the one you were talking about.”

5: “she had us pinned down in her home throwing furniture and knives and other things at us, we’d set the home on fire and shot her once… I believe. But she was hard to pin down. She called the police, pretending to a little old lady who’s home had been broken into and the police came then one of them shot the other one and freaked out sobbing and crying, so we used the confusion to run, though not without incident. I doubt she stayed in her home as it burned.”

“Why would Nodfendor have any interest in Daulben? What is there that interests him?”

Nosfendor/Dalben
"Because that is where...we think anyway...that he is from. Because he knows it exists, because he still wants to take revenge for something, or wants it back or...maybe all those."

Eerling has 3 notebooks he recovered. As he flips through them looking for the section on witches he is a bit careless and you can catch a bit of his notes on Creation. (Note: If you are reading this early, I'm likely to add some to it and regardless this is considered just a glimpse before he reshuffles notebooks and closes them.)

Nine mantras of creation.
Creation mantras tap into a set of mantras that operate as definitions (descriptions) for all things.
When creating things, any quality that is not defined may not exist or take on an unexpected quality. (Example: Deep water Snailfish may have been created without proper pressure/depth being applied to them?)
I wonder how many mantras these runes are actually tapping into. (*)
Creation and binding seems to read from top down. It would be possible to accidentally make everything glow…?!


Creation of new things can take up entire books.

1. Create Name
This creates the “true” name for a thing. At this point a thing is nothing but a name.


2. Create Quality/Description
Qualities are controlled by transformation creation which then defines a qualifier to the quality.
IE: If Create Quality rune is V and Transformation Creation Rune is L, and L gets defined as A, B, or C then
VLB = an intermediate quality that takes place.
Three listed below but Qualities can be more precisely described.
General Types:
A. Immediate
Immediate are qualities that take place at the moment.
Example: Light from a fire is an immediate quality.
B. Intermediate
Intermediate qualities take place over time but are observable.
Example: Ash from a fire an intermediate quality.
C. Unobserved
This seems to be qualities that are not immediately observable.
Example: Changes on a molecular level.
I’m very bothered by effects I can not see and the ramifications it may have.


2. Create Transformational
Transformationals are changes that take place to a creation.  

3. Create Uniqness
This sets how unique a thing is. *
(See Binding)

4. Create Behaviors
—-Do not confuse behavior with descriptions—
…or maybe do? Does it matter? Is there a difference creating a quality to a behavior?
Behaviors are more unique less universal?
Seems to be crossover here. (See (*))



Power put into runes seems to circulate and then dissipate. If there is no binding level the power circulates until “burned” out.

After flipping around through some pages, Eerling finally settles one, flips a few more pages and holds their spot with his fingers.
Eerling: "Witches, I’m only assuming these are same ones. Witches are old…but, it is possible they’ve been replaced. They tend to have…understudies of sorts but these understudies aren’t guaranteed  to replace them.
Witches don’t tend to get along very well and don’t tend to meet but they use these understudies as a go between.
Keep in mind they might be known for certain things but that isn’t…well they aren’t one trick ponies.

Anja M. Voskresenska
She’s the oldest, and may not even have a corporeal form. She “engulfs” and manipulates reality thriving on chaos. You can think of her as a reality unto herself maybe, a sort of master of illusion.
When I say she rules the other witches, I mean, she rules them almost as extensions of herself. She can call them all together, or destroy them and bring them back. There is a…connection they have to her, a connection of longing for her.

There's a few places she could be..but I'm pretty sure she'll also eventually come to us...Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey of all places...and South Carolina. Though...she's been sighted supposedly in other countries too.

Alicia Dimitree
As I’ve mentioned she has three daughters. She…is probably the closest to approaching Anja’s powers but…he sighs…it is difficult to explain. She has managed in some ways to mimic that longing she must feel for Anja and put it in her daughters but, if Anja is a nuclear reactor, Alicia is a generator.
These “daughters” are thought to be manifestations of her power. They may at one time have been real people, I don’t know.

• Daughter 1. Cassandra Dimitree
  Hypnotism of sorts…a power of possession but also to be able to move her subjects. I have a suspicion she might be who attacked you. It's possible it was Alicia herself but I'd suspect she'd more likely to aid or just let one of her daughters do it. The good news is....if she knew to attack you there, she is watching. We could maybe hole up there and draw her out.
  
  Daughter 2. Bella Dimitree
  She's a sort of... She stays quite hidden and tends to take on other forms. People she's seen mostly. Which, includes her sister Daniela who's she's seen as a swarm of insects so she's taken on that form before...but according to Polk it isn't insects so, maybe she didn't see it so closely. She, I think, was the youngest
  
  Daughter 3. Daniela Dimitree
  This is the one I think was back in Montana.
  

Cassandra Beneviento
She is…sort of a telepathic, telekinesis control? Last I knew she had…focused most of her powers on controlling dolls…puppets…She’s…childishly cruel. She is deeply jealous of the others, probably feels rejected, or not good enough. Hasn't gotten the recognition she deserves.

Mihaela Minca
Very traditional, woodsy hermit like....If Polk killed one in Romania, this was probably her. You could say she got along best with all of them but in an indifferent sort of way.

Isobel Southeil
Vain and telekinetic.
She was in a feud with Minca for awhile.
...I don't like to speculate, and I know I have been but, I don't think she ever knew what she in for, like the cost. And I don't think she'd have anywhere to go. If she got away...she's out there on her own.

Marie Legba
Changes forms a lot, and according to Polk, most all of this is according to him, mischievous. She works...worked? She was known to apparently at least communicate some with Mihaela Minca.

Maur Serefina
Sort of a pide piper. Tends to go after...well I was going to say goes after children but that isn't really right. She purges areas of children. Which makes me think she might be easy to find. We just need to find a neighborhood or something with no children...that probably had a mass kidnapping incident. She'll likely move around but...she leaves a trail.

Other
Now...your Ellis house story...sounds like Naqoyqatsi. "She" ...I don't know...an alien thing. Promised everlasting life through her, preyed on elderly mostly. But...she had a, we'll call it a sister, and one...brother? There are three of them. Two which manifest or have female like forms, the other has a more male like form.
The good news is, if that is who you killed, they probably don't know or don't know who, or can't find you, or they'd like come for revenge.
Interestingly...and again...speculation on my part, I think Anja learned from her and possible Isobel too or Anja taught Isobel from Naqoygatsi....or one of the other two. I don't know....but they share some ...traits or abilities. Isobel had some sort of ...ritual? She could create these sort of near, I don't want to say immortal, wrong word, maybe right idea, beings that were just these sort of breathing shells. It is believed one of these three, the Naqoy three, were involved with the church at one point long ago. Or rather, had corrupted some priests. Which is interesting too because Romania where you said Mihaela is...was...supposedly had one of these corrupt priests selling this immortality.

Anja: “She who shall not be named, is being hunted down by a black cardinal of the Catholic Church known as the Queer, last we knew of his location, he was in South Carolina. I think he’s hunting all the witches, but focused mainly on her.”

Alicia: “hmm I guess I was mistaken, but I know we’ve head her name. Again not familiar with her daughters other than part of what we heard was that she had some.”

Cassandra: “the Queer mentioned her, but i don’t remember what he said off hand.”

Mihaela: if the Strega that sent us home through the portal was her, she literally plucked by ‘heart string’ and I’m pretty certain had I’d been less lucky I would have died then and there. She was also able to kind of look into our souls, then relate our essence as roles in the game Isosperti. She wasn’t unlikable, more of a strict mother type.”

Isobel: “I know I shot her once close range. And Lucien either shot or stabbed her, maybe both. Her ‘recipe’ book literally details the ritual used in story “the unwedable daughter” though does not seem to be perfect. She had scores of people partially skinned, in coffins, who barely hung on to life, through the use of that magick, and which she used their skin and their life essence to supplement her own. We burned her house, whihc destroyed her thralls, or whatever you might call them. She seemed to like to be mischievous and use her powers to cause people people to have accidents. Oddly enough we were watching tv and saw a a video of an accident and an old bald headed woman was in the background laughing. That video was made in New York City. If it’s her it’s a lead if it’s not, it’s a lead towards another witch.”

Marie: “not ever heard of her.”

Maur: “not heard of her but seems easy enough to find.”

Other: “in Romania we arrived through a portal, that brought us into an old cathedral. It’s was the den of some ghoulish creatures, what we believe were once humans, mutated over centuries through inbreeding. We were pretty certain they were cannibals as well. The interesting thing was that in its basement or catacombs, there was this onyx slab with runes carved into it, with a woman dressed in white, chained down to it, who like Isobel’s thralls, lay there, near death, almost imperceptibly breathing. However unlike Isobel’s thralls, she showed no signs of decay. Oddly enough the whole place seems to align with the story of the ‘unwed-able daughter”

Lucien has a bunch of questions.

Travels and Info finding
1. "Where did you go? What did you see there? Who did meet? Where did you learn this information?"
2. "How long were you gone, in your time?"
3. "How did you see the inner workings? Did you spy on their meeting? Did you sneek around somewhere? Is there a skrying, spying thing? Is this a skill you and Polk both have? Can you teach it? Did you do this long ago and your notes just refreshed your memory? Could this info be out of date?"
4. "Library research. Need to know how to do it without spending too much time. There are lots of things we could help you learn"

Counsel
5. Name the counsel members you know of. Just want to make sure we have the same list as you.

Multiple personalities.
6. Why are there so many of you and Polk (two)?
7. What is the "right thing" that Polk should do?

Worlds
8. This bureau seems to go to a lot of worlds. Can you name them?
* Daulben....
9. Along with other important worlds we might need to encounter
* The Bowl

Tril
10. Where does the hole go?
11. Did the Tril create the hole?
12. If the other books create things, why even have a "Tril"? If it is the least important book, why is it dangerous?
13. Can you describe the Tril, again, given what you have just discovered.

Void
14. Could you clarify? Did you mean a box is the thing we want or the soul sucking hole is space is thing we want?
15. Lucien describes the little fuzzy dark object in the box that the government and the sisters came for. But not the sisters.
16. Lucien describes his shadow thing.
17. Can you describe a void shard?

Wtiches
18. Spell ideas. I've been thinking I should start collecting sample of things that attack us to confirm what they are and maybe track back to them (since we usually can't kill half the things that come after us and they usually come back at some point).
19. Lucien describes the fight underground where we killed something and then we left and we saw a woman speeding toward where we left. "Who was that?"

Naqoyqatsi
20. What type of alien is she?
21. What are the names of her siblings?
22. Are there aliens we should know about?

Quote :

ravels and Info finding
1. "Where did you go? What did you see there? Who did meet? Where did you learn this information?"
2. "How long were you gone, in your time?"
3. "How did you see the inner workings? Did you spy on their meeting? Did you sneek around somewhere? Is there a skrying, spying thing? Is this a skill you and Polk both have? Can you teach it? Did you do this long ago and your notes just refreshed your memory? Could this info be out of date?"
4. "Library research. Need to know how to do it without spending too much time. There are lots of things we could help you learn"

1. I went to meet with Nosfendor, and by extension I suppose Darconoff and Astroth…Though I wouldn’t really say one meets with Astroth since it doesn’t really communicate.
2. I have no idea
3. I didn’t see it per say…More like I believe Darconoff showed me. So he either did it by accident or intentionally. If he did it intentionally it, is maybe possible he was being deceptive, but….I don’t think so.
….We’ll see…but… Nosfendor's hell, palace, whatever you want to call it, seemed to be in quite a bit of disarray.

Quote :

Counsel
5. Name the counsel members you know of. Just want to make sure we have the same list as you.

5. I doubt I can name them all. I have them written down. (He’d produce the same list as Polk.)

Quote :

Multiple personalities.
6. Why are there so many of you and Polk (two)?
7. What is the "right thing" that Polk should do?

5.
6/7. There shouldn’t be so many…and I’m not even sure… Look, if I explain it … I don’t trust that if the time comes you’d be willing to sacrifice yourself. You may already need to, maybe not, later I might just think you need to, or maybe not, regardless, the less I explain with this, the greater the chance I don’t murder you.

Quote :

Worlds
8. This bureau seems to go to a lot of worlds. Can you name them?
* Daulben....
9. Along with other important worlds we might need to encounter
* The Bowl

8. Math’s Guy can answer this.
1. Dalben
2. Greylands
3. The Neighborhood
4. "The House" - it appears to be a hallway
5. A Desert
6. The "White" Room
7. The "Black" Room
8. An tropical (island) looking place
9. "Woods" with a dirt road
10. Mr. Owl Camp (probably)

Quote :

Tril
10. Where does the hole go?
11. Did the Tril create the hole?
12. If the other books create things, why even have a "Tril"? If it is the least important book, why is it dangerous?
13. Can you describe the Tril, again, given what you have just discovered.

10. After clarifying what you are talking about he says, “How should I know?”

Quote :

Void
14. Could you clarify? Did you mean a box is the thing we want or the soul sucking hole is space is thing we want?
15. Lucien describes the little fuzzy dark object in the box that the government and the sisters came for. But not the sisters.
16. Lucien describes his shadow thing.
17. Can you describe a void shard?

Quote :

Wtiches
18. Spell ideas. I've been thinking I should start collecting sample of things that attack us to confirm what they are and maybe track back to them (since we usually can't kill half the things that come after us and they usually come back at some point).
19. Lucien describes the fight underground where we killed something and then we left and we saw a woman speeding toward where we left. "Who was that?"

Quote :

Naqoyqatsi
20. What type of alien is she?
21. What are the names of her siblings?
22. Are there aliens we should know about?

20. I don’t know.
21. Koyaani is the sister and Powaqsi is the brother.

Eerling stops trying to write things down.

"ok...that's a lot of questions that are knotted together.
All this void stuff, probably the best bet is to consult Mr. Owl. ...and I'm really hoping we don't need six boxes. But anyway...
We can basically divide everything in two. Like pre Mr. Owl, and post Mr. Owl. I'm talking about the original Mr. Owl. He paved the way for a lot of this but..and this is my understanding.

The Russians built something called a Basileus Machine, in part based on Mr. Owl's work. They opened something up out there and started experimenting and drawing things out of it. One of the things they drew out was the Tril Kar Dar.
Darconoff wrote The Trils. The Tril Kar Dar - That which should not be - This is Darconoff writing of things that should not be. For whatever reason, his reasoning was, this is compilation of recipes he is saying should not be things to make, or made to exist.
It could be because it is bad for him, or bad for the world, or ...I don't speculate how a demonic being reasons.

Now, we can probably assume they started using the Kar Dar...or ...I'm not directly pointing fingers here, and maybe the US was involved, the US had its own programs for sure. If they were behind Russias or, working side by side, or relying on spies, I don't know. For all I know the Russians left the Kar Dar alone and the US started experimenting with bits of it they had learned. Doesn't matter. This orb object you said the government was looking for, it very likely came out from, wherever it is they reached into.  

I think though, in this experimenting, that is where we start to get these things, Powasqi, Koyaani, Naqoya. Now, of course we, the collective we of mankind, has always dabbled and were bound to get some mystic results. A million monkeys typing after all, but the development of this Basileus machine...gave it more a precision.

The shadow you described, I don't know exactly. Things shed pieces. It likely in time would have consumed you. There was a man, a...
(After a lot of back and forth you'd come to realize he is referring to the founder of The Hunter's Club but doesn't or can't remember his name.) He was practically entirely one of these. How exactly, I don't know. But, I've heard rumors it could be recreated. Now if he picked one of these shadow things up from somewhere and it guided and nudged him around into whatever this ritual might have been, or just took him over all at once, I don't know.
And maybe suffering creates things, or breaks off bits of them, or attracts them .... I don't know. Maybe these shadows are bits of Powasqi and that crew. Or something older. The witches seem to have modeled themselves somewhat off of a...like seven mothers legend.

Now, I say all that but, the witches can also break the theory because supposedly they can trace their heritage back quite far. Maybe they were first and maybe they guided things and put Mr. Owl, the original, on the path, and manipulated things. Maybe Powsaqi is even older and inspired the witches and others to start exploring through what was possible. But regardless, we know something happened in Russia, Patient Zero back there in the ward is proof. He worked there and saw it.
We know there is a Basileus machine there and it was involved.
We know the Kar Dar came out of whatever they were doing there.

I say, Bells, Owl, Witches, Russia...or Bells, Witches, Owl, Russia...that might make more sense. If anyone understands the void, or has information on it, it's Mr. Owl and we'll probably need that to really understand how to close...stop...undo...things. The witches are likely to either pursue and hinder us, or leave us alone, but probably not. And The Bells keep the Greylands subdued...I'm pretty sure.

Eerling's plan for dealing with Gavin:
Call Gavin, tell him you want to meet. Get a location, show up, kill him.
Call Gavin, tell him he (Eerling) has Percival and Lucien and heard he wants them. Bargain to turn them over in exchange for something. Get a location, show up, kill him.

Eerling's Plan for Returning the Bells:
Get them into the Greylands and start moving them towards the "tree." If "she" shows up, leave them and run away. If "she" doesn't not, leave them at the tree.

Eerling's Plan for Dealing one Witch:
Hold up at the farm since it sounds like one is watching that area.
When it shows up, kill it.

Eerling's Plan for Dealing two Witch:
It is possible there is one still watching Polks.
Hold up at Polks. If it shows up, kill it.

Eerling's Plan for Dealing with three Witch (Maur Serefina):
Scour the news for missing children, mass or unusual kidnappings.
Go there and have a look around.
If Maur is there, kill her.  
If can not find her, see "Other Witches" plan.

Eerling's Plan for Dealing with Witch Four Cassandra Beneviento:
After asking a lot of questions about the magic hand held flashlight telephone
Maybe we can track down doll collectors? Conventions?

Eerling's Plan for Dealing with Other Witches:
If they were going after the others on the council enough to send them into hiding, then the other witches might be overseas. Contact the council and find out what they know.

Eerling's Plan for Dealing with The Basileus machine:
Go pay Mr. Owl a visit.
Learn what he knows about it.
Go from there and make a plan.

Eerling's Plan for Polk:
Find him somehow. He doesn't really know where to start looking.

Eerling conspicuously seems to not be thinking of the Ankroptic/Hasmital/Kor Ma Ka/Flooding situation.