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Dresden #11 and 12
Apr. 5th, 2011 10:52 pmMissed posting about 11, and now it's a month later and we've finally done session 12. That's all right, though, as I'm getting them up today. Go me!
So after the demon fight, Zeke was limping pretty heavily. Oscar borrowed some clothes, since he was in his skivvies, and they all got Mary and the Father taken care of. Convinced that Lucas was a potentially harmful ass to begin with, the group seemed now newly determined to stand in his way (not to mention getting rid of him as best they can) at the first opportunity. Additional conversation with Mary got that she was frightened, and didn't feel up to going with them. They asked who else was involved with the ritual, obtaining the information that Mary, Mark, John and Matt were all sort of background components, and while they initially took supporting roles in the ritual, by the end of it, all the men were intended to have sex with her (and possibly each other) with the exception of Lucas. Once that was going strong, Mary didn't have a lot more to offer. She did know that Ginny was supposed to be special, though.... no one had touched her, not even Adam, despite their close relationship. Could she still be a virgin?
Dylan noted the names, once he heard the recitation: Matthew, Mark, John, Mary, Adam, Luke (Lucas), and Virginia (virgin sacrifice, maybe)? Suspicious and not really liking the direction this was going in, he tried to get the possible location of the ritual out of Mary, but to no avail. She didn't know. So he pulled out the book, looking for ley lines and sites of power in the area. They all head over to Danny's, where he consults his tome and she does some research. Between the two of them, they find two likely spots along the ley line. One is Federal Hill cemetery, one is Green Mount Cemetery. Green Mount is where two converge, but Federal Hill is older and less used, so they go there first.
The group arrives at Federal Hill after dark. They break in and try to find some spirits to talk to. The spirits here are old and restless, though, and Josh is seriously perturbed at the idea of Adia wandering around in here, since wraiths can see and attack her. Dylan and Danny cooperate and build a sort of spirit speaker, so that they can all hear the ghosts that Aida hears, and Josh takes it on himself to go find someone for them to talk to and bring them back here. He sets off into the graveyard, essentially advertising himself as fresh meat so that they'll stop circling Adia. She sees and hears battle break out, complete with gunfire and explosions. She sees Josh using a machine gun, shooting at a sort of writhing group of not-entirely-see-through shadows, and she feels a wave of terror.
A ghostly cannon booms, and everything stops. An old military figure appears with an enormous moustache, flanked by two lower-ranking officers with Josh in tow. He introduces himself as the general and demands to know the reason for this intrusion in an old southern accent. He declares that no one fitting the description of Lucas has been present in his cemetery, and that if there were any sort of breech like that, he would know it, as the spirits in his care who have forgotten themselves entirely would have poured out in search of... well, something, and it didn't sound good. He suggested that they go talk to Black Aggie, over at Green Mount. If there were something to see there, she'd know about it, and if there weren't, she'd likely know where they should go.
In return, he asked that they remember the fallen within the graveyard -- with none still living who knew the spirits within, they were hard pressed to remember themselves any more. Everyone agrees. Morris goes out to his car, then turns on the stereo and puts in a tape playing Taps, standing at attention and saluting his fellow military men for the duration. It was very touching, in a gruff Morris sort of way.
At this point, it's getting on to 2 AM. Everyone agrees that it's been a stupidly long day, and that they need to get some rest. Instead of splitting up, they all head over to Uno's brownstone at his suggestion and crash there.
-------------------------------------------
The next session, Uno and Dylan both are awakened by fae music playing in the hall. Uno goes down to check it out and finds five wee folk musicians, floating down the hall and playing. He addresses them, and they greet him most formally. "We bring a message from your lady mother," one announces, and draws what looks like a red plastic cocktail sword. "She says, "be careful," and sends you this gift." He gives the sword to Uno with as much solemnity as he can muster. He asks if Uno would like more music, but Dylan grumbles at him and Uno says no. The little guy is disappointed and says that they could play all the mortals to sleep with some sweet, sweet lullabies, and that they really LIKE doing that. Uno says no, though, and they agree reluctantly, going back from whence they came, leaving Uno with his new toy sword and a conundrum in front of him.
Oscar wakes up first the next morning and figures out some of the benefits of living in a fae household, especially one inhabited by brownies. It's like magic, Adia says, and Dylan is intrigued as well. Uno discourages them from investigating further, though. In the midst of breakfast, Oscar gets a call from Mary, who says she dreamed of Lucas and ended up sleepwalking, which she never does. She is afraid he's trying to call her, and he wants them to come get her. Everyone gets in the car with pastries and coffee for the Father and his staff and heads over to see Mary. They decide it would be dumb to take her out of the church, though, as there's no protection they could provide that's better, and instead leave Zeke with her there after breaking the news to her (Zeke's player being absent this week).
From there, they head over to Green Mount to case the place. It's sunny, pretty, and home to the convergence of two ley lines. They find Black Aggie and ask her questions. She's slow and a bit sarcastic, and Adia has a hard time dealing with her because what she wants and is willing to give is very specific, and Adia's communications skills don't tend that way. Aggie is annoyed at Josh's presence and extracts a promise from Adia that he won't touch anything, and that she will be responsible for his conduct. They don't set the spirit speaker up again, though, so Adia's on her own for this conversation (Dylan and Danny had already done a bit of spellcasting, Dylan lifting Danny up to the roof and Danny doing a bit of thaumaturgy to figure out where likely spots here were). Aggie suggests the Morton crypt, which is one of the spots Danny had looked at. She gives Adia a token for passage, which takes the form of a sprig of holly.
Oscar stays on the gatehouse as a lookout, and the rest of the party goes back to the Morton crypt. There they find an elegant building with a gorgeous wrought iron gate. Adia puts the holly in the keyhole of the locked gate and it swings open silently, much to her happy surprise. Everyone goes inside, and immediately the two spellcasters feel the rush, like standing in a river of power. Dylan can't resist doing magic here, and Danny's not far behind him. Dylan manipulates dust motes to get images of people who've disturbed the place for the past month. He ends up seeing that Lucas came to visit a couple of weeks ago, and when he left he blew all the dust off the floor -- no tracks. Danny takes the place in with her Sight, and sees the crossing of the ley lines directly over a set of circles on the floor, which seems to function like an eddy pool, deepening the power and making it accessible, even as it contains it and allows the flows to merge and pass through instead of boiling over. She looks up and sees the ceiling as a veil, with shifting gauzy vistas beyond, close enough to reach out and touch them. She closes the sight, and the two compare notes. Oscar joins in, seeing no set problems, and they discuss what's to be done.
Although their initial thought was to break the circles, it's decided that there's a good chance that would make things go boom, especially if the ritual was in process at the time. It might take Lucas with it, or it might not, but it likely wouldn't be as forgiving to the kids involved. It also might be a problem for getting control establishing again, or it might just rip that veil altogether--and nobody wants to see that happen.
Danny decides she needs to check in and tell the Council what's going on. Everyone else decides that they'll leave it and just try to disrupt the ritual by taking away one or more of the participants or somehow otherwise disrupting the thing in progress. By the end of the session, everyone is going to make whatever preparations they need and meet back in the evening. Zero hour approaches.
It'll be a month before we play again, given end of semester and whatnot, but I think everyone's going to remember where we are. :) Till next time!
So after the demon fight, Zeke was limping pretty heavily. Oscar borrowed some clothes, since he was in his skivvies, and they all got Mary and the Father taken care of. Convinced that Lucas was a potentially harmful ass to begin with, the group seemed now newly determined to stand in his way (not to mention getting rid of him as best they can) at the first opportunity. Additional conversation with Mary got that she was frightened, and didn't feel up to going with them. They asked who else was involved with the ritual, obtaining the information that Mary, Mark, John and Matt were all sort of background components, and while they initially took supporting roles in the ritual, by the end of it, all the men were intended to have sex with her (and possibly each other) with the exception of Lucas. Once that was going strong, Mary didn't have a lot more to offer. She did know that Ginny was supposed to be special, though.... no one had touched her, not even Adam, despite their close relationship. Could she still be a virgin?
Dylan noted the names, once he heard the recitation: Matthew, Mark, John, Mary, Adam, Luke (Lucas), and Virginia (virgin sacrifice, maybe)? Suspicious and not really liking the direction this was going in, he tried to get the possible location of the ritual out of Mary, but to no avail. She didn't know. So he pulled out the book, looking for ley lines and sites of power in the area. They all head over to Danny's, where he consults his tome and she does some research. Between the two of them, they find two likely spots along the ley line. One is Federal Hill cemetery, one is Green Mount Cemetery. Green Mount is where two converge, but Federal Hill is older and less used, so they go there first.
The group arrives at Federal Hill after dark. They break in and try to find some spirits to talk to. The spirits here are old and restless, though, and Josh is seriously perturbed at the idea of Adia wandering around in here, since wraiths can see and attack her. Dylan and Danny cooperate and build a sort of spirit speaker, so that they can all hear the ghosts that Aida hears, and Josh takes it on himself to go find someone for them to talk to and bring them back here. He sets off into the graveyard, essentially advertising himself as fresh meat so that they'll stop circling Adia. She sees and hears battle break out, complete with gunfire and explosions. She sees Josh using a machine gun, shooting at a sort of writhing group of not-entirely-see-through shadows, and she feels a wave of terror.
A ghostly cannon booms, and everything stops. An old military figure appears with an enormous moustache, flanked by two lower-ranking officers with Josh in tow. He introduces himself as the general and demands to know the reason for this intrusion in an old southern accent. He declares that no one fitting the description of Lucas has been present in his cemetery, and that if there were any sort of breech like that, he would know it, as the spirits in his care who have forgotten themselves entirely would have poured out in search of... well, something, and it didn't sound good. He suggested that they go talk to Black Aggie, over at Green Mount. If there were something to see there, she'd know about it, and if there weren't, she'd likely know where they should go.
In return, he asked that they remember the fallen within the graveyard -- with none still living who knew the spirits within, they were hard pressed to remember themselves any more. Everyone agrees. Morris goes out to his car, then turns on the stereo and puts in a tape playing Taps, standing at attention and saluting his fellow military men for the duration. It was very touching, in a gruff Morris sort of way.
At this point, it's getting on to 2 AM. Everyone agrees that it's been a stupidly long day, and that they need to get some rest. Instead of splitting up, they all head over to Uno's brownstone at his suggestion and crash there.
-------------------------------------------
The next session, Uno and Dylan both are awakened by fae music playing in the hall. Uno goes down to check it out and finds five wee folk musicians, floating down the hall and playing. He addresses them, and they greet him most formally. "We bring a message from your lady mother," one announces, and draws what looks like a red plastic cocktail sword. "She says, "be careful," and sends you this gift." He gives the sword to Uno with as much solemnity as he can muster. He asks if Uno would like more music, but Dylan grumbles at him and Uno says no. The little guy is disappointed and says that they could play all the mortals to sleep with some sweet, sweet lullabies, and that they really LIKE doing that. Uno says no, though, and they agree reluctantly, going back from whence they came, leaving Uno with his new toy sword and a conundrum in front of him.
Oscar wakes up first the next morning and figures out some of the benefits of living in a fae household, especially one inhabited by brownies. It's like magic, Adia says, and Dylan is intrigued as well. Uno discourages them from investigating further, though. In the midst of breakfast, Oscar gets a call from Mary, who says she dreamed of Lucas and ended up sleepwalking, which she never does. She is afraid he's trying to call her, and he wants them to come get her. Everyone gets in the car with pastries and coffee for the Father and his staff and heads over to see Mary. They decide it would be dumb to take her out of the church, though, as there's no protection they could provide that's better, and instead leave Zeke with her there after breaking the news to her (Zeke's player being absent this week).
From there, they head over to Green Mount to case the place. It's sunny, pretty, and home to the convergence of two ley lines. They find Black Aggie and ask her questions. She's slow and a bit sarcastic, and Adia has a hard time dealing with her because what she wants and is willing to give is very specific, and Adia's communications skills don't tend that way. Aggie is annoyed at Josh's presence and extracts a promise from Adia that he won't touch anything, and that she will be responsible for his conduct. They don't set the spirit speaker up again, though, so Adia's on her own for this conversation (Dylan and Danny had already done a bit of spellcasting, Dylan lifting Danny up to the roof and Danny doing a bit of thaumaturgy to figure out where likely spots here were). Aggie suggests the Morton crypt, which is one of the spots Danny had looked at. She gives Adia a token for passage, which takes the form of a sprig of holly.
Oscar stays on the gatehouse as a lookout, and the rest of the party goes back to the Morton crypt. There they find an elegant building with a gorgeous wrought iron gate. Adia puts the holly in the keyhole of the locked gate and it swings open silently, much to her happy surprise. Everyone goes inside, and immediately the two spellcasters feel the rush, like standing in a river of power. Dylan can't resist doing magic here, and Danny's not far behind him. Dylan manipulates dust motes to get images of people who've disturbed the place for the past month. He ends up seeing that Lucas came to visit a couple of weeks ago, and when he left he blew all the dust off the floor -- no tracks. Danny takes the place in with her Sight, and sees the crossing of the ley lines directly over a set of circles on the floor, which seems to function like an eddy pool, deepening the power and making it accessible, even as it contains it and allows the flows to merge and pass through instead of boiling over. She looks up and sees the ceiling as a veil, with shifting gauzy vistas beyond, close enough to reach out and touch them. She closes the sight, and the two compare notes. Oscar joins in, seeing no set problems, and they discuss what's to be done.
Although their initial thought was to break the circles, it's decided that there's a good chance that would make things go boom, especially if the ritual was in process at the time. It might take Lucas with it, or it might not, but it likely wouldn't be as forgiving to the kids involved. It also might be a problem for getting control establishing again, or it might just rip that veil altogether--and nobody wants to see that happen.
Danny decides she needs to check in and tell the Council what's going on. Everyone else decides that they'll leave it and just try to disrupt the ritual by taking away one or more of the participants or somehow otherwise disrupting the thing in progress. By the end of the session, everyone is going to make whatever preparations they need and meet back in the evening. Zero hour approaches.
It'll be a month before we play again, given end of semester and whatnot, but I think everyone's going to remember where we are. :) Till next time!
