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Dresden Files #13, Season Finale
Jul. 12th, 2011 01:03 pmSo it was a bit more than a month until we played again. One of my players got a new job, and unfortunately there was no way she could either a) get off work on a Monday or b) that we could do without her for the last session. Also, end of school, summer schedule changes, blah de blah de blah. The long and the short of it is that we didn't play again until the beginning of July. That's okay, though, because it was entirely worth it.
The characters meet up, get some food, and start making some hard choices as to what they're going to do that night. The ritual can't be allowed to proceed, naturally, but how? They can't just blow it up (Oscar's suggestion), they can't move the ley line (Uno's suggestion, I believe), they can't just camp there, so the question of "how" is a big one.
The idea comes up of removing participants from the ritual, or otherwise making them unavailable. They discuss several options (Mary already being out of the picture) and settle on Ginny -- no virgin sacrifice, no ritual, right? Dylan takes his book and steps to the side to consult it. He isn't entirely sure what he's looking for, so he "throws math at it" to figure out what other variables do. What he gets back is a complicated equation that can be solved for multiple values (multiple potential outcomes). If they remove Ginny from the equation, the numbers say that the ritual isn't stopped, someone else just takes her place. If they remove one of the guys, then it continues without them. Various scenarios present themselves.... ones where Lucas dies, ones where Lucas merges with Adam, ones where all the Dark Scoobies die, ones where they die... there's a lot. What there isn't is conclusive evidence that taking one piece out of the puzzle fixes everything. They ponder going through the NeverNever and trapping/engaging Lucas there, where he's more likely to be out of his element. Uno takes a similar moment to update the Summer Lady. She responds with concern and appreciation and informs him that he is not to entangle the Summer Court in this matter -- his sword is sworn to her, after all, and she won't have it used against her orders. Uno returns to tell the others that going through Faerie is out, but he doesn't mention his Lady's orders.
With that fix taken out of consideration, they decide to head back to the cemetery and Morton's crypt and see if they can set up, maybe snipe him as Lucas comes in. They all bring gloves, just in case they have to touch the coin Lucas has. They drive up and find the main gate closed and chained shut. Adia pics the lock and pulls the chain off. She starts to push the gate open so they can enter, only to discover that she can't enter, bouncing back with a force equal to what she applies to the invisible barrier. Dylan and Danny confer and decide this is a pretty powerful ward. They scout around a bit and discover that it surrounds the graveyard, using the fence as the "circle" and using the ley lines to power it. Adia tries climbing it, but can't get through. They do discover that sticks and rocks can be thrown through it, so they deduce that it's probably keyed specifically to them, versus keeping everyone out equally.
Danny and Dylan sit and try to figure out if Danny can unravel the spell to bring the ward down, but Danny is understandably nervous about messing with something this big with effectively its own power source for maintenance. In the meantime, Zeke goes up and pokes at it. He gets that nauseous feeling again, telling him Lucas -- or rather, Azael -- is nearby. He thinks about the girl that's going to be sacrificed and asks Sauriel for help. He pulls out a pocket knife and invokes his faith through prayer, pushing the knife through the ward. He glows and the ward glows as well, and although he takes some mental stress, he manages to deal damage to the ward and push the knife and his hand through, disrupting the spell enough that it comes down. Not subtle, but effective.
The group chooses not to enter through the front, but instead goes around to the service/groundskeeping gate that's nearer to the crypt. They cross there into the graveyard. At first all seems well, but then they see the statues on each corner of the fence surrounding the Morton crypt stir from its moulding and move, setting itself free and moving toward the party. They are unsure at first how to handle the huge statues, given that they don't seem to be closing, then one rips part of its clothing off and throws it at them. Dylan redirects it back to whence it came, where it damages the thrower. He can't stop the next one, though. It doesn't hit anyone in particular, but when it lands near Danny, the earth explodes next to her. The resulting concussion blast and shrapnel break her leg, forcing her down. The group has a collective "bloody hell" moment. Adia starts trying to distract the creatures, moving away from the group and tumbling to make herself harder to hit. Dylan sets up a wall of force, trying to pre-empt the constructs by focusing the kinetic force of their explosive attacks on their own hands. He succeeds with three of them, blowing a hand off of each and thus removing their attacks for temporarily. Oscar starts shooting, trying to find a weak spot. Uno calls upon his mother for strength, embracing a bit of his Faerie heritage -- plant control, specifically, and calls upon a nearby tree to entangle the unaffected construct, which it does handily. He then runs up with his Summer Knight sword and attacks the statue, shattering it.
After seeing where Uno hit the statue, Oscar takes that knowledge and aims for the same place on another, doing enough damage to shatter it as well. They get off another deflected blast, but it doesn't hurt anyone. Zeke fires and does damage to one, while Danny follows that up with a force blast that shatters the last one, from her prone place on the ground. He runs over and lays his hands on her, asking Sauriel for help, and manages to undo some of the damage she's suffered... she finds the bone is no longer broken, though she still can't put weight on that leg and has to have a lot of help to walk. She's mobile, though, so everyone counts their blessings on that one.
With that in mind, the group closes in on the crypt. They manage to get past the last ward and gate to find a swirl of power in the circle at the center of the room, a barely conscious Ginny on her knees, with Adam standing above her with a knife in one hand and her hair in the other, his face dark and a blank expression on his face. In the back, Lucas stands chanting by an altar with an inverted cross hung above it, along with candles burning blue, ritual items, and goblets filled with some dark unsavory looking liquid. On the other side, the three guys are having sex with a woman, two of them holding her down. It looks like she should be screaming, but they can't hear her at all.
They step in. Oscar shoots the knife from Adam's hand, while Zeke forces his way into the circle to rescue Ginny. Adia moves into distraction mode again, drawing Lucas's attention, while the rest go to rescue the poor woman from the rest of them. Lucas screams and takes on his demonic form, a huge goat-headed demonic Pan figure, and proceeds to fight Uno, who ran up to take the hit while the rest got the kids dealt with.
Blows get exchanged, but the characters whittle away at Lucas, who packs a hell of a punch but doesn't resist damage as much as one might expect. Matt, John, and Mark are subdued, while Oscar basically lets Adam run past him into a wall, effectively knocking him out. Uno uses his sword to gut Lucas, finally, who drops with a scream. He falls to his knees and a blast of magic pushes everyone to their knees. He falls to the ground transformed into an emaciated 30-something man, a coin rolling from his hand to land near Adia. Zeke hastily picks it up and puts it in a bag, not giving her a chance to change her mind about not taking it up.
In the end, the coin is delivered to Father Reynolds at the Loyola chapel, to be handed over to a colleague of his in Chicago. Lucas is taken to the hospital by authorities, to reveal that he's not only injured, but he's got such an advanced case of system immune breakdown that it's not likely he's going to make it out of the hospital again -- he's basically lost the fight against AIDS, you see. The group, thus getting their answer about why Azael wanted a new body, decide not to intervene to help Lucas, even if they could. Mark, Matt, and John are taken into police custody, but they all express signs of having been the victims of emotional and mental magic. Ginny leaves the hospital as soon as she can, which is basically after 24 hrs, refusing any sort of examination for assault.
The group is left with promises made and broken, changes in status and possibly affiliation, and a mess of things that need their own cleaning up. What will happen in the next story? Well, it won't be until January thanks to the MA exam, but it'll be fun to see. See ya then!
The characters meet up, get some food, and start making some hard choices as to what they're going to do that night. The ritual can't be allowed to proceed, naturally, but how? They can't just blow it up (Oscar's suggestion), they can't move the ley line (Uno's suggestion, I believe), they can't just camp there, so the question of "how" is a big one.
The idea comes up of removing participants from the ritual, or otherwise making them unavailable. They discuss several options (Mary already being out of the picture) and settle on Ginny -- no virgin sacrifice, no ritual, right? Dylan takes his book and steps to the side to consult it. He isn't entirely sure what he's looking for, so he "throws math at it" to figure out what other variables do. What he gets back is a complicated equation that can be solved for multiple values (multiple potential outcomes). If they remove Ginny from the equation, the numbers say that the ritual isn't stopped, someone else just takes her place. If they remove one of the guys, then it continues without them. Various scenarios present themselves.... ones where Lucas dies, ones where Lucas merges with Adam, ones where all the Dark Scoobies die, ones where they die... there's a lot. What there isn't is conclusive evidence that taking one piece out of the puzzle fixes everything. They ponder going through the NeverNever and trapping/engaging Lucas there, where he's more likely to be out of his element. Uno takes a similar moment to update the Summer Lady. She responds with concern and appreciation and informs him that he is not to entangle the Summer Court in this matter -- his sword is sworn to her, after all, and she won't have it used against her orders. Uno returns to tell the others that going through Faerie is out, but he doesn't mention his Lady's orders.
With that fix taken out of consideration, they decide to head back to the cemetery and Morton's crypt and see if they can set up, maybe snipe him as Lucas comes in. They all bring gloves, just in case they have to touch the coin Lucas has. They drive up and find the main gate closed and chained shut. Adia pics the lock and pulls the chain off. She starts to push the gate open so they can enter, only to discover that she can't enter, bouncing back with a force equal to what she applies to the invisible barrier. Dylan and Danny confer and decide this is a pretty powerful ward. They scout around a bit and discover that it surrounds the graveyard, using the fence as the "circle" and using the ley lines to power it. Adia tries climbing it, but can't get through. They do discover that sticks and rocks can be thrown through it, so they deduce that it's probably keyed specifically to them, versus keeping everyone out equally.
Danny and Dylan sit and try to figure out if Danny can unravel the spell to bring the ward down, but Danny is understandably nervous about messing with something this big with effectively its own power source for maintenance. In the meantime, Zeke goes up and pokes at it. He gets that nauseous feeling again, telling him Lucas -- or rather, Azael -- is nearby. He thinks about the girl that's going to be sacrificed and asks Sauriel for help. He pulls out a pocket knife and invokes his faith through prayer, pushing the knife through the ward. He glows and the ward glows as well, and although he takes some mental stress, he manages to deal damage to the ward and push the knife and his hand through, disrupting the spell enough that it comes down. Not subtle, but effective.
The group chooses not to enter through the front, but instead goes around to the service/groundskeeping gate that's nearer to the crypt. They cross there into the graveyard. At first all seems well, but then they see the statues on each corner of the fence surrounding the Morton crypt stir from its moulding and move, setting itself free and moving toward the party. They are unsure at first how to handle the huge statues, given that they don't seem to be closing, then one rips part of its clothing off and throws it at them. Dylan redirects it back to whence it came, where it damages the thrower. He can't stop the next one, though. It doesn't hit anyone in particular, but when it lands near Danny, the earth explodes next to her. The resulting concussion blast and shrapnel break her leg, forcing her down. The group has a collective "bloody hell" moment. Adia starts trying to distract the creatures, moving away from the group and tumbling to make herself harder to hit. Dylan sets up a wall of force, trying to pre-empt the constructs by focusing the kinetic force of their explosive attacks on their own hands. He succeeds with three of them, blowing a hand off of each and thus removing their attacks for temporarily. Oscar starts shooting, trying to find a weak spot. Uno calls upon his mother for strength, embracing a bit of his Faerie heritage -- plant control, specifically, and calls upon a nearby tree to entangle the unaffected construct, which it does handily. He then runs up with his Summer Knight sword and attacks the statue, shattering it.
After seeing where Uno hit the statue, Oscar takes that knowledge and aims for the same place on another, doing enough damage to shatter it as well. They get off another deflected blast, but it doesn't hurt anyone. Zeke fires and does damage to one, while Danny follows that up with a force blast that shatters the last one, from her prone place on the ground. He runs over and lays his hands on her, asking Sauriel for help, and manages to undo some of the damage she's suffered... she finds the bone is no longer broken, though she still can't put weight on that leg and has to have a lot of help to walk. She's mobile, though, so everyone counts their blessings on that one.
With that in mind, the group closes in on the crypt. They manage to get past the last ward and gate to find a swirl of power in the circle at the center of the room, a barely conscious Ginny on her knees, with Adam standing above her with a knife in one hand and her hair in the other, his face dark and a blank expression on his face. In the back, Lucas stands chanting by an altar with an inverted cross hung above it, along with candles burning blue, ritual items, and goblets filled with some dark unsavory looking liquid. On the other side, the three guys are having sex with a woman, two of them holding her down. It looks like she should be screaming, but they can't hear her at all.
They step in. Oscar shoots the knife from Adam's hand, while Zeke forces his way into the circle to rescue Ginny. Adia moves into distraction mode again, drawing Lucas's attention, while the rest go to rescue the poor woman from the rest of them. Lucas screams and takes on his demonic form, a huge goat-headed demonic Pan figure, and proceeds to fight Uno, who ran up to take the hit while the rest got the kids dealt with.
Blows get exchanged, but the characters whittle away at Lucas, who packs a hell of a punch but doesn't resist damage as much as one might expect. Matt, John, and Mark are subdued, while Oscar basically lets Adam run past him into a wall, effectively knocking him out. Uno uses his sword to gut Lucas, finally, who drops with a scream. He falls to his knees and a blast of magic pushes everyone to their knees. He falls to the ground transformed into an emaciated 30-something man, a coin rolling from his hand to land near Adia. Zeke hastily picks it up and puts it in a bag, not giving her a chance to change her mind about not taking it up.
In the end, the coin is delivered to Father Reynolds at the Loyola chapel, to be handed over to a colleague of his in Chicago. Lucas is taken to the hospital by authorities, to reveal that he's not only injured, but he's got such an advanced case of system immune breakdown that it's not likely he's going to make it out of the hospital again -- he's basically lost the fight against AIDS, you see. The group, thus getting their answer about why Azael wanted a new body, decide not to intervene to help Lucas, even if they could. Mark, Matt, and John are taken into police custody, but they all express signs of having been the victims of emotional and mental magic. Ginny leaves the hospital as soon as she can, which is basically after 24 hrs, refusing any sort of examination for assault.
The group is left with promises made and broken, changes in status and possibly affiliation, and a mess of things that need their own cleaning up. What will happen in the next story? Well, it won't be until January thanks to the MA exam, but it'll be fun to see. See ya then!
