Scion – Petro Campaign – Session 34

This account was originally found on Livejournal, I am not the original author—I am just a fan of the journal and have found reading it on livejournal clunky to navigate and rife with errors/instability (such as having to refresh multiple times due to the page in questions becoming unavailable often requiring multiple refreshes. The original post can be found here, published by DJ-Yomi, and was published on Sep 21st 2008

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Things remain interesting in Glastonbury, that’s for sure. I don’t know that we’re much closer to resolving things here, but at least we’ve managed to get the lodges to agree to a temporary truce. And we know more about what we’re dealing with and exactly what types of titanspawn are involved.

I think I left off with everyone scattered and looking into different things before we headed out to the Owl Cave. I forgot to mention in my last entry that while Elisa and I were in the graveyard, I also summoned the ghost of Caleb, the guy who killed Philip Gerard, the P.I. whose ghost I’d already summoned. We didn’t learn much from him, which is why it must have slipped my mind. We did discover that not everyone joins a lodge when they die here; Caleb didn’t. They sort of have to be recruited…and they’re only recruited if they somehow represent good or evil. Caleb didn’t represent either strongly enough to qualify, apparently.

Once my companions and I gathered together again, we compared notes. Some of us learned some interesting things. Adam found a sort of spiritually “good” spot on the hill where the wind-power windmills are located. He said it was a really calm, peaceful spot. Ray brought up the idea that if there’s a spiritually good spot, there might be a spiritually bad spot somewhere in town too, what with the local balance and all. Makes sense to me.

Adam also checked out the seismographic equipment there at the geological research station, but he doesn’t enough know about seismography to make heads or tails of it…yet. I’m amazed that we stumbled across something Adam doesn’t know! O_O If he can interpret the seismograph, though, we can probably zero in on the epicenter of the recent earthquakes and that should take us right to the sleeping titan…or the part of him that’s exposed, anyway.

Ray did a little hunting for trouble in the woods, but didn’t find much. T-Bone discovered that there’s a casino called One-Eyed Jack’s in town, and it apparently hosts what passes for an seedy underworld in town. Among other things, it has a bondage night every Thursday. O_O You know, anonymous S&M sex kinda stuff. I can’t say I’m averse to a little ♥ mild ♥ bondage, but the sort of stuff they get up to there…no thank you. >_<

Anyway, we then hiked out to the Owl Cave. A lot of the signs on the way were reversed as though someone was trying to mislead people and had taken lessons from Bugs Bunny. When we crossed a small bridge, though, is when we got our first bite of real information. There was a huge spider on the bridge railing. I mean, it was like the size of Pierre’s hand (and Pierre has big hands ^_^). It was definitely not the sort of thing that was indigenous to the area, and it scuttled behind the railing pretty quickly. Still, I like spiders ^_^, and it seemed suspicious, so I leaned over to have a closer look at it, and that’s when I saw something etched into the wood. It was a crude image of a type of Japanese youkai known as an amano-jaku, deceitful, shapeshifting little sneaks that can read your mind and use what they learn to help them blend in perfectly. Well, if there are amano-jaku in the area, then that explains how the titanspawn could have infiltrated the lodges to spur dissension. *sigh*

Oh, and the spider? T-Bone and Pierre seemed to think it was Anansi. So it looks like he’s helping us out. A little divine intervention is welcome in a situation like this. ^_^

The Owl Cave itself was a nice place. Once we arrived there, Ray and I worked together to summon the cave’s kami, which, naturally enough, looked like an owl. He filled us in on a lot of useful info, though not as much as I was hoping. When we mentioned that Adam’s prophecy had suggested that owls were important in our current “quest,” the owl spirit explained that it was probably because owls were the one thing other than humans that the lodge members could possess. So the owls might be watching us! The spirit also told us more about the cave. It has some nice shamanistic properties (you know, visions and prophecies and all) and can allow you to undertake a spiritual journey to confront your doppelgangers. That’s part of the reason the doppelgangers exist here in the first place. Elisa seemed pretty interested in doing the shaman thing and having a spiritual journey, so we might go back for that (I’ll come back with her if no one else will, but I imagine Pierre’s up for it).

You know, you’d think with my whole balance thing that I’d be more interested in confronting my good and evil halves, but I really not. Weird, huh? I think it’s because I’m already pretty comfortable with those parts of myself. Plus, the Native American thing really isn’t my paradigm, even if it does have some similarities to the animistic beliefs of Shinto.

Anyway, the owl spirit also told us how to get in touch with (read: summon) another of the area’s spirits, a thing called Tsegalal. The owls possessed by lodge members generally remember what they see and experience while possessed, and Tsegalal is something of a repository for all that knowledge. I imagine we can learn quite a bit from him. ^_^

After the Owl Cave, we went to visit the Black Lodge. I encouraged us to go there first since I was afraid the Black Lodge might already have gotten the wrong idea that we were here to help only the White Lodge. So Anna used her psychopomp powers to take us there. She and I went back and forth about being “good” again when I pointed out that I thought it was interesting that she could get to the Black Lodge even without her psychopomp abilities, but I could only find the White Lodge. But she was stubborn in her glee over being, “the good one.” We sniped at each other for most of the rest of the day, in fact. The thing is, I was just having fun with her, but I think she was taking it pretty seriously…

Anyway, things in the Black Lodge were quiet. When we found what appeared to be a cabin and entered it, we found ourselves in a room curtained and lit in red. The Small Man was there, as was a long-haired guy, and a dark, cloaked man. They were all watching the ghost of Madeline (the girl killed just the previous night), who was apparently being forced by some supernatural power to perform an endless strip tease for them. She bore the marks and bruises of her murder, including the signs of a garrote. After talking to the Black Lodge members, we learned she’d been killed near a place called Dead Dog Farm, a place that came up several more times during our investigation. It seems the place represents balance – and the symbol of a dead dog is significant in that it represents good and evil. The idea is that those who look at a dead dog and pity it are good, those who take pleasure in its suffering are evil, and those who ignore it are neither.

Madeline was killed by the White Lodge (or so the Black Lodge thought…though really everyone suspects otherwise…) in retaliation for the killing of a woman named Denise, a farmer’s wife, at the Atkins farm. Madeline didn’t really see her killers clearly, but she remembered hearing bats (which ended up being significant later). And though the White Lodge supposedly killed her in revenge, the Black Lodge didn’t have anything to do with Denise’s death. In fact, the White Lodge didn’t actually kill Madeline either, as far as we can tell (which I’ll get to in a moment…gods this is confusing! >_<). That’s how screwed up things are here. The titanspawn have done a good job of getting everyone clawing at each other’s throats.

I pitied poor Madeline, but apparently she was being punished by the Black Lodge for her sins. She’s been something of a loose woman anyway, and she’d broken marriages and hearts all along. I wanted to do something for her all the same. I mean, as they described her sins, I couldn’t help but see echoes of myself in her, and it suddenly made sense why the Black Lodge had chosen me. I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about that. I guess the evil in me is more subtle than even I realized.

Before we left, the Small Man shared another detail of recent events with us. Though it wasn’t initially apparent, Madeline’s heart had been removed. That indicated some sort of Atzlanti involvement…or titanspawn related to the Atzlanti, but Elisa didn’t have any ideas and we didn’t figure out what was probably going on until later. Still, that was important information, and helped give us some proof that neither lodge was killing these people. After all, why would the lodges steal hearts? It didn’t make sense.

Once we were done at the Black Lodge, we headed over to the White Lodge, again thanks to Anna. You know, even though I give her a hard time, she’s actually a really important part of our group, and I’m glad she’s with us. Still, it’s nice when she’s not around and I can flirt harmlessly with Adam ♥.

The White Lodge was a lot like the Black Lodge, a cabin in the woods. But inside it was draped in white and lit by a pure white light. Just as in the “lobby” of the Black Lodge, we met three people in the White Lodge lobby: the Tall Man, Philip Gerard, and a little girl with a ponytail. I don’t think we got her name, but she was awfully suspicious and confrontational! We talked to those three a bit, offering our help in resolving the situation and recommending that they cease hostilities until we fix things…but they ultimately directed us to speak to the head of the lodge, Tyriel, who met with us in his radiant, becurtained throne room. I found that a bit daunting…after all, Tyriel’s basically been running around massacring Black Lodge people and not listening to reason, right?

And he was impressive. He looks like a big, glowing angelic figure clad in cloak and armor. He’s not the sappy, lyre-playing angel. He’s the badass angel-of-destruction type of angel. But actually, he wasn’t that bad. He was more-or-less willing to cooperate with us. We tried to convince him that the Black Lodge wasn’t really responsible for the crimes they’d been accused of. I mean, they’re guilty of crimes, sure. They are the Black Lodge. But we don’t think they’re responsible for killing those people who are “off-limits” for the lodges, which is what started the whole thing in the first place. Ultimately, Tyriel agreed to let us establish a ceasefire between the lodges, but only for a week. During that time, we have to prove that the titans are causing this and that the Black Lodge isn’t to blame. Hopefully that will put things back on track toward restoring the balance and keeping the Crusher-of-Cities asleep…at least until we can come back and kill him (I’m looking at Ray here ^_^).

Tyriel also told us a bit more about recent events. For one thing, Belphlemelech (I’m pretty sure I totally misspelled that…but he’s the deceased Black Lodge champion) allegedly killed a bunch of White Lodge agents and some protected mortals near Dead Dog Farm…but in truth the witnesses to the event were killed shortly thereafter in a big battle that occurred between the lodges. Tyriel killed Belphlemelech in that battle along with plenty of other Black Lodge agents.

We came away from the discussion convinced that the titanspawn were behind a lot of what Tyriel accused the Black Lodge of. There isn’t even any real proof that Belphlemelech killed those White Lodge agents. And as for Madeline and Denise…well, we’re pretty sure now that they were killed by Aztec titanspawn known as Kamizot’s vampires. We figured that out after talking to Denise, whose spirit is a member of the White Lodge.

See, after speaking to Tyriel we were directed to Denise, but were really free to wander anywhere. The lodges are really interesting to roam around in…not that we did much of that. They’re more conceptual that anything else, so you can kinda wander through room after curtained room, running into different people all the time. Like Anna’s good doppelganger. That was pretty amusing. She was really sweet and helpful and kind and gentle. I guess Anna really does have a soft side hidden away somewhere. ^_^

Anyway, we found Denise living in the lap of luxury at the White Lodge. She was a 50-something farmer’s wife who was waited on hand and foot by several strapping high school guys’ doppelgangers. There was something more than a little disturbing about it. Anyway, Denise, like Madeline, had her heart removed. And she was able to give us similar vague descriptions of her murderers…including the presence of bats. I think that’s when the light went on above Adam’s head and he told us that they must have been killed by Camazotz vampires, Aztec vamps that steal hearts instead of blood.

So there are at least two types of titanspawn here. The amano-jaku are probably doing the real work and the Camazotz vampires are the more obvious “distraction.” Sure, the vamps are throwing the lodges into disarray too, but if we didn’t know about the amano-jaku, we’d likely take out the vamps, pat ourselves on the back, and then leave things just as bad as they were to start with. That’s awfully clever for the titanspawn.

So the info we got at the White Lodge was pretty useful. We decided to check out Dead dog Farm next, since that seemed to be where a lot of things had happened (hell, it’s apparently a sort of symbolic nexus for this place), but before that, we sent Anna and T-Bone back to the Black Lodge to report to them and establish the ceasefire. That done, we should have a week to solve this problem.

Dead Dog Farm was a run down farm on the edge of town. It looked pretty nondescript, but as we approached, Elisa, Anna, and Adam suddenly became alert and Adam sprinted toward the house at full speed without warning. He was quickly followed by the others, and by the time slow little me arrived he’d defused a potentially dangerous situation. Well, it would have been dangerous for normal people. See, Audrey (Ben Horne’s daughter, the troublemaking girl who apparently sleeps with practically every guy in town) was inside the house, and she had a gun. She’s cocked it, which had warned Adam of his presence. I think half of us thought she was trying to commit suicide, but it turns out she’d just come prepared to defend herself.

I quickly calmed her down, and after that she was willing to talk to us (you can understand how our sudden appearance shocked her). To be honest, we didn’t really try to hide much about what was going on, but we did encourage her to be more careful. I know I was really worried about her. She had come out to the farm to meet up with a local drug dealer, actually, and was afraid that we were dangerous. Ray admonished her about taking drugs, but it kinda got her off on a rant about how terrible her small-town life and over-protective father were. She hates it in Glastonbury, which is one reason she’s become mired in a cycle of self-destructive behavior. She wants to get out and make it big in Hollywood.

Right. I hate to be pessimistic, but that’s not likely to happen. And even if it did, her decision making ability isn’t the best. It might sound pretty cold, but her future doesn’t look so bright, and if she keeps pulling stunts like meeting drug-dealers in the middle of the night at Dead Dog Farm with Aztec vampires around, her future’s going to be pretty short too. Actually, scratch that. She’ll end up in the Black Lodge if she stays here, which could mean a very long and treacherous future.

When she found out I’m famous, her eyes lit up and she asked me if I could take her away from this place. I mean, of course I can help her make it big, right? >_< When she asked that, though, I saw a potential shikome in the making and so I told her that yeah, I’d be happy to take her with me. At first Ray interceded. I think he was still trying to protect me from me. And so we simply encouraged Audrey to head home and be careful.

While we were finishing up with Audrey, though, T-Bone stepped out to have a look at the farm by watching its “reflection” in the moon. He got a pretty comprehensive bird’s-eye view, and among other things saw a black van driving by slowly. Something about it was awfully suspicious…like it was watching something, or looking for something. So we hurried out to catch it.

And on the way out, Ray took me aside and told me that he’d reconsidered. He actually wants me to change Audrey into a shikome. I asked him why…and he said what I was already thinking. She’d already made a mess of her life and was just going to mess it up more even if she did get out of the town and make it big. So if something terrible was going to happen to her eventually anyway, we may as well make it something that can help do some good in the war against the titans. And besides, as far as I can tell, she’s already practically behaving like a shikome anyway.

I nodded my agreement to Ray, and promised to go see Audrey as soon as possible to offer her a way out Glastonbury for good.

To be continued…