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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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