I have passed out of mind like one who is dead;
I have become like a broken vessel— Psalm 31, v 12
As they head towards Langridge House, one of the Malakim finally thinks to resonate on Sir John Strang. He turns out to be someone who can be ruthless if the situation demands, but will otherwise leave things alone. His most honorable act was to finagle a collection of angels and demons to leave an area. A very proud person none the less; perhaps off-white would be the best description?
Boriel, Helophel and Ataniel sneak in over the back wall, succesfully evading detection. Probably. The bonfire has burned down now, and some of the "party animals" turn out to be corpses that haven't been thrown on it yet. Avoiding the frozen lake, they sneak in through a window.
Meanwhile, the mob move in to the front door. Strang knocks. There is no answer, so Romiel knocks the door down. From the hallway control panel they can tell that a silent alarm has gone off; it is disabled, and Curtis is left behind at the door to deflect any police arriving.
Working through the ground floor, the two groups meet up. A quick check of the Corporeal Affinity reveals that the Dagger is downstairs, so they seek the basement. The basement contains a workshop and wine cellar, but no Dagger, which seems to be behind a wall. Careful checking reveals no secret door. As if they'd find them in a place like this. Going back upstairs, careful checking also reveals a section of the ground floor is sealed off. A corresponding section of the first floor is also sealed off. While the rest of the group check for entrances, Atoziel, Helophel and Kadris head up to the second floor and discover that the sealed area corresponds to a closet in the master bedroom.
The main group head up on being told that the entrance is found, Magariel arming himself with a toilet brush. Before they get there, Atoziel notes an invisible presence in the room. Kadris grabs for and Helophel spits acid at the indicated area, but the person manages to escape from the bedroom. He or she evades the party coming up the stairs by throwing an unusually startling illusion of a charging rhino at them and legging it.
The group decide to ignore the intruder, apart from mounting a rearguard, and pile on down the stairs. They pile on more cautiously after Ataniel is hurt by a trap. There is a small room at the bottom, the important element of which is an elderly gentleman with the Dagger. He looks a little peeved, though he emanates self-assurance and tells his attackers that they made a lot of noise. Boriel and Helophel (rapidly followed by Keel) cut short any paranoid rantings by shooting and spitting acid respectively, and the Laurencians pile in. There is a chaotic melee, which Helophel stops spitting into only after she takes out one of the Laurencians by accident.
"You're too late," Hamet (for it is he disguised as Gerald Langridge) cackles, "Gebbeleth will be free."
The less combat-oriented section of the party start getting creative at this point. Atoziel pumps essence into Magariel. Helophel takes the opportunity of another of the Laurencians going down to spit at Hamet's hand, and with divine aid forces him to drop the Dagger. Magariel dives forward to get as close as possible, then uses the Song of Celestial Motion and a lot of Essence to teleport the Dagger into his hand. Getting another Essence refresh from Boriel and Kadris, Magariel goes celestial, intending to ascend with the Dagger. Unfortunately, it fails to go celestial for no obvious reason.
Plans abruptly change; Atoziel grabs up the Dagger and runs upstairs, followed by Kadris, the celestial Magariel, and Helophel, who has also gone celestial with the other Dagger (which was more obliging). Being more cautious than before, and having celestial scouts, they don't fall for the old bucket of unidentified blue liquid (OK, ink) balanced on the closet door trick. Unfortunately as they get into the master bedroom, the Dagger shatters releasing a cloud of black smoke that has a celestial presence. The smoke starts boiling down the stairs, carefully avoiding Helophel. Presuming that this is Gebbeleth, mass panic occurs upstairs; Helophel ascends and starts yelling for Michael, Magariel begins summoning Janus, Kadris calls for Litheroy, and Atoziel runs for Langridge House's library to help calling Yves.
Downstairs, Hamet gloats again. "You have failed!" he cackles, "He is free!" Gebbeleth boils into the room, and starts berating Hamet for being a faithless servitor, trying to trick and destroy him. It seems that the former Prince of Secrets is not entirely sane any more. He attacks Hamet, the smoke boiling into his body. At this point Boriel starts summoning Jean and Romiel calls for Laurence. Strang is hastily scribing a ritual circle, for an unknown purpose. Sadly events overtake him using it.
Upstairs, a window blows out and Magariel is put in the eye of a storm. She explains to Janus what is going on, and the two of them head downstairs, becoming corporeal on the stairs. As they arrive, Gebbeleth takes control of Hamet's vessel and casually kills another of the Laurencians. Janus and Gebbeleth face off, taunting each other. Janus wins the verbal battle — he has had more recent practice, after all. Then Laurence and Jean arrive; Laurence walking out of the shadows by the stairs, Jean exploding out of the lightbulb. So much for subtlety. Keel is by this point gobsmacked. Litheroy's entrance walking down the stairs is positively mundane and unnoticed by comparison. As they square off, Janus' "attack" turns out to be something to teleport the bystanders to the front door, safely out of the way of the multiple Superior combat which is just starting. Curtis is surprised, to put it mildly.
Meanwhile in Heaven, Helophel gets Michael's attention in short order. He orders her to descend so that he can follow her, and they arrive and go downstairs to the fight. Basically at this point Jean is preventing Gebbeleth from fleeing the Corporeal realm while everyone else is laying into him. Lawrence, naturally, is not having a problem with this. Helophel is ordered to retreat, and gives the Dagger she was carrying to Michael. He in turn, having been told that the cloud had avoided Helophel, tosses the Dagger to Laurence with the words "Here, this should help." Those now outside mercifully can't here the soundless explosion of Gebbeleth's extinction.
As it becomes clear that things have settled down, the people outside start sorting themselves out. Magariel has a talk with Strang, who warns the angels off. He doesn't want them interfering in human affairs. Magariel agrees, to Strang's slight surprise, but points out that they only act to counteract demons. Strang is fundamentally unconvinced.
Helophel meanwhile speaks with the CI5 men. They have seen enough to give a Dominican a serious fit, and Helophel means to try to recruit them. No one is currently in much of a state to talk, so they swap cellphone numbers. Helophel tells the agents that she will identify herself with the phrase "This is not Josephine."
Then everyone leaves. The Lawrentines drive the angels away in their unmarked van, pause twice on the way to switch number plates. The angels go their separate ways, and are eventually debriefed by the Superiors. Most of them are pleased enough, though disappointed that the Dagger will die, and soon. Janus appears particularly morose, despite having wanted the Dagger destroyed, so much so that Magariel gets quite concerned. Michael, on the other hand, is in a buoyant mood despite wanting the Dagger preserved, and confirms that Helophel should be the contact for the CI5 men. It's best to limit the number of angels they could expose until they can be properly inducted or dealt with.
It is reported that the arrival of the police, who got to see the mass of corpses in the garden, and the presence of the Archangel of Revelation have pretty thoroughly exposed and destroyed the Tether of Secrets.
A few hours later, Roberto Raposo dies of prolonged exposure to the Dagger of Bythinia, it's last victim.